John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Government has never said it was sorry, that it made mistakes, that it had learned from the errors of its ways and that it would not do it again. In many respects that is the least that would be expected and the least that would be required. However, it has learned something from the mistakes of last year. The budget was a week late. It is passing the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill before going home for the weekend so that Government Deputies in particular cannot waver or wobble. Let me explain. When the medical cards were removed from the over-70s the Government thought they could not speak up but it learned to its cost in the weeks following the budget. This week it has cynically delivered the budget close to Christmas to try to minimise the objections and the street marches. It will torpedo the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill through the House by tomorrow evening not to save the skins of the poor, disabled, blind or carers, as it did for the bankers and the developers. One should not underestimate the less well-off and those earning less than €30,000 and assume that they will not be distracted by Christmas or Santa because for most of those there will not be a Christmas or a Santa. The Minister has said there was no option but to hit the low paid, the vulnerable and the social welfare recipients. There was an option. I agree with Deputy Kennedy that if the fraud element was eliminated there would be an option. During the past three or four days we have been almost overrun by the charade of Independent TDs and some backbench Government Deputies-----

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