Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

The token gesture that is being taken by Ministers in this budget does not go anywhere near far enough.

The Government is cutting the liveilhoods of people who are trying to get on in this State. What have they done? What have the public sector workers done to the Government that it will sack 9,500 of them - 4,150 from health, 1,023 gardaí who will lose their jobs by the end of next year, and 1,063 teachers and front-line staff working in the education system? A total of 9,500 public sector workers are to be made redundant under the Government's plans.

What did the farmers do to the Government, which will reduce the REPS payments by €36 million? What did the students, who want to get educated in third level, do to the Government that it will increase the student fee to €2,000 and introduce a new fee for those on PLC courses of €200? God forbid, what did the primary school students do to the Government? It is introducing a new transport charge of €50 and increasing up to €350 the charge for those at second level. This budget is a disgrace.

Last year we heard the Minister for Finance tell us that the worst is over. Now we hear that low and middle-income families are to be hit with more punitive taxation increases and spending cuts. The Minister tells us that there is hope, but the only hope I can see is calling a general election. His Budget Statement is sparse in detail on the cuts but we can see in the documentation provided what these cuts will mean and how they will affect people in the years ahead. There is an €8 reduction for dole recipients, a €10 reduction in child benefit and €180 less in tax credits, excise on petrol and diesel is up, rental relief to be phased out, maternity benefit and adoptive benefit cut and there is to be a 5% reduction in capitation fees for student services and a reduction in student support grants. Some €746 million is to be taken out of the health budget. A total of one third of all of the cuts across departmental spending is coming from health. This is at a time when the health service is completely buckled under the strain of the cuts that the Government has introduced in previous years.

Why are we doing all of this? Why is the Government introducing the budget that it has announced today? It is doing it to prop-up a failed banking policy. The policy behind this budget is not only morally wrong, but economic sabotage. Some €6 billion is being taken out of the economy in the most destructive and damaging way. The Government has decided today that somebody who earns over €1 million contributes enough but a person on the minimum wage, a person on social welfare or a person who has lost his or her job must pay more. The Government has lowered the disposable income of every spender in the real economy. What that means is that there will be less money to spend in the local economies, which will turn the screw tighter on local businesses and will mean more job losses in small and medium enterprises. What the Government has done is prolong the cycle of recession.

I do not know how the Minister had even the neck to come in here and present such a budget. The Government has failed the people of Ireland. It has given away our sovereignty in the same way that its partners gave away our natural resources back in the 1980s.

The Government has brought the IMF and the EU to our shores, and they are here to help the Government to protect foreign bankers and to bail out the bondholders. They are not here to bail out the Irish people. They are here for our tax euros. They are not here to protect us.

What is disgusting about all of this is that when the country is demanding political reform, when people are shouting out for serious politically reform, the Government is relying on the votes of two gombeen politicians who want their own wee pet projects in their own constituencies.

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