Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

This is very simple. There has been a requirement and it is the custom year in, year out, that when the Government draws up the budget there is examination of the impact of the budgetary measures on poor people. This examination used to be done by the Combat Poverty Agency, which no longer exists, and is now supposed to be done by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. As Deputy O'Sullivan pointed out, in previous years the document was always circulated with the budgetary information. The budgetary documents provided an assessment which indicated that various measures had been examined and set out their impact on the poor. This document has not been circulated and what the Labour Party wants to establish before we proceed with the rest of the debate on the social welfare Bill is where is the document. Alternatively, is it the case that the Government has introduced a budget which impacts on poor people without even assessing this impact? Is that the position? Where is the document? We want it.

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