Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The devil was truly in the detail of the budget last week. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, boasted that there would be no cuts to primary weekly social welfare payments. However, the deeper one examines this budget, the more devastating and sinister the cuts become. Despite stating that payments to families at risk of poverty will remain unchanged, it is clear that as a result of changes to the main means testing arrangements, families in receipt of carer's allowance now find that their family income supplement will be cut savagely. Before this callous budget, vulnerable citizens never regarded the carer's allowance as income when applying for family income supplement. Like many Members, I have been contacted by many low-income families who find themselves far worse-off now than before the budget. One woman has four children all under the age of eleven. One of her children has autism and another is being assessed for autism. Her husband is the sole income earner in the family. They depended on family income supplement but as a result of this budget their income will be cut by an incredible €139. This represents a savage cut for a family of six on one income. We have received other similar e-mails. A gentleman with three children aged three, seven and a ten week old baby contacted me. One of the children has Down's syndrome and is cared for at home by his mother while the father holds down a low-income job. This family is facing a cut of €140 to their income. This money is not spent on luxuries but rather on the bare necessities of life. There were no headlines on budget day about these cuts or the impact of these cuts but instead they were sneaked in with the approach of wait and see. Changing eligibility criteria like this is having a devastating impact on low-income families. Despite what the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, said when he described the cuts to social welfare as unpalatable but necessary, there can be no justification for cuts of this scale. Will the Taoiseach agree to reverse these savagely unfair cuts to the income of people on family income supplement who care for loved ones with special needs within the family?

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