Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

This is the last opportunity we will have to ask questions to the Leader until the Dáil resumes after the recess.

Yesterday I raised the matter of welfare cuts being applied to the blind, carers and the disabled. The total saving is €108 million. The Taoiseach responded by stating expenditure on social welfare was more than €20 billion and that it was necessary to reduce expenditure by €4 billion this year. He made the point that it is very easy for Opposition parties to put forward the view that all such cuts are easy. I have never put forward the proposition that it is easy to make cuts.

What is happening is that, for the first time in 80 years, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs has become the victimiser of victims in that the poorest of the poor are being hit. I received a telephone call this morning from a blind man who told me this is the first time the question of blind people was raised in the House in this context. He also stated the allowance for the training of guide dogs is being cut.

This is the last week before Christmas. The Taoiseach set up the McCarthy group to determine where cuts could be made in the public sector. Fine Gael accepted quite a few of its recommendations. It recommended cuts in administrative expenditure in the Department of the Taoiseach in the order of €17.5 million. It recommended administrative cuts of €88 million in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, €82.8 million in the Department of Finance, €432 million in the Department of Health and Children and the Health Service Executive and €6 million in the Department of Social and Family Affairs. These cuts are not easy to make because they require direct negotiation with the people involved, including back-office staff and administrators.

I have picked the five aforementioned Departments because they demonstrate clearly the administrative cuts recommended by the body the Taoiseach set up. The Taoiseach stated quite rightly yesterday that budgets are about choices. None of them is easy but there is only one correct option when choosing between administrative cuts in any of the five Departments, or in a number of Departments, with a view to making cuts of €108 million, and cuts to the benefits of those who are caring for their loved ones, those who are means-tested for the blind person's pension, and the disabled. The Taoiseach should protect those who are absolutely vulnerable and the poorest of the poor.

With regard to the five Departments, what administrative costs were accepted by the Government arising from the McCarthy recommendations? The Taoiseach set up the McCarthy group. He considered its recommendations and chose the option of cutting the benefits of the blind, carers and the disabled.

See this speech in context