Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

It was buried deep in the Department's website. Only because some of the representative agencies were enterprising and dug it out did we, and, in turn, our constituents, become aware of it. It reflects utter meanness. Elderly people want to stay in their own homes and we want them to do so. However, we want them to know they are safe and secure in their homes, and they and their families also want that. The very small, modest contribution that was made towards this over the past three years is being pulled immediately. It is being cut. There is a token recognition that those on the list will be looked after, but there is fallout all over the place from this. People who administered the scheme will lose their jobs and there is a loss on VAT and tax from the people providing the service. It is a loser all round. Will the Minister at least reconsider this miserable cut, which has to be one of the sneakiest and meanest? I am concerned that there are more such hidden slices off the budget that we have not heard about yet and that there are further awful surprises or shocks down the line for all of us.

From what we were told in yesterday's budget, we face a pretty miserable and stressful couple of months, and beyond that we do not know. However, the likelihood is that things will not get better. From everything we hear and recognise, that will be the case. I started by saying the suddenness with which these cuts are being introduced will leave many very vulnerable people in very deep trouble financially. They will have no way of meeting their debts and will find themselves forced into borrowing money. The banks will not lend them money so they will turn to the usual scoundrels who provide the money at extraordinary interest and will come and make them pay the price over and over again. Once again they are the weakest, the most vulnerable and most at risk and we are once again neglecting them.

Today, I spoke with a young married man who is on a fairly reasonable income and has two children under the age of five and a mortgage for over seven years. He is hit by all the levies. For a person in those circumstances, it seems that everywhere he or she turns involves the payment of money. How is a person like that expected to be able to cope and to plan? There is no way such a person can be expected to deal with this.

I urge the Minister of State to examine the impact of what is happening and to bear in mind that it was the greed of the bankers and developers that caused all of this but they appear to be getting off scot free. We have all heard this and will continue to hear it, and rightly so. People contact us every day and say they did not cause this problem but they are being made to pay for it. They also say that they are prepared to take their share of grief and the pain but they are not prepared to tolerate the fact that the people who caused it are getting off scot free.

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