Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

This is a very important debate because it fixes forever in the eyes of the citizens of the Republic what our State is really about. If we measure anything in a modern society, it is that a caring democracy, a true republic, values all of its children equally but values particularly those who are disadvantaged - the disabled, the blind, the carers and the very young - in order to give them more - to give them respect.

We have to look after these people. Looking at the television earlier, I saw a blind couple being interviewed on RTE. Whereas in previous years, one would have expected to see that they benefited from the budget, they are being made the scapegoats for these Government policies. They have done nothing wrong in their lives. They have suffered from their disability. Most people who are disabled or blind suffer greater structural unemployment but they do their very best. They are loyal, honourable citizens of this State and the Government is damning them by taking from them their independence and their rights, including their right to go out and buy food for their families and to look after themselves. They are entitled to be held on high pedestals in this State. We must respect them, but the Government respects them least of all.

This is the Government of the builders, the bankers, the Galway tent, the corrupt politicians. The former leaders of the main Government party were absolutely and totally corrupt yet the people trusted them with their votes. Unfortunately, the Government has been in power for too long - for 18 of the past 20 years. It has lost touch with reality and the truth on the ground. The truth is that the people who are suffering most in this budget under the Government's iron fist are the weakest and poorest of all. The spin doctors say that 45% of people have not been affected, the middle classes are fine and the people who are not in State employment are fine. The only people who are suffering are this category of person. The Government's sums are wrong but at the heart of the Government is absolutely no respect for those who are most disadvantaged of all.

The Government is increasing the fee that people pay when they go to the chemist. At present, they pay up to €100 a month for medicine but the Government is increasing that to €120, which they must pay. We should examine the case of a person or family that has to get that amount of medicine in any one calendar month. These are not people who suffer from flu or a minor ailment. In many cases, they are seriously ill. They are cancer patients, heart patients and people with kidney problems, whose lives are held by a thread through the medicine they get. The Government is charging them more when they need that money as their demands for heating, food and sustenance are greater than they might ever have been at this time in their lives. Yet, the Government daggers them to the heart with this extra charge.

Take the general medical scheme. If a person has a medical card, he or she now pays for prescriptions. The Deputies opposite know this because such people come into their clinics as they come into mine. They come in with the long lists they got from the doctor. If I go to the chemist for a prescription there might be one or two items on it but these people have multiple items. Many of them are senior citizens and they will be fearful that they will not be able to pay for their medicine at the chemist. If they have five or ten drugs on a prescription what will they do? This Government will make them pay for them when they cannot afford it, it is making them suffer and even greater indignity. In this modern State, the weakest of the weak are being made to suffer, the poorest of the poor.

This Government is a disgrace. Government Members were shameless in the trite speeches they made tonight. It was absolute rubbish from the other side of the House. The Green Party, the lickspittles of this Government, should be standing up for those who are weakest in society but they are silent and absent, just as the Minister for Social and Family Affairs is absent. They will not be absent from the minds of the people when the election comes, they will be driven from office, along with Fianna Fáil because of their disgraceful conduct during the 20 years they have been in power and because of this appalling, shameful imposition on the poorest in our society. It is unbelievable that the State has come to this but this is where it is at. By God, the Government will get some payback for this.

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