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

I sympathise with the family and friends of the late Deputy Brian Lenihan. The next couple of weeks will be a difficult time for them.

This by-election has given a unique opportunity to the people of Dublin West to reject the false promises made by those in the Fine Gael-Labour Government in the run-up to and during the last general election. I refer to the politics of the big lie that stated during the course of that election that the vulnerable would be protected and that there would be no austerity for those who were already poor or were under pressure on low and middle incomes. Of course, the opposite happened. Ordinary people now find themselves being ruled by a Government which has simply changed its clothes. The same failed policies and austerity of Fianna Fáil are now being imposed by Fine Gael and Labour.

There are 10,000 unemployed in Dublin West and we need an emergency job creation programme for them. Money can and should be made available to create emergency jobs for thousands of people in public works programmes right across the city and throughout the country.

Another area where significant promises were made was social welfare. Deputy Burton's so-called Department of Social Protection is cutting off people regularly. It is taking 20 and 26 weeks for people to get a decision, for instance, on carer's allowance. Home help services and the provision of special needs assistants are being cut. These certainly were not the actions we were led to believe the Labour Party would pursue in this Government.

Ordinary people on middle and low incomes are being hugely pressurised, not by one tax but by three. There is the household utility charge, starting, we believe, at €100 and which will probably end up at a minimum of €500, the refuse tax, and now the water charge as well. Ordinary families under huge pressure to pay their way will soon face a minimum bill of €1,000 a year, if not €1,500.

This is a unique opportunity for the people of Dublin West to send a clear message to the Government to stop the austerity and put people back to work. Councillor Ruth Coppinger of the Socialist Party and United Left Alliance is the candidate to do that. I ask the people of Dublin West to support her and elect her to the Dáil, where she will stand up for them. They can be assured that what she says before and during the election will be exactly what she says after her election to this House. She will show that elected politicians can be truthful and honest in their campaigning.

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