Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like previous speakers from my party, I welcome Deputy Kelleher's initiative in this regard. It is pertinent that it be debated on this day when the Government is charged with the responsibility of charting the financial course of the Government for the forthcoming year. As Deputy Troy has said, our party and organisation was adamant, in framing alternative proposals, to ring-fence the two areas of health and disability and education. Those are the two sectors that have been most let down in recent times.

A significant percentage of people with disabilities incur additional costs for heating, clothing and day-to-day living expenses above and beyond those experienced by people without a disability. This has been estimated to be as much as one third of average weekly income. The extra cost of disability can affect a person's ability to participate in life-enhancing opportunities and reduce their standard of living, sometimes below the socially acceptable minimum standard. If people with disability are to be equal, the extra cost generated by their disability should not be borne by them alone but by society at large which should act to level the playing field by covering those extraordinary costs.

To date, disability payments and the secondary benefits associated with them have evolved over time to respond to the specific needs of people with disabilities. These form a wide range of packages and measures to redress the costs of disability as well as poverty and unemployment traps caused by particular disabilities. We in Fianna Fáil are proud of our record over the past ten to 15 years in this regard and we apologise to no one for the advances we made, particularly in the provision of a budget specifically designated for the disability sector. We acknowledge that people with disabilities are worried about being able to live independently.

How the Government sees fit to treat people with disabilities was exemplified in the proposal to cut the personal assistance budget. That would have caused real hardship and, thankfully, the Government was forced to do a U-turn in this regard. Disability is a social justice priority for my party, and we believe the disability strategy should be sustained and implemented.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party made specific pre-election promises on the retention and improvement of services for the disability sector. They made these pledges when the nature and scale of the required fiscal adjustments were already clear. We will do our utmost to ensure the Government parties adhere in some way to those promises, although if what they have been doing in the recent past is anything to go by, we cannot have much hope. It is clear to us that there is a need to bring forward a motion like this one.

The Government parties' deliberations have been taking place at Cabinet over the last week. I listened to Deputy Keaveney this morning on radio saying he could not give an absolute commitment to any budget brought forward by his Government until he saw it in its entirety. I argue that it would have been more beneficial to him and his party colleagues and those in Fine Gael to seek a commitment from the Cabinet that it would ring-fence, as we have done in our proposals, spending on the health and disability sector and education. The Sunday Independent had a verbatim account of discussions at the Labour Party meeting last week. That article quoted the Minister for Education and Skills as looking for heads, as he has done in the past. Based on the apologies he has made in this House since entering office, the first thing he should check every morning is that his own head is still on his shoulders.

The Government in preparing last year's budget, particularly for the Department of Health, had a false budget that had to be corrected to the tune of €400 million here last night. That brought about severe hardship for home helps. Some weeks ago when the Taoiseach was questioned about this, he said no one would be left without home help based upon need, and that Members should submit to him details of specific instances in their constituencies. I have informed the Taoiseach in writing of several cases in that regard and I am awaiting his response.

Can the Taoiseach live up to the commitment he gave, not only in that instance but on the preparation of today's budget? Can he look after the least well off in our society, those who do not have the backing of ICTU and the ITGWU, the INO and the large unions that represent other sectors in society? They are represented by their families, as we saw during their protest last week. They are the ones who have been left to carry the can and they are the ones who deserve the support because they are the only ones getting the message to us to give to the Government.

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