Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Not my true colours. I am quoting the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister of State can listen to the tape.

In 2010, 11,869 people under the age of 25 were in receipt of disability allowance. This is a means-tested payment so, by definition, it is only available to people who are both poor and disabled. I do not think the Minister understands that.

This is my third Dáil term and sometimes it feels like ground-hog day because it is not only the Minister who introduced this type of cut but Fianna Fáil did in the past. In November 2008, the then Fine Gael spokesperson, Olwyn Enright, said the decision to slash disability allowance for 16 to 17 year olds was vicious and mean-spirited and that it was imperative that a full U-turn was made.

Yesterday, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, pleaded with the justifiably outraged public on radio. He had the cheek to claim that it genuinely was not intended as a cut but it was one of the reform measures. Who does he think he is kidding? Even the Minister's Fine Gael colleague, the Minister for Finance, began to see the light on Tuesday evening on "Prime Time". The Minister should watch that again. He indicated that this cut needed to be reconsidered. He said it was all the Minister's idea and based on the assumption that recipients were wayward. He said that not me. The Minister should never have proposed this cut. She has shown herself to be both clueless and shameless. She made an inexcusable decision to target young people with disabilities with severe cuts and in so doing, she heartlessly scared thousands of families. I welcome her removal of those sections from the Bill.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform also stated yesterday that the Government would ensure nobody in the disability category would lose money. I am precluded from saying in the Chamber that somebody lied, because the salient rulings of the chair prevent me from doing that, but it is downright untrue to say nobody in the disability category will lose as a result of this budget. There has been a 20% cut in funding for the disability education scheme. Department officials informed my office that the Minister will bring forward an amendment on Committee Stage to give effect to the budget measures abolishing concurrent payments for community employment scheme participants. People with disabilities and lone parents endeavouring to join the workforce by availing of the few activation opportunities technically open to them, will lose money. From this measure alone, they will lose a significant amount of money each week and as result the opportunity to enhance their longer-term employability because participation is becoming unaffordable.

Section 4 of the Bill also discontinues the current entitlement some people with disabilities and carers have to a half rate qualified child increase. That is a sneaky income cut of €14.90 per week.

Does the Minister want some more truths to counter the lies being peddled inside and outside this Chamber? In the budget, the Minister also cut the grant for a hearing aid by €260 down to €500 and reduced its availability from every two years to four years. Contrast this with the €750 mobile telephone allowance available to Deputies. The Minister is willing to steal people's hearing aids while protecting Deputies' free mobile telephones.

Sinn Féin used our Private Members' time last week to move a motion defending child benefit, such was the importance of this issue to children and Irish society. I will not rehash that debate as I do not have enough time, but suffice it to say that child benefit is the sole universal payment. Some 30% of children are experiencing enforced deprivation thanks to the decisions of this and previous Governments, representing an increase of 7% in just one year. Those children are going without basics such as waterproof coats, one substantial meal each day, decent shoes or home heating. The child poverty statistics have been increasing in parallel with and as a consequence of the child benefit cuts imposed by Fianna Fáil. The vital role that child benefit plays in reducing child poverty cannot be overstated. As it is spent locally, it acts as a vital economic stimulus protecting jobs.

These arguments were championed by the Labour Party pre-election. I cannot mimic the Minister's voice, but I will let her own words outline the argument. She stated: "Child benefit is keeping many families afloat ... Child benefit is keeping bread on the table. It is paying the food bills of a significant number of families who have had a massive reduction in their income. Often the grandparents are helping to pay the mortgage to keep the wolf from the door, put food on the table and keep the house from being repossessed. That is true of so many families in so many parts of the country to which I have spoken recently and it constitutes a kind of stimulus in the current extraordinarily difficult economic conditions for so many families."

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