Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

It never ceases to amaze me the number of Deputies with such high opinions of themselves who always start their contribution by wondering why the House is not full and yet they are rarely in the Chamber to listen to other speakers. It is a case of do as I say, not as I do.

Since the new Government was formed we have listened to the Taoiseach, Ministers and Government TDs talk about the need to protect the weakest and the most vulnerable in society and to ensure fairness and equity will be applied when making difficult decisions. Again, it was a case of do as I say, not as I do. On the front page of today's Irish Independent we read where the Minister once again broke the pay cap for a special adviser while implementing savage cuts on the weakest people in society. The Government is quick to point out that it does not wish to be doing these things but it is forced to do them.

It is true that the deficit must reduce to 8.6% of GDP next year but how we achieve this reduction is the prerogative of the Government. There is nothing new in this respect and both parties campaigned to get into office and made commitments and promises knowing these conditions. It is also true that a number of bankers recklessly lent funding very freely with no regulation from the independent Regulator, that the previous Government reduced the tax base while increasing public spending and that we have had the worldwide economic collapse which has ensured we are where we are today. I remind Government TDs that despite what they would have one believe, they too subscribed to reducing the tax base while increasing public spending.

If one were to look back on some of the points made in the Government parties' 2002 and 2007 election manifestos, one would note that in 2002 Fine Gael promised to introduce a birth grant of €300, child payments to all in full-time education, to include widows and widowers under 65 in the free schemes, to introduce a new tax rate of 30%, to exempt from tax those on the minium wage-----

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