Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)

I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for allowing me use some of his time.

Social welfare levels should ensure that people have sufficient income to live with dignity. They should also be designed to ensure the existence of effective pathways to education, training and employment, including access to quality and affordable child care and after school care for parents. The cuts to payments reduce peoples' capacity to participate fully in society. For many, the cuts impact on their ability to heat their homes to a sufficient level and to provide adequately for themselves and their families For those who are unemployed, the cuts reduce their capacity to interact in a way which opens up training and employment opportunities. This results in negative physical and mental health outcomes, including depression, for many people.

The cuts also have a wider negative impact on disadvantaged communities. From a purely economic perspective, social welfare cuts also reduce spending in the economy, as those on low incomes need to spend all their money to survive day to day. Therefore, a cut to welfare levels takes money out of the economy, has a deflationary effect and cannot be seen as a euro for euro saving for the Exchequer. The decisions the Government makes regarding social welfare payments are its decisions and cannot be blamed on the ghost of governments past. On 9 March when I first spoke in this House, I reminded the incoming Taoiseach of the late Declan Costello and his Just Society document. Never before or since have the aspirations of the just and fair society been called into question. I again remind Members of this Government of this document. Never in the history of this State has there been a time when the least well off have been seen to be paying for the sins of the speculators. It is time we put our people first and ensured that their needs are a priority.

I appreciate fully that a person of the immense personal wealth of the Minister for Social Protection will find it hard to appreciate the hardship of a person or family living on benefits after a lifetime of living on immense salaries and drowning in personal wealth. It is very hard for a person like that to understand or comprehend why people will go cold this winter or why it was such a horrible decision to cut back on the fuel allowance, particularly considering the winter we had last year and the winter we possibly face this year. The Minister will certainly not go cold, but the people she and I and other Deputies represent will go cold. A significant number of them will go cold, but if one is drowned in personal wealth, one finds it hard to understand that.

It is a poor thing if the best any Minister can come up with is to look back on previous Governments and attack them. This Government has the ball in its hands and it is running the country. It is time it gave up this nonsense of looking back at the past. It must shoulder its responsibilities. It is running the country and it has its say now. It makes the decisions and can decide where cuts will be made. It must give up the nonsense of looking back all the time, because we are getting sick of that.

One last point, the tag being given to the Minister of the "Minister for lifestyle choice" is a bad tag to be stuck with for a term. I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for reminding me of that.

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