Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

This amendment is correct in its intent and is the very least we can do. There is significant dispute about how the Government's response to the economic crisis impacts on different sectors of society. Some of us on this side of the House have repeatedly made the point that all the pain and punishment is inflicted on the least well off in our society when other sectors could far better afford it and could, more justifiably, be taxed and have cuts imposed on their incomes. The Government ignores those points or tries to rubbish or dismiss them. Would it not be entirely reasonable to be a little objective and scientific about this and do a proper and full assessment of how the measures in this Bill impact on the different sectors of our society so that we can establish the truth as to who is really taking the pain in the austerity programme? I fully support the amendment.

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