Dáil debates

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Financial Resolutions 2012: Financial Resolution No. 13: General (Resumed)

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Gerry AdamsGerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

After weeks of cynical Government leaks and scaremongering, the Government has produced a budget which is devoid of hope for working people, lower and middle income families, the elderly, children and the poor. It targets some of the most vulnerable in society for cuts and stealth taxes. Gheall an Rialtas buiséad bunaithe ar cothromas, postanna agus athchóiriú, ach ní dhearna sé sin.

A family of two adults and three children with a household income of €150,000 a year will lose €1,052 as a result of this budget. The same size family on social welfare will lose more - €1,078. Where is the fairness in that? Nuair a rinne an Taoiseach a chraolachán, dúirt sé go raibh postanna le cruthú, thagair sé do phostanna cúig uaire déag agus labhair sé faoin gá atá ann obair a chruthú. Dúirt sé: "Work provides focus. Work gives us independence. Work gives our families hope." Ach ansin, chuaigh sé in aghaidh postanna a chruthú.

The €750 million cuts to the capital budget will mean the loss of between 6,000 and 9,000 jobs. The Government is also committed to cutting 6,000 public service jobs. The money taken out of the pockets of low and middle income families is money taken out of the community, out of local shops and businesses. This will also cost jobs. The Government has already accepted, in its medium fiscal report published four weeks ago, that there will be 390,000 people on the dole in 2015. The jobs crisis would be much worse but for emigration. Since the start of the year, 54,000 of our mainly young people have left for foreign shores. Today there are 444,000 citizens on the live register. That is more than when Fine Gael and Labour won the election with an entirely different manifesto and it is an indictment of their policies and a reflection of their failure. It makes a nonsense of any commitment they have expressed to create jobs.

As for reform, the big wages of the political elite have hardly been touched. A token sum was taken from their super pensions. That is hardly reform. In Opposition, Fine Gael and the Labour Party railed against Fianna Fáil, but in Government they seek to emulate them by delivering a budget in which the young, the elderly, the sick, those on disability, lone parents, students and part-time workers are expected to pay for the greed of the golden circle, the political elites, the developers and the bankers. Despite all the pre-election promises, child benefit has been cut. That cut will cost a four-children family €432 in 2012 and €768 in 2013. "Protect child benefit. Vote Labour" declared the Labour Party posters before the general election. "We will maintain social welfare rates" declared the Fine Gael-Labour Party programme for Government. In 2009, the Minister for Social Protection said "Child benefit is keeping many families afloat. It is keeping bread on the table, and it is paying the food bills of a huge number of families." I agree with her. She was right then but she is wrong now. During the general election campaign, the Tánaiste went as far as to say that cuts to child benefit would be a make or break issue for the Labour Party in coalition.

Since then circumstances have worsened for families and, in particular, for children. Child benefit is of even greater importance now than when the Government assumed office but that has not stopped Fine Gael or the Labour Party doing yet another U-turn and breaking yet another election promise.

The fact is these reductions in child benefit are an attack on children in low income families. The poorest families in the State have been hardest hit by the budget and lone parents have been deliberately targeted. Under the budget, the upper age limit for the youngest child for new claimants of the one parent family payment will be reduced to seven years on a phased basis. This means that by 2014, lone parents of children aged seven will be deemed available for full-time work, despite the fact we are in a recession. There are no jobs and there is no comprehensive affordable child care or after school care. How can these parents go out into the workforce? The budget also reduces income disregard, that is, the amount a lone parent can earn while still being allowed to claim the full one parent family payment. That means parents who parent alone will have to give up part-time, low paid jobs. It removes the incentive to work.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party promised a new Ireland based on an end to cronyism. We all know now that it is still jobs for the boys at the top as Fine Gael and the Labour Party have appointed more than 20 people with connections to both to senior positions on State bodies and within the Judiciary.

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