Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I congratulate Deputy Penrose on introducing this motion. Most of us were shocked and amazed at the details of the budget. When the Minister for Finance made his Budget Statement there was no detail in it, but when the details emerged we were shocked. I am not sure why we were. After all, we have had 13 years of Fianna Fáil rule and we know at this stage that members of the Fianna Fáil Party are masters at protecting their friends.

The budget ultimately resulted in the Government removing just under €5 billion from the economy, not the €6 billion it had announced. I do not believe one can include the sale of State assets, because it is a once-off event that will never happen again. It will not have that option next year. When it comes to adjusting our finances there is nobody like Fianna Fáil for exposing the type of class ridden society we have. If others were drawing up this budget, they would have started at the top. They would have provided that those working at the top in semi-State companies who are earning sums in excess of €200,000, €300,000 and €400,000 per year would have their salaries halved. That did not happen. Anybody else would have ensured all the consultants who are employees in the State sector would have their wages reduced. That also did not happen. It is as if the woman who cleans the hospital is a lesser being than the consultant. She is not. She is as important and pivotal to the health of the patients as the consultant. Fianna Fáil does not recognise that because, ultimately, the only people that party has any kinship with are those with great wealth.

One wonders who put together this budget. Clearly, the people who did so are so far removed from the everyday lives of ordinary people that they do not realise its consequences. I met three women yesterday afternoon when I was walking through town. One was a widow, one was a lone parent and the third was on the minimum wage. I believe that when the first two left, they walked away feeling sorry for the woman on the minimum wage because she was going to lose €41 per week of her income. Nevertheless, the widow has been impacted twice while the lone parent has been also impacted. These were three average women out walking during the afternoon, two of them seeking work, and this Government had done that to them.

They had one message, "Get rid of this awful Government. It does not realise what the rest of us have to put up with." Christmas is approaching and people on the minimum wage will be left with less than €300 per week on which to live. That money is needed to put food on the table and to buy toys for their children. Believe it or not, the poor still celebrate Christmas, although this year they will have less with which to celebrate it. Instead of starting at the top, this Government started at the bottom again, as it has always done.

The last two speakers are correct that good employers are not seeking this reduction in the minimum wage. Thankfully, there are some very good employers. They know a happy workforce means a more productive company. What worries me desperately about this move is that it is not about the minimum wage, but is directed at social welfare. It is about driving down social welfare and ensuring the gap between what one gets paid for work and what one gets from the State will be even greater. People who are on social welfare through no fault of their own, who have worked for the past ten years and have never been unemployed previously and who now find themselves at the mercy of this awful Government must sit up and take notice.

People on the minimum wage will not be able to afford the increased costs in health, education and their utilities. They will not be able to afford to put food on the table for Christmas. When the general election is held in January or February I hope the reaction will be like that of a woman to whom I spoke recently. When a Fianna Fáil canvassers came to her door last weekend she said, "Not only have you blighted my life, you have darkened my door. Get out of my house." That is exactly what Fianna Fáil will be told on the day of the general election, and it cannot come too soon. People on the minimum wage will not forget this. It is the most dramatic drop in income that any group in this country has absorbed.

The Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, and his colleagues will defend it through the amendment to the motion. Until now I believed that the Minister for Social Protection had some compassion for people who are dependent on the State. I now believe he does not. No Minister with that portfolio should have allowed this to happen. When the Minister is having his dinner on Christmas Day, he should think of the people to whom he has done this, the people whose lives he has destroyed. They will be waiting for him, but not in the long grass. This time, they will be in full view, standing at their doors waiting for him. They will tell him not to darken their doors and to get out of the driveways, as one canvasser was told last week.

The Minister knows this cut is awful and should not happen. He must reverse it.

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