Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It does not give me any great pleasure to criticise this, the most savage budget since the foundation of the State. This budget is anti-elderly, anti-family and anti-children and it will have an effect on the most vulnerable in society.

I never thought the day would come when I would see the Fianna Fáil Party attacking carers, persons with disability, persons on blind benefit, pensioners and even the minimum wage. I say tonight to Fianna Fáil, to the Greens and to the Independents that tomorrow, I will give them a number of opportunities. I will be tabling amendments on carers, those with disabilities and the blind, and on child benefit, and I hope these Members will vote tomorrow with their conscience, not with their party, because what the Minister has allowed happen is wrong. This attack the Government has made on the most vulnerable is wrong.

The old age pensioners thought that they got away without any cuts in this budget. On the universal social contribution, I want the Minister to confirm to me when he is concluding this debate whether persons who are over the rate will pay that contribution. I also want him to clarify for me whether persons who currently have medical cards, who in the past did not have to pay the universal social contribution, have to pay it now with the new scheme that the Minister is introducing. I want both of these matters clarified.

In the past elderly persons, if they were leaving the country on a holiday, used get their passport free but now the Government has attacked even that. The Government is taking the passport off them because it is charging them for it. However, the most important matter are the questions I have raised on the universal social contribution, and I want those questions answered quickly.

It is outrageous that the Government has targeted the carers in this budget. The carers are those who work for their social welfare payment and I am disappointed that the Minister and the Government could not have excluded the carers, the blind, those with a disability as these people need help more than anybody. This budget is outrageous and I am disappointed with Fianna Fáil policies which has allowed this to happen, put 450,000 out of work and attacked low-income families. Fine Gael will oppose the budget unless the Government accepts Fine Gael's amendments to reverse cuts to carers, the disabled, the blind and the widows.

Carers are the only welfare recipients who work for their payment. Ireland's 160,917 family carers provide 3.7 million hours of care each week which saves the State some €2.5 billion each year, according to the National Carers' Association. Fine Gael believes we should support carers. It makes sense that carers are supported in the work they do because they save the taxpayer money in the long run. If carers are not supported they will experience physical, financial and emotional hardship and eventual burnout. The result of this is that the cared-for person will end up in expensive hospital or nursing homes and the State will have to pick up that tab.

Fianna Fáil has abandoned carers at every turn. First, it failed to look after them during the boom, it abandoned the national carers strategy in 2009 and reduced the payment to carers in 2010. Now in Budget 2011, it has hit them again by reducing the payments further by €8 per week and it has also changed the home carer tax credit. This is a disgrace, it is wrong and it should be overturned.

One thing is for sure, there is no Croke Park agreement for persons with disabilities. Budget 2011 will see the disability allowance fall by €8 per week. This is on top of a €8.30 cut last year, amounting to €16.30 a week in just two years. In 2011, a person in receipt of disability allowance will get €870 less than he or she did in 2009. This is surely an attack on the vulnerable.

It has been proven time and again that there are substantial extra costs associated with having a disability including transport, heat, household improvements and supports. Rather than supporting the most vulnerable, Fianna Fáil is targeting them for savings. In Fine Gael's proposals published last Friday, we made a commitment to protect the rate paid to persons with disabilities.

At the same time on Friday last, the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Moloney, published draft policy proposals recommending a shift from the existing disability service models towards a system of individual support. This would result in greater choice and control for persons with disabilities, would help them with the cost of living and would result in savings for the State. Fine Gael's former spokesperson on disabilities, Deputy Stanton, has been calling on the Government to implement this change for years, but nothing has happened. This is a prime example of where the Government could reform the public service to improve services while saving money. It could have done this rather than cutting desperately needed payments to persons with disabilities.

With wages falling, Fine Gael recognised the need to cut social welfare for those with the capacity to work, but there was no economic or social case to cut €8 per week from the incomes of widows, carers, the blind and those with a disability. The exclusion of these groups from the cuts would have cost the State €96 million. The Government could have saved this by adopting Fine Gael's proposal to completely overhaul the welfare system by establishing a single payments and entitlements service instead of the 20 plus Government bodies that currently administer entitlements, making massive savings in administration, fraud and mistakes. This is another example of Fianna Fáil's failure to introduce the necessary public service reforms to improve services and save money at the same time.

Budget 2011 demonstrates the disjointed and chaotic approach the Government has taken toward major policy areas. In 2010, the Government applied a flat-rate cut to child benefit and increased the qualified child allowance and the child component of the family income supplement to counteract the impact on low-income families and those on welfare. Budget 2011 applies a similar reduction. Child benefit will be reduced by €10 per month from January 2011 for the first and second child, and a €20 cut will apply to the third child, with a €10 cut to fourth and other children. This year, however, there has been no increase in family income supplement or qualified child allowance, which means that low-income families are being hit harder than high income families. Had the Government got its house in order, it could have introduced the new child income support which has been in consideration for years. This new support would mean that child income supports such as child benefit, family income supplement, qualified child increase and the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance would be amalgamated so that everybody would continue to get a payment but low-income families and families on social welfare would be targeted much more effectively. The structural change, which has been in discussion for years, would be significantly better in combating child poverty and would result in some savings for the State.

The cut in the minimum wage makes no economic sense. I cannot understand Fianna Fáil and the Government. It will not create a single extra job and it will put people under further pressure. Why did the Minister target those on low income? The Minister and I know what will happen. Employers will dismiss these people and they will ask them to come in under a new contract on the new rate. It is wrong and on Friday we will oppose it in another Bill before the House.

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