Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the Bill. We are in a privileged position to be able to voice our strong opposition to the measures included in it. As a public representative of thousands of citizens who will be adversely affected by the calculated decisions made by the Government, I am acutely aware of the increasing hardship in store. It is essential that those of us who value fairness and equality and care about the welfare of all citizens, particularly the most vulnerable in society, give voice to their anger. I am in no doubt that many of the people to whom I refer believed in the Labour Party before the general election last February. They believed in the words of the party leader, the Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, and the then finance spokesperson, Deputy Joan Burton, now Minister for Social Protection, when they attacked the Fianna Fáil Governments of recent years which brought the State to the brink of ruin.

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