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

Did it walk back in to add taxes on lower paid workers and cut child benefit, jobseeker's benefit and the respite grant for 77,000 people? In so doing it has broken every promise it made to the people of Ireland prior to the election. It is no wonder a newspaper columnist described it as a junta of Judases. There is a real sense of betrayal across the land given what has occurred. On Sunday the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, stated that Labour Party promises in advance of an election are always made to be broken.

The respite grant has been cut for 77,000 people. It is a slap in the face to these individuals and it undermines their value in society. Every Deputy in this House will say, either privately or publicly, that they would love to have that cut reversed because, on top of changes to home help hours, it attacks those with intellectual and physical disabilities, the frail and vulnerable elderly and those invalided at home, and it sends out a message that is appallingly mean-spirited and contemptuous. I ask the Taoiseach to agree with the vast majority of Members of from all parties in this House by, at the very least, committing to reversing this cut in advance of our deliberations on the Social Welfare Bill.

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