Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Pringle that no one in their right mind would want to find themselves where we are. We have to deal with the world as we find it, however, and not as we would like it. The countries we are trading with are in recession. The eurozone is back in recession. Growth expectations have not been realised. Savings have to be made. We have only one lender and we will not be able to pay carer's allowance, teachers, firemen and gardaí unless we can raise the money. Only one lender is prepared to give us the money and that lender established certain conditions with which we must comply. That is what we are seeking to do.

Deputy Pringle raised the PRSI issue but he chose to ignore that for the first time in the history of the State, the best off in society will be required to declare unearned income from whatever source for PRSI purposes. That is part of refurbishing the social insurance fund. The people who are most dependent on the social insurance fund are not those paid €100,000 or €200,000 or more, because they get the same pension as someone on €20,000; those who get most from the social insurance fund are those on modest and low incomes. The social insurance fund is in dire trouble and we must maintain that fund as an act of solidarity with those on low and modest incomes. That is what we are doing. No one earning less than €18,300 will be liable for the PRSI disallowance, and no one earning less than €10,600 is liable for the universal social charge because we took 330,000 people out of the universal social charge net last year. The social insurance fund is the one insurance policy people on modest and low incomes have in an uncertain world and in preparation for their senior years. In terms of the overall changes, they are well balanced and well judged. What is more important for people than to have that safety net if they should come to need it, as they will when they reach pension age?

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