Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Irish people have shown time and again that they are willing to accept hard choices. They understand there is no easy way out of an unprecedented crisis which has engulfed Ireland and much of Europe and the world in recent years. However, their support is based on measures meeting two core principles. They want budgets which are both fair and make a clear contribution to returning growth and job creation. This budget fails on both measures.

Last year, having won a mandate from the people promising a radical and progressive Government, Fine Gael and the Labour Party chose to abandon their promises and introduced by far the most regressive and unfair budget in many years, as shown in independent assessments. This year they have done it again. In some cases, Ministers appear to have sat down to find new ways of making sure the most vulnerable suffered more. To take only one example, how else can one explain first cutting home help and then cutting respite care?

In the ever growing mountain of documents and press releases which have accompanied this year’s budget one thing is already clear. This is a deeply unfair budget presented by a Government that has no strategy for growth and job creation other than hoping something will turn up. Driven purely by the short-term political tactics of competing parties, it systematically betrays election promises and places the heaviest burden on those who are least able to bear it. Its budget will further damage the confidence that is essential for recovery.

Yet again, the Labour Party and Fine Gael used true, half true and completely false leaks during negotiations. Their growing band of Malcolm Tucker wannabees were constantly on the telephone to journalists briefing for and against different Ministers and talking up the resolve of their parties. Now we know that for all the tough talk from the Labour Party, ongoing muttering from its Backbench Deputies and soothing words of its Ministers, the party has once again been shafted. On the other hand, the Fine Gael Party used every tactic it could muster in an ultimately successful move to protect the highest earners from taking more of the load. It was a direct trade-off. Every one of the regressive welfare cuts could have been avoided with an increase in the universal social charge for the highest earners, a proposal which enjoys widespread political and public support. Fine Gael should have the honesty to explain the reason it demanded that supports for the poorest families be cut rather than hitting those who earn the most.

For all of its smug sense of having prevailed over its coalition partner, the Fine Gael Party must also explain the reason it did not lift a finger to try to stop a family home tax, which the Taoiseach once described as "unjust, immoral and illegal."

See this speech in context