Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Everything can be boiled down to a few euro a week - electricity, gas, heat, the children's clothes, even child care.

The reduction in child benefit is more than a few euro a week by the way. That is completely spurious.

People in Kerry, Mayo and Dublin understand that nothing is free because they pay for it already. We have running water in our homes because taxpayers funded and continue to fund it. Do not insult them by pretending that the resources will not come from outer space.

See this speech in context