Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I am pleased you used the word "approximately". I presume I will be given the same leeway as the Minister was given earlier.

I spoke previously about fraud and I wish to move on to the treatment of children in the budget. This country is one of the few developed countries in the world that has failed to recognise children within its taxation system. As I indicated last week, we have a crazy situation where one can get tax relief for waste collection but not for raising children. Child benefit is the only recognition that is provided by the State of the costs associated with child care. A cut of 10%, as proposed in the Bill, will hit every family in the country, but it will hit families on low incomes hardest. The compensation package proposed by the Government on the qualified child dependant increases and supports such as family income supplement will create welfare traps but will also leave families short-changed.

In her press statement yesterday the Minister had the headline, Pensioners and Vulnerable Children Protected Despite Budget Cuts. That is clearly an untruth. Pensioners will pay an extra 50 cent for a bale of briquettes and an extra €2.40 for a bag of coal. They will pay 50 cent for every prescription item they get on their medical card. They have already lost their Christmas bonus. The cut to child benefit amounts to €221 million. That will hit every family, and it will hit the lowest earners hardest. Mothers who are on social welfare or working in low paid jobs will feel the brunt of those cuts. Many of the latter will wonder whether it is worth their while to continue in employment.

Last night I examined the three examples the Minister provided in her document of families with children who are on social welfare. The jobseeker couple with no earnings and two children will be worse off after the budget by €59 per month. That is nearly twice the child benefit cut. A lone parent with earnings of up to €145 per week with one child will be €35.50 a month worse off. Again, that is approximately twice the child benefit cut. Even a working couple on low income in the public sector with four children will be just short of €600 a year worse off as a result of the budget. It is another example of the short-sighted measures taken by the Government in saving money while, at the same time, turning its back on the protection of the most vulnerable in society.

The Government has given no recognition to child care provision. We see in the fine detail of the budget that there will be cuts in funding for child care supports and in the capital programme. For the vast majority of families, child benefit is not a luxury. For thousands of households, it is used to assist with mortgage arrears or to make up rent payments or by those trying to cope with personal debt. Why should children living in households in which there is a high level of personal debt and a limited disposable income be penalised as a result of the changes in this budget? This comes on top of the changes to child benefit earlier in the year where it was axed for those of 18 years of age and over in full-time education. The early child care supplement will be cut from 1 January next.

The reality is that this Government is singling out parents and penalising them. I cannot understand why the Government is not honest with the public and does not say that it wants to tax children because that is what this will be seen as in the long-term, that is, a Neanderthal step by the Government. Every other country in Europe is trying to support children and women but in this country, we are trying to undermine them.

On the other hand Fine Gael, in its pre-budget proposals, specifically set out to protect child benefit because we believe it is a vital part of the income for every child and has a fundamental role in meeting the cost of rearing children in our society. The child dependent allowance was seen as causing poverty traps and that is why the Government moved away from that focus and put the resources into child benefit. Now it is turning that on its head and creating further poverty traps.

This is a budget for recession and not one to get us out of recession. Despite the obvious challenge the Government faced, it failed to set out a clear and deliberate jobs strategy to arrest and reverse the tide of increasing unemployment. The best way to make savings in social welfare is to get people back to work but instead Fianna Fáil plans for an extra 75,000 job losses next year at a cost of €1.5 billion. We had to wait until page ten of the Minister's speech before she mentioned jobs because it is not the priority is should be.

Fine Gael is the only party to publish a credible jobs stimulation package that takes people off social welfare and gets them back to work or into further education and training. There is no job creation strategy from the Government. The budget lacks conviction and lacks ambition. The only strategy the Government has is to put more funding in the discredited FÁS organisation and to leave responsibility for creating jobs to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. What jobseeker's need is the hope of getting a job. That is where there focus is and what they are looking for from this Government.

Fine Gael is the only party to set out detailed proposals that would create and protect more than 250,000 jobs and training opportunities in the economy. We take an entirely different approach to the economy than the Government. We are serious about creating jobs. We are not only talking about jobs but we have serious, detailed and costed plans for the generation of jobs and protection of existing jobs.

We set out proposals in regard to a PRSI tax break to support 6,000 jobs, the roll-out of an €18 billion stimulus plan to create 10,000 jobs in 2010, youth unemployment initiatives that would take 30,000 people off the live register next year, the abolition of the airport tax, the reversal of the VAT increase, which the Government has acknowledged, and the reduction of the 13.5% VAT rate to 10% which would create 7,500 jobs next year.

There was very little mention of jobs in the budget. What it does is encourage more people to give up work and sign on to the live register. Public sector employees on very low income will take serious pay cuts as a result of yesterday's announcements. An office cleaner in the Department of Finance will take a greater proportionate cut in pay than the Minister for Finance. The Government flunked its own target of €1.3 billion in savings and is targeting those on low incomes with significant cuts. We have not heard about the rationalisation of quangos or the targeting of waste in the public service.

More public servants will be eligible for family income supplement. For example, a public servant on €45,000 per annum with three children will now be eligible for family income supplement from January. Some 162,000 public servants fall into that income category. I got an e-mail earlier, which I believe was sent to every Member, from a public servant with four children earning €62,000 per year who is a grade seven section head, has 25 years service in the public service, has three honours degrees and qualified as a solicitor. She would get an additional €121.30 per week on the dole than what she is getting currently. That does not include the impact of the medical card. She would not have to pay €100 per month for medication, €600 per year for school transport or €2,256 per year for VHI. That is a clear example of what the changes in the budget will do to public sector workers. Again, the Department of Finance has ignored the calculation in regard to the impact that its cuts will have on very vulnerable public sector employees who will now be eligible for family income supplement.

Sadly, this budget ignored youth unemployment, makes little effort to stimulate job creation and is sending out a clear message to young people that the only future they have is to emigrate. Budget 2010 should have been all about jobs but instead it is a budget of despair. The budget will not get the economy up and running and will not get the country back to work. It sends out a clear message to young people that they are not wanted, that they should get on an aeroplane and leave. That message is being sent out because of the lack of direction and thinking in this budget.

The Minister said she will reduce payments to people who unreasonably refuse offers of work, training or education. What is the definition of "unreasonable"? Will we penalise people who cannot get a job or go on a course? It is great in theory but not in practice. Where are those jobs and training courses?

The Minister announced in the budget that €56 million will be made available for short term courses in FÁS but he also announced a cut of €48 million in regard to Youthreach, the vocational training opportunities scheme and student grants, which will have a direct impact on young people. That is the message being sent out. He is giving with one hand and taking back with the other.

It is a pity this new found attitude in regard to getting people off the live register was not thought of during the boom when people were claiming unemployment payments because allegedly they could not find work at a time of full employment and when Ministers were travelling all over the world asking people to come to this country to take up jobs as we could not fill them. We are now begrudgingly giving those people who came to this country, contributed to our economy and paid PRSI social welfare because they have lost their jobs. If we had taken a different attitude at an earlier stage, perhaps we would not be in this mess and we would not have had a 158% increase in unemployment among the under 25 year old population in the past two years leaving 84,000 young people on the dole. There are 659 in County Leitrim and 829 in County Roscommon. One in four young people is now out of work in this country and very little is being given to them by the Government. It is giving it to the FÁS project but taking it away by undermining the VEC structure.

The Minister is setting a target of 4% or €20 million for rent supplement. We all know that far more can be saved by moving people from rent supplement to the rental accommodation scheme. If the long-term leasing initiative from the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, could be scrapped, it would save €20 million by itself. Reform of rent supplement in terms of a deposit retention scheme would bring in an additional €7 million. A reduction in rents, an average of 8%, would save €14 million. There are significant savings to be made.

I remind Members that the Taoiseach stated recently that budgets are not simply about balancing the books, that they are about acknowledging what we see as important to society. I agree with the Taoiseach's comments but penalising carers, the disabled, widows, children and the blind while bailing out the bankers is not what I consider important to society. The Bill before us is appalling as it victimises the most vulnerable in society while letting the Seán Fitzpatricks of this world away with blue murder.

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