Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to say a few words on this Bill. I want to record my opposition to its guillotining today at 7 p.m. We have been told this is because of the diktat from the EU and the IMF but it is much more in line with the current Government's takeover, hook, line and sinker, of the policies and methods of operation of the previous Government. I remind the Government and Minister that in the course of the general election campaign and since we have been told time and again that the guillotine would not be used and that there would be Dáil reform.

However, when it comes to a Bill such as this, which is very important and contains intricate sections, we find that totally inadequate time has been given to it. There should be an open ended discussion on it and I am sorry to see that it is being rammed through with very short notice and without adequate discussion. In a Bill such as this introduced by a Labour Parity Minister I would have expected to see reversals in social welfare cuts.

In the recent general election, Labour Party candidates up and down the country were telling the electorate that if it was in Government, it would reverse the cuts. Its candidates were on every local radio station saying the same thing. They indicated in particular that cuts to the carer's allowance would be reversed, which of course has not happened. The same happened in regard to the universal social charge. Both cuts have impacted significantly on the lower paid, carers and middle-income families.

I hope, even at this late stage, that the Government and Minister would reverse the cuts, in particular, the universal social charge and the cuts to the carer's allowance.

See this speech in context