Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

The Government has a large mandate. It went to the country and made certain promises, in particular in regard to social welfare, the subject of our discussion today. Not only did the Government parties make promises in their pre-election manifestos, they made them in the programme for Government, renewing them when they were 100 days in office. Therefore, there can be no ambiguity. They cannot say they were not sure where they stood or how bad the finances were. The financial situation was well-known. I was not a Member of the previous Dáil but never before, in the history of the State, were Government books opened up so widely and freely to all Members of the Oireachtas who wished to look at them. People know exactly where they stand. I hope, therefore, the Government will renew the proposals it outlined. It is true that when we introduced a four-year plan in November of last year, we aimed to achieve savings of €2.8 billion in social welfare expenditure. It was envisaged that this would be done through a combination of control measures, labour activation and structural reforms. We hoped at that time that there would be no further reductions in the rates.

We have listened to Government Deputies saying all the low-hanging fruit has been picked. I question whether last year's cuts in carer's allowance, blind rate pension and widow's and widower's pensions were low-hanging fruit. Those decisions were very difficult. They rightly met with severe opposition at the time. No one wanted to be in a position to make such decisions, but they had to be made, unfortunately, in order to achieve the €6 billion in cuts that were needed last year. We are now on the road to recovery as a result of them.

Government Deputies are falling over themselves every day to welcome the acknowledgement and credit they are receiving from international markets and commentators. They claim it has resulted from the work they have done since they took office but that is not the case. It has resulted from a budget that was vehemently opposed in December of last year and has been fully implemented now. We support the budget parameters for next year but we may differ on how they can be achieved. I understand the Minister for Finance will outline the figures tomorrow. I look forward to Opposition Deputies having an opportunity to look through them to ensure we can propose credible alternatives to what the Government is planning. Perhaps we will be in a position to support what the Government is doing.

It has been suggested that we increased social welfare payments for a electoral gain and benefit. I do not believe Deputies on this side of the House who were in Government before this year's election should make any apologies for increasing pension levels by 130%, unemployment benefits by 130% and child payments by 330%. At the time, Opposition Deputies said that such increases were miserly and that one could hardly buy a loaf of bread, a bale of briquettes or a bag of coal with the moneys in question. Those words were used. I went to a house two nights ago to meet a husband and wife aged 89 and 82. The man in question has been suffering from dementia for the last four years. His wife has been providing full-time care - 24 hours a day, seven days a week - to her husband during that time. By keeping him out of an institution, she has saved this Government tens of thousands of euro. She could do so because the previous Government introduced home help packages which were of major benefit to her.

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