Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Mar a dúirt an Teachta Aengus Ó Snodaigh, tá polaitíocht uilig fá dtaobh de roghanna. Politics is all about choices and unfortunately, the choices this Government has made are the same choices the former Government made. I am sure the Minister of State, as a former member of one of the parties in the former Government, is delighted he is now in Government with two new parties and implementing the policies he espoused a number of years ago.

Twelve months ago this week, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party handed over control of the economy to the EU-IMF. Eight months ago, Fine Gael and the Labour Party abandoned their pre-election pledges and bowed down to the diktats of the troika. It is 12 months since the troika arrived and the Government still has no strategy for altering the details of Fianna Fáil's EU-IMF austerity programme. It is clear that Fine Gael is using the troika as a smoke-screen to introduce policies it supports but for which it has no mandate. This is apparent in the dismantling of the joint labour committees and the sale of profitable assets. That the Labour Party is so willing to go along with this is shameful.

We need to ask ourselves these questions. A couple of days before this Government is considering cutting child benefit, we must ask who has benefited from the bailout. Who has been bailed out? The Government would have us believe that the money from the EU-IMF is being used to pay the teachers, the nurses, the gardaí, those in receipt of child benefit. Unfortunately, the truth is very different.

At the end of last month, the Exchequer deficit stood at €22 billion. Half of this amount, a staggering €10.7 billion, has been given by Fine Gael and the Labour Party to the banks since they came to office. This included €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish Bank and a further €10 billion was given to the banks by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in July. This is not recorded in the Exchequer figures as it came from the National Pensions Reserve Fund. A further €3.7 billion was given by Fianna Fáil to the banks in the dying days of 2010. Put simply and boiling it all down, the deficit currently stands at €22 billion but since the troika has arrived, Government parties have injected €24.4 billion into the banks.

These figures speak for themselves. The EU-IMF programme is a bailout for banks and not for ordinary citizens. They are the ones being bailed out. Who will pay the price under Fine Gael and the Labour Party? If the leaks to the press are to be believed, it will be our children who will have to pay the toxic debts of these banks. If the leaks are proved correct on budget day, it will be our children who will be forced to shoulder the burden of the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour Party austerity programme.

Cuts to child benefit, cuts to social welfare and increases in VAT will hit children hardest and in particular the 96,000 children who today are living in consistent poverty, without the essentials for acceptable standards of living. When the Government cuts the income of the families in which these children live, how will those parents put food on the table or clothes on backs? How will the parents afford the cost of education and health care? These are the stark choices that many families are already having to make because of the failed policies of bank bailouts and austerity introduced by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and now implemented, shamefully, by Fine Gael and the Labour Party.

Sinn Féin's motion calls on Deputies not to cut child benefit or other benefits that impact on children. We call on those Deputies who, during the election campaign, promised to protect children, to stand up, to have the courage of their convictions and to stand by their beliefs, protect child benefit and support the Sinn Féin motion.

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