Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute on this important issue tabled by Fine Gael in Private Members' time. The Fine Gael motion is very important because it has focused on some of the key areas in the budget again, especially changes to the benefits to the blind, the disabled and carers. These are areas no one would have expected any Government to hit or target with cutbacks. Fine Gael has sought to have these cuts redressed and I fully support the proposal. We are all aware of the nature of the budget at this stage and that the Government has gone out of its way to target the least well off in society, including those on social welfare across the board, whether the blind, deaf, disabled, carers, widows or those on supplementary allowance. The Government has targeted everyone. Child benefit and jobseeker's allowance has been targeted as well. All of these areas have been hit savagely.

We have just finished debating the Bill on public sector pay. The public sector has been targeted again in a similar fashion, irrespective of the amount earned by any public sector worker. From the lowliest labourer, the clerical worker or the first-time employee, whether such people earn greater or less than €30,000, whether part-time or otherwise, every euro such people earn will now be subject to a minimum of a 5% cut. It is an absolute disgrace that the Government has provided for such measures.

Even more unfairly, next year, the year in which this budget will become operational, will be the European Union year of combating poverty and social exclusion. Was the Government aware of this when it decided to target the poor, those who will face poverty and those who are socially excluded? It should have been moving in the opposite direction.

The Cabinet handbook requires poverty-proofing but that did not take place. The handbook was thrown out the window. In addition, the Lisbon treaty, to which we have recently signed up, requires similar poverty-proofing for all legislative activities of the European Union. The European Union must take cognisance of the impact of all legislative proposals on people and communities and it must ensure that any such proposals do not adversely impact on such people. That has been disregarded totally as well.

This is an unfair and divisive budget, probably the most unfair and divisive in the history of the State. I do not believe anything has been so divisive since the Civil War of 1922. I have no doubt bitterness will be engendered by this budget that will carry on for many years and decades to come. It will have the same impact as taking the shilling from the old age pensioners. However, in addition to targeting the poor and less well off, the budget is also very divisive because it targets one section of society and lets another section off scot free.

No attempt was made to deal with those responsible for the economic crisis we now face; the bankers and financiers we discussed only minutes ago made the decisions that almost ruined the country and brought it to its knees. Nothing was said about the inability of this legislation to bring Anglo Irish Bank within the remit of public sector provisions even though it is now a State bank, having been nationalised. Notwithstanding that, the mandarins in the Department of Finance and the Fianna Fáil Cabinet have decided that Anglo Irish Bank, which brought about so much of the culture of corruption that came into this country regarding financial matters, will be immune from any attempt to extract tax in order to make up the €1.3 billion that must be made up by the public sector.

One sector in Irish society is burdened with the entire load of trying to balance the books, and that is totally unfair. To top that, we find that those people referred to in the Bill, the blind, the disabled and the carers, will be deprived of the Christmas bonus. Even that element of Christmas cheer that enabled people to buy those extra things at Christmas, deal with bills and provide that extra bit that tided them over the difficult winter months, will not be available. This is a double whammy hitting the poor. This is Scrooge doubled. It will be a miserable Christmas for all the people this Government has targeted to help ensure the balancing of the budget takes place.

Medical cards are being delayed to such an extent at present that a great number of poor and disabled people are without medical card coverage. There is the extra charge on prescriptions whereby people must pay per item. The same delay applies to rent subsidies where accommodation needs that are determined by the local authority are taking forever to be determined. We have a system that delays inordinately. With the demoralisation and decimation taking place in the public sector, there is no doubt the system will become further delayed and ordinary people will find that normal processing of their statutory entitlements will not take place for long periods of time, for months. Every Deputy in the House has had complaints in that regard.

Of course, there is a better way which the Government should have taken. It was proposed by the trade union movement and came from this side of the House. Those proposals would not have allowed such targeting to take place. However, this has happened, but we would like at least a reversal of the most severe and savage hits that have taken place. This Private Members' motion proposes that at the very least the Government would look again at this matter. A relatively small amount of money is required which the Government could easily make up from other sources. We repeatedly outlined those areas where the Government could look for extra money if it were minded to do so. It could at least try to bring some cheer to those who are at the lowest end of the scale, the disabled, the carers and the blind. We could add to that list of people very easily but it should be possible to ensure that these sectors do not continue to be the recipients of the brunt of this budget.

We are facing the European year of combating poverty and social exclusion and I do not know what our Government will do when it is asked by the European Commission what steps it has taken to combat poverty and social exclusion. If the Government heads off to Europe and presents its budget for 2010, how will the European Commission, Parliament, Council of Ministers or Council take to that? It would present a very negative reflection on Ireland's commitment to dealing with the problems it faces.

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