Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very conscious that we are talking about figures - 450,000 here, a 4% cut there and savings of €8 million. However, behind every one of those figures is an individual with a particular need for care. Many of these individuals have been in receipt of home help support for many years. As the HSE on the Government's instruction has decided to cut more hours, they have been assessed time and again and it has been clear that there is a need for them to have the hours they have been allocated. I have sat with them by the fireside and looked them in the face and they have told me they cannot cope with the reduction in hours. Yet the Minister is coming again to strip away the last few hours they have left.

What the Minister is doing is cruel and heartless. The Minister and Government Deputies say they have no option but I will give the Minister an option. He says he wants to save €8 million by cutting 450,000 hours of home help supports for very vulnerable people. I would tell him to dig into his pockets. There are 226 Members in this House and the Seanad. We could reduce Ministers' pay to €100,000, Deputies' pay to €75,000 and Senators' pay to €60,000. That leaves every single one of us with a very generous income and would save €4.3 million - over 250,000 home help hours. Politics is all about choices. I would rather stand up here and ask for my pay and that of Senators to be cut instead of taking away that basic need of vulnerable people to stay in their homes so they can live their lives to the fullest. That is the choice the Labour Party and Fine Gael Deputies will be asked to make tonight. I believe they will take the wrong position because it is nothing more than cowardly behaviour to attack the most vulnerable people in our society. I listened to Deputy O'Brien last night recount his own experiences and he is not alone. There are thousands more who have different stories and the Government decides to target them. There are other people whose pockets we can dig into. They are sitting beside the Minister and we can alleviate the burden of the cuts he is planning to introduce.

See this speech in context