Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

Members have listened to the Minister's convoluted explanations of the reasons he has been obliged to introduce these measures, his justifications for so doing and so on. Behind it all lies a political choice. Fianna Fáil in Government decided last year to implement across-the-board cuts of €8 on the most vulnerable and least well-off and have done so again this year. This was a political decision and there is no other way to look at it. While the Minister can justify and explain all he wishes, this can be summed up by stating the Minister decided to do this and the Green Party decided to go along with him. The most vulnerable sectors, namely, jobseekers, the disabled, the blind, widows and everyone on the breadline are those who have been hit in this section of the Bill dealing with benefits and in the next section dealing with allowances.

Moreover, this has not achieved anything for the Minister in the long run because in his concluding response to the Second Stage debate, he acknowledged that despite everything he has done, the social protection budget will still comprise 39% of total State expenditure, compared with 38% last year. In other words, the Minister is 1% less well-off.

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