Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to support the Labour Party's Private Members' motion. I commend the Labour Party on tabling the motion as it reflects the anger felt by people in the community. The eyes of the nation were on Leinster House on the day the budget was announced and people got a big fright when we reached the social welfare section and it was announced that the Christmas bonus was being taken away. That will go down in history in the same way as Ernest Blythe's one shilling reduction in the pension in 1924. How many times has that been thrown across the floor at this side of the House? What the Government has done is equivalent to that.

When one puts it in context, it is most unfair of the Government to take away the Christmas bonus from the unemployed and old age pensioners who have worked extremely hard. At that time of year unemployed persons with young families plan to give their children the benefits of Christmas and to buy extra things for them. I condemn the Government's action as unfair, unjust, cowardly and unkind.

How can the Government preside over that mean action at a time when the HSE has an allocation of €1.4 million in bonus payments for executives and others in the health service who are running a deplorable service? It is not possible for anybody on the Government side of the House to justify the cut because it is unfair. The Government could have addressed other issues or sought reform in other areas. The public service is crying out for reform yet there was nothing about that in the budget. Instead, the Government resorted to the pensioners and those who could ill afford more cuts.

We should encourage those on the back to work and the back to education allowances who have travel and other expenses at a time when the economy is going through such difficulty. We need people to access retraining and education. We should encourage those people who have been forced onto the dole queues by the high cost economy this has proven to be. I live in a constituency where jobs have been lost in three different areas in recent months. People are being encouraged to go back to education or to retrain and it is of the utmost importance to encourage them. It is unfair to cut a bonus at Christmas.

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