Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I thank Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party for allowing me an opportunity to speak on this issue. Of all the cynical, nasty things thrown at ordinary people as part of this budget and the so-called road to recovery, cutting the minimum wage surely stands out as the most malicious. It is malicious in so far as people who are dependent on the minimum wage to make ends meet will find their incomes cut by 12%. This is a disgraceful proposal.

Earlier, outside the gates of Leinster House, I and other Deputies stood in solidarity and support with the victims of this Government's vindictiveness. For those of us on a higher income, a cut in salary of 12% would perhaps mean having to forgo certain luxuries. A single person earning €306 per week - €304.27 after the universal social charge is applied - will have to make stark choices every day of the week regarding food, rent, the cost of heating and the cost of travel to and from work. This is before he or she enjoys any sort of social life in the community.

Cutting the minimum wage has been presented as a means of stimulating the economy. How in the name of God can anybody sit on the benches opposite and tell us that taking €42 per week from people on the minimum wage will stimulate the economy when every cent received by people on that wage is spent in the local economy? It is spent to keep small shopkeepers going and on every other local concern. It is mind-boggling that Government Deputies can sit there and make such an assertion. Taking money out of the local economy does not stimulate the economy but has the opposite effect.

The logic employed by this Government makes it believe that taking billions from the spending power of Irish citizens for the so-called bailout, which will be thrown into a black hole in the banks, will create growth. It will have absolutely the opposite effect. By the same logic this Government criticised my party and others for proposing that the National Pensions Reserve Fund be used as a stimulant and then turned around and placed the entire pension fund as collateral for the banking debt. It took that money to bail out the banks - it is as simple as that. We need to stop and think how we can bring this anti-national, anti-citizen Government to book. If it does not go quietly by January, perhaps we should honour the 92nd anniversary of the first meeting of Dáil Éireann with a national day of protest. Irish working people and all who are angered and ashamed by the surrender to the IMF and the banks need to make their feelings crystal clear, especially given speculation that the Government may pull a sleight of hand measure and ensure its term goes beyond the timeframe demanded by the Green Party.

We cannot afford this Government any further time because it may use that time to sell off State assets to its friends. This came to light recently. I refer to speculation about Coillte and our forestry, some 7% of the land of this country, and the ESB. I call on all those Members of this House who are outraged by this nasty manoeuvre, including some from the Government parties, to vote against the decision to cut the minimum wage and vote against this budget because of what it has done to the people of this State.

My party will also vote against the cuts to be imposed on low and middle income public service pensioners. If, as Sinn Féin proposed, the Government had capped salaries of higher public servants at €100,000 some €350 million per year would have been saved for the State. That represents most of what has been cut from social welfare rates for people of working age and is nearly half of what is being cut from the health budget. In regard to the rates of pay of Government officeholders my party has made its position clear by calling for greater cuts than are proposed in the budget. We sat and listened to the budget speech. Not one penny was taken from the salaries of Deputies or Ministers of State but the Government took 12% from people on the minimum wage. It defies logic and is an absolute disgrace. It shows what this Government stands for, namely, the developers and the banks, cronyism and its friends. It does not stand for the citizens of this State but abuses their rights to service both its own political ends and its friends in the Galway tent.

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