Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Ó Caoláin deis chainte a thabhairt dom ar an ábhar rí-thábhachtach seo. Tá muid ag déileáil le buiseád agus bhí deis ag an Rialtas inné buiseád a chur chun cinn a dhéanfadh déileáil leis an gcruachás atá sa gheilleagar faoi láthair agus, chomh maith leis sin, bunús a chur leis an todhchaí atá muid ar lorg agus atá pobal na nÉireann ar lorg, sochaí ina bhfuil cothromas faoi bhun an chórais uilig, seachas an tslí a bhí an córas tógtha ó thús an Stáit, míchothrom agus ar mhaithe le lucht an rachmais nó tacathóirí Fhianna Fáil nó Fhine Gael, cé acu a bhí i réim, a fuair an buntaiste is mó ón Rialtas bliain i ndiaidh bliana.

Chomh maith leis sin, tá muid ag iarraidh go gcothófar córas faoina dtabharfar aire dóibh siúd is boichte sa tsochaí atá againn, ag déanamh cinnte dóibh go bhfuil na tacaíochtaí acu gur feidir leo saol níos fearr a bheith acu nó ar a laghad go mbeidh saol níos fearr ag a bpáistí.

Níl faic sa méid a bhí le rá ag an Rialtas inné, an tAire Airgeadais ach go háirithe, chun gur féidir linn muinín a bheith againn go bhfuil an tír ag dul sa treo ceart. A mhalairt de threo atá an Rialtras ag moladh. Tá sé ag moladh go leanfaimid ag tabhairt tacaíochta do bhainc a ghoid ón bpobal sa deireadh thiar. Sin atá ann agus tá an Rialtas seo ag caitheamh amú airgead an phobail chun tacú agus tarrtháil a dhéanamh ar bhainc nach fiú traithnín iad. Ba chóir iad a dhúnadh go bhfaighimid réidh le roinnt acu.

Ba chóir dúinn díriú isteach ar straitéis chun postanna a cruthú, seachas a mhalairt. Bheadh sé níos éasca dúinn díriú ar chruthú na bpost sin faoi láthair, seachas ullmhú chun breis airgid a íoc dóibh siúd atá dífhostaithe. Sin a tharlóidh anois, beidh breis daoine dífhostaithe againn má leafaimid ar aghaidh leis an Rialtas seo.

Tabharfaidh mé sampla amháin don Teach. Chuir mé ceist an tseachtain seo caite ar an Tánaiste. D'fhiafraigh mé di cén fáth nár deineadh náisiúnú de SR Technics, comhlacht atá agus a bhí ag déanamh brabúis. Sin comhlacht atá ag déanamh brabúis ach atá á tharraingt siar. Sa chás sin, nuair atá scileanna lucht oibre an chomhlachta gafa leis an gcomhlacht agus nuair nach féidir leo post eile a fháil in aon áit eile sa Stát nó sa domhan agus nuair atá an dífhostaíocht os a gcomhair, ba chóir don Stát seasamh isteach. Níor dhein an Stát é sin. Ba chóir don Stát tacú leis na hoibrithe agus náisiúnú a dhéanamh ar an gcomhlacht. Bheadh an Stát ag cosaint na bpost ansin agus ag déanamh brabúis don Stát. Níl spéis ag an Stát ná an Rialtas sa bhrabús sin. Tá siad sásta SR Technics a dhúnadh agus tá sin soiléir. Ní seo an t-aon chomhlacht atá ag déanamh brabúis gur féidir leis an Rialtas tacaíocht a thabhairt dó, nó fiú co-operative a dhéanamh as muna bhfuil sé ag iarraidh seasamh isteach sa tslí seo. Ach in áit sin, tá an Rialtas ag seasamh siar. Sin atá ag tarlú.

Féach ar an méid atá sa bhuiséad féin. Inné in iarscríbhinn F, luadh "supporting those who lose their jobs". Faic atá ansin, tráithnín atá ann. Níl an Rialtas ag caitheamh airgead ar bith sa bhreis. It is not spending 1 cent more in support of those who are losing their jobs. All it is doing - this is stated in plain English - is moving money around. The Government states that the amount provided is €128 million. However, no extra money is being provided. Some €22 million is to be cut from the Department of Social and Family Affairs allocation with further cuts in the allocation for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Even worse, in excess of €44 million is to be diverted from the Department of Education and Science, which does not have enough money as it stands. This is an area wherein more money should have been invested. The Department of Education and Science has been told to find areas where cuts can be achieved to facilitate this diversion.

This is the grand plan of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government, namely, the creation - lest the Government cannot do the maths on this, I will do it - of an additional 23,435 places, about which there is much pomp. Some 80,000 people have lost their jobs since Christmas. The creation of 23,000 places does nothing for them, the other 300,000 who lost their jobs before them, those laid off since then and those likely to be laid off during the next couple of months. Where is the plan to address their retraining or educational needs? There is none. There is nothing in the budget to help them. Nothing in the budget provides confidence for people in the construction industry, SR Technics, Waterford Glass and so on who have been laid off. This initiative will do nothing. It is not even a finger in the dyke-type action. This initiative will not address that issue.

There is no confidence in the Government stimulating the construction industry given the announcement yesterday by the Minister for Finance of a cut in the social housing budget, which is absolutely crazy. At a time when we have 60,000 families on the housing list, no attempt is being made to purchase, at possibly the lowest prices we have witnessed in a decade, houses which lie vacant or to accelerate the housing plans of many local authorities. The Government has done nothing in this area. It could have cut the budget required to pay rent supplement, which is subsidising private landlords, or moved people off RAS, another method of subsidising private landlords. I wonder about the reasoning behind this, but one need only look to the backers of Fianna Fáil in particular, namely, the private landlords, those who managed to make a fortune on the back of social welfare recipients.

The Minister also announced yesterday - I do not know the economic logic for this - that the Government will continue with public private partnerships not alone in the area of social housing, but in other areas. Public private partnerships are a failed concept. They have failed totally, yet the Government has stated its intention to get involved in further public private partnerships. There is no logic whatsoever to that announcement. I spoke last night about excise duty and the totally illogical approach of increasing the cost of diesel by 5 cent. One might say that 5 cent is not that much. However, a small business dependent on haulage or a taxi driver in this city or anywhere around the country driving a diesel car, having been encouraged by the Green Party to be fuel economic, will be hammered by this increase. Bus Atha Cliath, Bus Éireann and other bus companies will be hammered by this increase as buses operate on diesel. The Government has increased the cost of diesel when the situation for small businesses trying to compete in the UK or the North is already bad enough in terms of access to those markets. The Government, through this increase, has made that situation more difficult. I have no doubt this will result in unemployment in this field also.

While I would not wish unemployment on anybody, I wish it on this Government. Few people in this House understand the despair of long-term unemployment. Another kick delivered yesterday by the Minister is the slashing of the jobseeker's allowance for those under 20 years of age. Let us consider what this will do to many young vulnerable people who have just completed their education and are seeking employment. These are people who had high hopes a year or two ago and now have no hope and their allowance is being slashed. Emigration is their only hope now. Many of them will not be able to afford the air fare to emigrate as a result of the slashing of their allowance. The spirt of those people who are unemployed has been sapped. Even their will to engage in the workforce has been sapped.

As I stated, while I would not wish unemployment on anybody, this Government and many Members on the benches opposite would learn a lesson or two from a period of six to 12 months unemployment. They might then understand the consequences of their budget decisions on the lives of those worst affected, including those who are disadvantaged, those who never enjoyed the fruits of the Celtic tiger and those who have struggled, some of whom have attained no literacy skills, who suffer addiction and live in difficult circumstances. Yesterday's budget offered no help for these people.

The Minister also announced yesterday a cut in the housing budget. This means many young families looking to the future will not now be housed by the State. For people lucky enough to obtain a home, the life assurance tied to their mortgage will be levied. The Government will continue to increase levies rather deal with the problems. The taxation system in this country is not fair. The Government needs to put in place a fair and equitable tax system and not continuously hammer those on low pay. One of the most retrograde steps announced yesterday was that people on the minimum wage are to be brought into the tax net. There is no logic to this approach.

Farming is an issue on which I am not fully versed. However, I know a little about it given that some of my friends are young farmers. They, too, have been hammered by the massive cuts in REPS. Small farmers who are barely surviving are the ones who will be hit hardest. We have all been hit by this budget, but there are always other people who have been hit harder and who are only surviving. One of the most disgusting cuts announced yesterday is the €100 million cut in overseas development aid. It is an absolute scandal. Irish people have been always generous to those in greater need despite their own hardship. The Government has sent out a message around the world that we do not care. It has given commitments before and broken them and will hammer them this time. We will not even meet the target of GDP met last year.

If the Minister had any cop-on whatsoever, he would have retained the overseas development aid budget at this year's level. In doing so, he would have increased the percentage achieved, thus bringing us closer to the 0.7% target set out in the millennium development goals. I urge the Minister to reconsider this decision. As I have said, this is a matter of life and death not for a few people, but for hundreds of thousands of people who depend on aid. Even in these dire circumstances, Ireland should send the rest of the world the message that we are making progress in keeping the promise that the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, made to the overseas development agencies last year. That promise was broken then and it is being broken again now. The message that needs to be transmitted involves reversing this decision.

I have already mentioned the needs of young families. Do the Minister or any of his Cabinet colleagues have any idea of the cost of child care places in Dublin and throughout the country? Given that child care can cost up to €1,000 a month for each child, the Minister's decision to slash the early child care supplement has no logic. The supplement was introduced in the first place because this State has never addressed the need for early child care places. The Minister might as well be kicking young couples who are trying to get by when they are down.

I have spoken about unemployment, which is the worst problem of all. One of my colleagues suggested to me that there will be redundancies in Lapland. It seems that Santa and the poor old elves are not safe from the scorched earth policy of Genghis Lenihan. One might think that the abolition of the Christmas bonus is not important because the money in question is used to tide people over Christmas. It is a lot more than that. This is a killjoy mechanism. For the children of disadvantaged families, the joy of Christmas would be lessened if this little bit of a bonus were not available to allow people to get a toy or two for their children. The stupidity of the Government's decision in this regard is evident when one considers that the Christmas social welfare bonus serves to stimulate the struggling retail industry. Many shops in this country are in danger of closing over the next few months. Many of them will close next Christmas if this killjoy Government persists with its Scrooge policy of abolishing the bonus. Is é sin an méid atá le rá agam. Tá deis fós ag an Rialtas tarraingt siar ó roinnt dos na cinnithe seo. Tharraing an Rialtas siar ó mórán cinnithe sa bhuiséad deireanach. Cé mhéad dos na cinnithe a luadh inné a bheidh aistarraingthe amach anseo?

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