Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I support the motion, which was tabled by Deputy Naughten on behalf of Fine Gael. We have had an interesting day in the House. This debate is not simply about the issues which are the subject of the motion. It also concerns our value system, how we perceive what political parties should do in Government, how they perceive society, what role political parties should play and what obligations we have to the most vulnerable people. The motion wants to reverse cuts for carers, the disabled and the blind, which the social welfare budget seeks to implement. It is a straightforward and simple motion that I would have hoped had the support of all sides of the House. There is a fatal flaw in the Government parties, however. In Government from 2002 to 2007, Fianna Fáil laid the foundation for an economic and financial disaster, the nature of which we have not seen in the history of the State. They are now joined at the hip by the Green Party, which managed to make a bad situation worse by sitting mesmerised in Government for two years and ignoring the economic cataclysm around them. In each budget, both parties have gone for the easy options.

Tough decisions had to be made and the Fine Gael front bench spent many weeks working out the detail of an alternative budget. We did so for two reasons. We wanted to set out clearly that there is an alternative that does not involve attacking the most vulnerable people who are dependent on social welfare, or those on low pay. We also did it because we had no confidence in the capacity of this Government to make the right choices. We published our budgetary proposals a number of days in advance of the budget in the vague hope that the Government might implement some of them. In bringing about the cuts necessary to try to move at least one step in the direction of correcting the budget deficit and our borrowing requirements, we sought to make the right choices. In doing so, we chose a number of things. On social welfare, for example we said there would be no cut in pensions. That we said there be no cut in the old-age pension is probably what influenced the Government not to make such a cut. Last year, the Government targeted the elderly with regard to medical cards. If it can be put this way without any disrespect, the grey voters came out and barricaded this House. They protested loudly and the Government was forced to change course. The Government was terrified it would find itself in the same position again, so it backed off. It then looked at who would be the least likely to give trouble if their benefits were cut, so who was targeted? It was the blind who, given their difficulties, would not lay siege to this House, the carers - many of whom are lucky to get a week's respite per year from what is essentially a 24-hour, seven-day a week job - who certainly did not have the time to mount a protest, and the disabled. A government could not have more callously chosen and targeted the most vulnerable group within our community to effect cutbacks. The Government displayed its values when it did that. It displayed bad values and made bad choices. In making those choices, it was protecting bankers.

I said today has been an interesting day. It is a day when the Government has rammed through the House legislation that attacks the pay of those in the public service who earn €30,000 or less. Many of them will find themselves caught in a poverty trap. They earn below the average minimum wage. At the same time as making these cuts, the Government is protecting bankers. Not one employee in Anglo Irish Bank, a nationalised bank that has brought the country to its knees, is impacted detrimentally by any measure introduced in the budget. The Government is bankrupt of ideas, values and morality. I believe it no longer has the authority to govern.

The best that could happen would be for the Government to leave the House, ask the President to dissolve the Dáil and call a general election, but it does not have the courage to do that. I challenge the Government to present the value system it seeks to implement in this ill-conceived legislation to the electorate. If it does, I guarantee that after the election has taken place, the Government will find itself on this side of the House, with far fewer Deputies than it has currently.

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