Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

According to the Labour Party's general election manifesto, our country's best days are yet to come. It was not enough to wish for a better future. The party told us that polling day offered people an opportunity to come together and make a decision for change. The general election of February last was to be about real, transformative change that would bring about the kind of Ireland we want to live in, not only for ourselves but crucially also for our children. Less than a week from budget day, the same party has spent the past month frightening the life out of struggling families across the State with a succession of budget leaks which would make even Fianna Fáil eyes water. Let the Labour Party and Fine Gael be in no doubt that this budget, if we are to believe the leaks, will hit struggling families the hardest, particularly women and children.

As the Minister may have noted, TASC recently undertook a gender impact assessment of budget 2011. The organisation set out to quantify the cumulative effects of the main changes to direct taxation, social insurance and social welfare payments on the income of women and men. Not surprisingly, its assessment found that those on the lowest incomes were hardest hit. Cuts to social welfare, alongside the introduction of the universal social charge, widening of the tax bands and reduction in tax allowances, had a crippling effect on those families least able to shoulder the burden. The Government could abolish the universal social charge but chooses not to do so. It could introduce a wealth tax and a 48% tax band on individual income in excess of €100,000 per annum but chooses not to do so. Instead, it appears to be intent on travelling the same path as the Fianna Fáil Party by targeting those least able to carry the burden of further cuts and tax increases.

The TASC study found that women were concentrated in lower income groups, which was not a new or surprising finding. As a result, they suffered a disproportionate impact of budgetary cuts. The group most adversely affected by budget 2011 were single people with children, 73% of whom are women. In real terms, families in this group lost on average 5% of their income. Given that lone parents are more likely to be at risk of poverty and experience consistent poverty, reducing their income by 5% perpetuates the crisis they face and places even more vulnerable families at risk. We now understand that the Government wants to go after this group again. Imposing a plethora of stealth charges, reducing social protection supports, cutting child benefit and charging for the right to have a medical card will only drive even greater numbers of women and children into poverty. While such measures could be expected from the Fine Gael Party, it is astonishing that we need to make this argument to the Labour Party.

The Government pays out billions of euro on unguaranteed speculative bonds and chooses to mollycoddle high rollers in the public sector by standing over their lavish salaries during an economic crisis. Like its Fianna Fáil counterparts, it chooses to shackle citizens with the bank guarantee.

Given that we are specifically discussing child benefit, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to families across the State. They are the unsung struggling heroes of the piece who care for their children and are barely coping but will, none the less, protect their young. They are leaders and examples whereas the Government chooses not to lead. Thanks to its failure to do the right thing, hundreds and thousands of children will be pushed further into poverty. Families cannot and should not take any more. Child benefit must not be touched.

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