Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Taoiseach should stop using words. When he is cutting welfare he should not pretend it is about incentivising work, cutting undeserved payments, standardising payments or bringing people into line. That language drives people mad. They prefer plain speaking. The Government should say it as it is and stop pretending.

The Minister for Social Protection has given many extreme examples to justify her choice of cuts. If this agenda had been followed by any other party, Fine Gael and Labour Deputies would have been screaming blue murder in the House. In fact, they did so last year.

The end of lone parents payments will cause serious problems for many families if extra funding is not provided for training and child care for those affected. This is one of the sharpest cuts and has not, so far, got the attention it deserves. Again, it targets a vulnerable group. The restrictions for people with limited social insurance payments will be felt most by women.

Last year, Deputy Noonan enjoyed his joke about third children so much he repeated it four times during his speech. This year, he and his colleagues have implemented a bigger cut and have done everything possible to avoid talking about it.

The welfare measures in the budget are driven by the Labour Party's desire to say that the biggest welfare payments are unchanged. As a result, the Government has adopted an approach of finding cuts that are deeply unfair and which carefully target smaller benefits on which vulnerable groups rely.

Every party was elected on a platform of giving education a clear priority in public spending. Previous plans showed specific measures to protect school staffing and supports for pupils with special needs. In April, Fianna Fáil put down a Private Members' motion to this effect, which passed unanimously. Unfortunately, the details announced on Monday show a significant increase in the pupil/teacher ratio for primary and second level schools. It was camouflaged in language. As with everything else, these were cynically hidden in the middle of words claiming everything would be fine.

Cuts to smaller schools will directly impact on communities most dependent on them. The abolition of support for career guidance is a shocking decision. Its impact will be felt in all schools, but most of all in schools serving disadvantaged communities. It represents a cut of between 800 and 900 teachers and will mean a cut of two teachers in many large schools.

See this speech in context