Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

Our meeting with the troika was the third such meeting. The Minister's own brand of voodoo economics is catastrophic for families the length and breadth of the State.

We are coming towards the end of this Dáil session and the Minister says the budget will not be ready until December. That is fair enough, but the deliberations and decisions surrounding the budget are well in train and much of the thinking and planning will be done over the summer months. The Minister is out of touch with reality when he sings his own praises, because the ESRI has pointed out in its studies that the budget of December 2011 involved greater proportionate losses for those on low incomes than any of the previous austerity budgets. Is the Minister aware of that?

The Minster spoke about unemployment earlier, which now stands at almost 15%. Citizens are losing their homes because of the mean-spirited changes introduced to rent supplement; there will be a demonstration against those changes outside today.

The cap for advisers' pay was introduced by the Government.

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