Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The amendment states:

Dail Éireann declines to give a second reading to the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill, 2010 having regard to:

1) the decision to cut the national minimum wage by one euro to €7.65; the hardship that this will cause for workers earning at the lowest levels; the fact that this cut will do nothing to promote job creation and will make no difference whatsoever to the State's budgetary position; and the decision to abrogate the long-established consultation process for determining the appropriate level for the national minimum wage;

2) the manner in which the reduction in public service pension is being applied which will see retired public sector workers on pensions of as little as €230 per week being subject to a cut of 6% in their income.

We have endured many days of shame and national humiliation brought about by Fianna Fáil's mishandling of our economy and its failure to safeguard the vital interests of the public, as compared to its safeguarding the vital interests of its cronies and friends in the banking, development and construction industry.

Restoring financial stability means restoring trust to this economy but restoring financial stability to this economy, as far as Fianna Fáil is concerned, means making the poor and the most vulnerable pay and causing people facing into Christmas and hoping to have a happy time with their families and their friends to fear the kind of cuts to be imposed on them.

It is shameful that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has launched this Bill, this attack on people who have a public service pension, particularly on people who earn the minimum wage, on a day when he has the gall to come into this House and stand over the reports that high level employees in Allied Irish Bank are to receive a payout of some €40 million in bonuses. That is a testament to the bonus culture that has destroyed our banking system, cost many people in business their businesses and many workers their jobs. It has meant that if people on the minimum wage, ranging from blind people to carers to retired public servants on modest wages to people who are flipping hamburgers in McDonald's or in other fast food outlets, change their jobs, the next time they take up work their wage will be cut by no less than €1 an hour, and if they work for 40 hours a week, they will lose €40. At the same time, this Government will levy them with a new tax introduced in the budget, namely, the universal social charge.

The Minister has been economical with the truth in all of his previous budgets and in his six different statements on budget and financial emergency measures. His boast that people on the minimum wage would not be brought into the tax net was rendered hollow by the introduction of the universal social charge. It is important to put on the record of this House that section 2, dealing with the universal social charge in Resolution No. 13 introduced on budget night, specifically states: "THAT, with effect from 1 January 2011, there shall be charged, levied and paid, in accordance with the provision of this Resolution, a tax to be known as the "universal social charge" in respect of the incomes specified ... ". With the exception of social welfare payments and pensions, all income over €4,000 a year, that is over €80 a week, is to be subject to this new tax. So much for Fianna Fáil's vainglorious boast that people on the minimum wage were not being brought into the tax net. It is typical of this Government to bluster, prevaricate and when the facts are undeniable then to pretend to change the facts.

The bonus of €40 million announced for Allied Irish Bank executives today comes after a bonus last year of €54 million. This amounts to a total of €94 million in bonuses for executives in Allied Irish Bank over the past two years since the bank guarantee was brought in. The current Stock Exchange value of the bank is not much over €500 million. Although it goes up and down very slightly, the value is currently approximately €540 million. The bonus amounts given out in respect of this bank are just under 20% of the bank's value.

We know that last week the people negotiating with the IMF, ECB and European Commission did not do a good deal for Ireland but where were the brains of the Brians on the night they ran to negotiate the guarantee? There was no conditionality on the banks which brought this country to its knees to stipulate that the culture of bonuses - which drove our banks to destruction and has led to many ordinary people in this country losing their business, job or pension - should be changed. There was nothing to say that although we might assist the banks or bail them out, the culture of bonuses and greed that bankers and their buddies in construction exemplified would be brought to an end. There was no insight and intelligence to protect the public interest.

A retired civil servant may have a modest Civil Service pension. We should bear in mind that according to statistics from the Central Statistics Office, there are approximately 126,000 public service pensioners, with 35,000 earning under €12,000. I am thankful they will not be affected. Some 40,000 retired civil servants have a pension of between €12,000 and €24,000, with 50,000 on a pension of between €24,000 and €60,000. These are the people who will take the principal hit. Only 1,000 retired civil servants receive a pension above €60,000.

I have received correspondence from people who seem to be practically crying in writing e-mails to me. People are losing three times in this budget. Retired pensioners from the Civil Service on more than €12,000 per year are affected, as credits and tax bands are being decreased; there is a reduction in the pensions I outlined; and there is also a universal social charge. The health contribution exempted people on a medical card but the new universal social charge does not exempt such people. Somebody who left a job - either in the public service or another sector - on a modest pension because of a disability used to be exempt from the health contribution but will now have to pay it.

Parents with a disabled child, where one parent is working and one is acting as a carer, will find the person who provides the care will lose €8 per week in what is a typical scenario. The working parent will pay a higher levy, whereas he or she would have been exempt from the health contribution. What this Government has done is unbelievable, and it is all for the banks. It was not to save the banks or credit in the country because all it has done is make the banking position progressively worse. In 2011, this country will spend €5.1 billion paying interest, so the €6 billion in the budget will basically go to pay interest on the debt that has been accrued on our behalf by the bankers.

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