Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

With the permission of the House I wish to share my time with Deputies Liz McManus, Tommy Broughan, Jan O'Sullivan, Brian O'Shea and Kathleen Lynch.

This second budget for 2009 is as big a disaster as the first. It savages the taxpayer, bails out the bankers and property speculators at home and abroad and does absolutely nothing to support small and medium-sized businesses, protect those in employment or create new jobs. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats brought us into this economic mess with their cronyism politics. They are still at it, even though the country and the economy are teetering on the brink. The Greens, God help us, are totally out of the loop. The banks, incredibly, are bailed out once more, with €500 billion guaranteed last year plus €7.5 billion this year in capitalisation and now an enormous €80 billion to €90 billion bad banks' loan, €30 billion of which, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, tells us is held abroad - outside this jurisdiction. All of that is dependent on and tied up with taxpayers' money. That is gambling not just with the money of Irish workers, but with their livelihoods and families.

Imagine NAMA, the proposed new national assets management agency, having to commandeer the executive jet to fly to the four corners of the world to assess the property portfolios of Irish speculators so that the taxpayer can bail out the bad loans and investments which were created through unregulated irresponsible Irish banking for a golden circle of crony capitalists. Even now the Fianna Fáil leopard is unable to change its spots. Even in this budget it cannot stop putting itself first.

It is the Galway tent all over again, but this time it has gone global. The budget studiously avoided taxing those who pay no tax at all. The 6,000 or so tax exiles who flit between Ireland and exotic tax havens around the world have not been taxed one cent in this budget. The tens of thousands of private landlords, many of whom will not accept social welfare cheques which would identify them to the Revenue Commissioners, are getting off scot free too. Those artists who get Government contracts and play sell-out concerts in Croke Park retain tax exemption and an enormous part of their incomes. Indeed, some disgracefully combine their artists' non-tax status with tax exile status as well.

None of those has been touched by this budget which the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance said was targeting the wealthy. The thrust of this budget instead is best seen in the treatment of a family comprising a father, mother and two children on one income and with a mortgage on the family home. That is the standard Irish family profile at present. They now have new income taxes and levies, a PRSI increase, plus the pension levy if they happen to be public service workers, as well as the loss of the early child care supplement by the end of 2009. Now, too, mortgage interest relief on their artificially overpriced home is being totally abolished. Compare that to the landlord who owns a second house or portfolio of properties, who can still claim 75% against interest payments. A mere reduction of 25% was all the Government introduced for the landlord, while the reduction in mortgage relief was 100%. This is outrageous and clearly the Government is doing what it has always done - putting profit before people and putting a property portfolio before a family home.

This budget is a shambles in every sense, from the way it deals with the banks to the way it deals with taxation and unemployment. Having got it wrong in its last four efforts, it is patently obvious that the Government cannot now do the job. Before it does irreparable damage to the country and economy, it should resign and go to the people.

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