Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is more in sadness than in anger that I must say the Taoiseach just does not get it. The budget is all about the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party. It tells us everything we need to know about the two parties. There is huge anger among the people about the cuts and the new taxes the Government has introduced to target citizens who are unable to pay. It is not that they will not pay, they cannot pay. I was at a public meeting last night in Dundalk when I saw raw emotion and despair. I heard a mother say women had a sense of failure in having to admit they could not feed their children. That is what she said. People are deeply incensed by the cuts to child benefit and the back to school allowance, by the taxing of maternity benefit, the increase in PRSI, increased prescription charges and the tax on the family home. However, what has really incensed them, although they are not affected, are the cuts to the respite care grant, through which the Government is picking the pockets of 77,000 citizens. The respite care grant is hugely important to the families involved. Leaving aside the ethics, cutting the grant is bad economics. If the State had to pay for the care the families concerned provide 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it would not be able to bear the cost. If the Taoiseach does not get this - sitting in a row of millionaires - it is because he is taking home €200,000 a year. Therefore, he does not understand what it is like to have to get kids back to school.

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