Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

There is no Green Party representative in the Chamber on a regular basis. This supplementary budget is savage in the manner in which it targets families and people on welfare and lets the better off completely off the hook. It will not be tolerated by the public. It is fundamentally unfair; it fails on the grounds of fairness.

This budget is being introduced against the backdrop of all that has gone on in the banks in recent months and years. The question of a bad bank or national asset management agency is highly suspect. There is grave concern that ordinary people are being targeted because of the behaviour of senior management in the banks, who have been highly irresponsible, greedy developers and, in many ways, the Government parties, which have mismanaged the economy in recent years. There is no reason under the sun that ordinary working people or those dependent on welfare should have to pay for their mistakes. There is palpable anger about this proposal for that reason. It is an outrageous concept that the State, through the taxpayer, should take responsibility for between €80 billion and €90 billion of bad debt run up in recent years. It is a high risk strategy. There is no reason for the public to have confidence in the Government in tackling the problem and dealing with it in a transparent way, given the unethical record and the corrosive relationship between Fianna Fáil in government and the business community. The jury is very much out on this and massive risks are involved for the country.

I refer to the manner in which the Government has targeted working families through this budget. The increases in various levies and PRSI are the greatest blow of all to such families. The income and health levies have been doubled and their thresholds lowered and, just in case anybody in the middle income bracket might get away with not paying these levies, the PRSI threshold was increased to bring in people earning between €52,000 and €75,000. Anyone on a low, moderate or middle income will still be hit by the budget with one income and dual income families with small children, in particular, being hit.

They will pay through the imposition of these levies, the loss of the early child care supplement and the changes in mortgage interest relief. The Government's proposal regarding such relief represents a major attack on family budgets. The decision to abolish this relief after only seven years is incredible, given the way many people are struggling. Their mortgage is worth more than their house and they are in negative equity. They are struggling to repay their mortgage but the Government will remove this tax relief, which, up to now, eased the burden on them. In addition, this will be introduced with immediate effect. The Minister of State does not realise the difficulties many families face in just getting by from month to month. There is no flexibility in their budgets to meet these additional demands. Many people will find themselves in serious difficulty next month as a result of the abolition of this relief without any notice. People had a reasonable expectation that the rules that applied when they took out their mortgage would continue to apply but the Government has cut the small relief that was in place in midstream. This will add greatly to the hardship people are experiencing.

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