Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The measures announced in the past two days to aid the export and construction sector are welcome, but, once again, they are being over-spun. They are so small that the budget documentation shows them as having no impact on growth or employment. They are also accompanied by an accelerated cut in capital spending. The €750 million being cut is substantially bigger than any stimulus package announced yesterday. The net effect of the changes will be a further fall in construction employment, which no amount of spinning can cover up.

Minister after Minister has appeared in recent days to say job creation is the number one priority, but that does not stand up to even the most basic scrutiny. Members of the Government have also been active in saying fairness is at the heart of the budget. The bluster fell apart within minutes. This is by far the most regressive budget in some time. The spending cuts and tax increases will fall, directly and disproportionately, on the weaker and poorer sections of society. As every independent study has shown, after a period during which budgets were highly progressive, the Government has chosen to take exactly the opposite approach. Its single largest decision was to concentrate new taxes in a way that would have the biggest impact on poorer groups in society.

In what can only be described as a deeply cynical move, the documentation published yesterday did not provide any serious detailed assessment of the impact on various social groups of the announcements of both the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan. They could easily have shown the impact of all changes on the standard of living of households, but they chose not to. The welcome but minor change to the universal social charge was clearly intended as a distraction to hide the much deeper impact of the VAT increase on poorer households.

For many years the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, and the Tánaiste spent budget night coming up with new ways of describing changes in social welfare as savage. They spoke at length about "the dirty dozen," "the savage seven" and even "the treacherous 30." When attacking a €7 increase in welfare payments in 2009, the Tánaiste described it as "the meanest possible increase," and said that if the budget were the Titanic, it would be a case of "women and children last." He also demanded higher fuel allowances.

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