Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

When I first sat in this Chamber in March of this year, I listened as the Taoiseach hailed this as a new era. Perhaps I was a little naive, but I was impressed when he said the new Government would listen to constructive contributions from Opposition parties. I reckoned it was the best way to go. I was glad to hear the Taoiseach's remarks. What have I witnessed since? The Government does not listen to Opposition parties. It does not listen to the public, which is even worse. Some of its backbenchers engage in childish sniping and shouting rather than rational debate. I stress that not all of them do that.

I tried to find a name for the behaviour of the new Government, but I could not find it in any of my books on political science. I decided the most appropriate thing to call it is the Bart Simpson school of political defence. Government Deputies seem to say "nobody saw us do it; you can prove nothing; we did not do it; but if we did do it, it was the big bad boys in Fianna Fáil and the big bad boys in the EU, the ECB and the IMF who made us do it". Can we have any hope that the fine words about listening and co-operating will be delivered on? Can we expect the Government to reconsider its opposition to this? I call on Government to do so.

I appeal to those backbenchers with a conscience to support this motion and to reject the Government amendment. I do so in light of the further evidence of rising poverty levels that was presented in the latest statistics that were released today. The figures show that every measure of poverty and inequality is rising. This was a wholly predictable outcome of the budgetary approach that was adopted by the Fianna Fáil Government. The number of people experiencing enforced deprivation doubled from 11% to 22% between 2007 and 2010. Such people are going without at least two basic essentials, such as a warm and waterproof coat or a substantial meal, every day. This is a direct consequence of the previous Government's decision to cut social welfare spending year on year, rather than targeting the assets and high incomes of the wealthy of this nation.

The current Government has some basic choices to make. It can continue following the approach taken by the previous Government to balance the deficit by cutting spending and imposing flat rate stealth taxes, the result of which will be to push even more people into poverty.

Despite the nonsense we heard earlier from some Members, the Government must focus its efforts on the incomes and wealth of high earners instead. It can adopt Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission that presented a range of policy options, all of which would reduce the deficit while also reducing poverty and inequality. Let no one on the other side of the House claim Sinn Féin did not present options. The size of disposable incomes of those at the top relative to incomes at the bottom increased further between 2009 and 2010. The number of children deprived of basic essentials rose substantially from 23.5% in 2009 to 30.2% in 2010. This is a sad indictment of our society. Moreover, it is a sad comment on the politics and economics of austerity when we are debating whether the Government should take more money off those children deprived of basic essentials. I call on all Members - be they frontbenchers or backbenchers - to do the right thing.

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