Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Nobody denies that the country is facing the worst economic circumstances in a generation and only the most partisan would deny that the crisis is of the Government's own making. Time and again the Minister for Finance pledged, in his speech and beforehand, that his guiding principle would be the protection of the vulnerable and what he called "the little people". It is a cause for concern if the Minister believes that his budget protects the weak, the poor and the vulnerable.

Following are some of the ways the budget impacts on the weakest in our society. Those aged over 70 are to be divested of their medical card and the working poor must pay a 1 % levy. Language support teachers are to be capped at two, irrespective of the number of migrant children and the pupil-teacher ratio is to go back to 28:1. DIRT for small savers will rise to 23% to 26%. There will be reduced grants for adult education, reductions in the provision for people with disabilities and cutbacks in education provision for Traveller children. There will be no increase in child benefit and the third level registration fee will go up from €900 to €1,500. The fuel poverty issue will be addressed by an increase of €2 in fuel allowance. It is cynical in the extreme for any Government to claim that these are the actions of a Government trying to protect the little people.

My good friend, Deputy Charlie O'Connor, has raised an example as if he were on the Opposition benches. A school in the heart of my constituency, in Springfield, has 536 pupils, 258 of whom do not speak English. Apart from the obvious necessity to bring these children up to speed in the language, we can imagine the impact on the indigenous children if the newcomers are not assisted. What is the outcome of the budget for this school which is typical of so many? It is to experience the loss of five teachers, four language support teachers and one other teacher because the retention levels will not measure up next September.

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