Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

In light of what has happened in this House and outside it since budget day, will the Minister accept the budget is, in effect, merely a discussion document? The Minister for Finance was able to do a U-turn on the 1% levy. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs was able to do a U-turn today on the issue of entitlement to disability benefit for 16 year olds. We have had the U-turn on the medical card issue.

Is the Minister in a position to go to his Cabinet colleagues and deliver a better deal on this discussion document than his predecessors? This morning in Buswells Hotel, the Minister of State with responsibility for older people, God love her, Deputy Hoctor, asked the ICSA to give her the list of issues and she could arrange, through the Minister's good offices, for those to be dealt with and reconsidered.

In respect of disadvantaged area payments, the Minister is hitting the most vulnerable people who are farming the most marginal land. That payment was introduced for the specific purpose of maintaining the link between farmers in difficult disadvantaged areas and ensuring they could remain in farming. How can the Minister justify hitting the most vulnerable people in farming and taking €1,000 on average out of every one of those farmer's pockets? Will he go back to his Cabinet colleagues on this specific issue for those farmers who are the most marginalised and who are taking a bigger hit than any other sector in the economy in terms of the suckler cow scheme, the early retirement scheme, installation aid, and the disadvantaged areas scheme? We are talking about disadvantaged farmers. Will the Minister go to his Cabinet colleagues and tell them he also made a mistake, and that he will revisit this decision?

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