John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to highlight some of the measures introduced by the Government that will affect ordinary people, families and people with disabilities throughout the country. The Government has managed to target all the vulnerable, despite the many promises of Fine Gael and the Labour Party before the last general election. There were red-line points and PR articles in all the newspapers, written in the main by the Labour Party, which stated it would not allow Fine Gael to bully it into introducing cuts in any shape or form. Obviously, this is what has happened in this budget. Child benefit has been cut by €10 to €130, thereby hitting families across the country. There is a cruel cut of 20% to the respite care grant. The term of payment of the core weekly social welfare payment represented by the jobseeker's allowance will be cut from 12 months to nine. There are also cuts to the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the back-to-education allowance, and there is a PRSI increase. The redundancy rebate has been abolished and maternity benefit has been taxed. There are cuts to farm assist payments, as outlined by Deputy Ó Cuív. All of the cuts are affecting ordinary families throughout the country.

The cut to the respite care grant is a really mean cut by the Government. The grant is for people who look after those with disabilities, sick people and those who are unable to care for themselves. Over recent days, we have received hundreds of e-mails and letters from carers who are very concerned about the reduction. Recipients have not been using the respite care grant to go on holidays or buy new fancy clothes. Some of the letters we received show that the grant has been used by parents who bring children to Crumlin, Beaumont or Temple Street hospital. They use it to put diesel in the car, pay for lunches and meet other subsistence costs. As we all know, often when children with disabilities go to Crumlin or Temple Street hospital, their parents must stay there for two or three nights, or perhaps longer, during the period of hospitalisation. The respite care grant was used to subsidise the incomes of families who suffer very severely.

As I have said in the House so often, I have a daughter in a wheelchair and am very much aware of the suffering of families with disabled members. They are struggling to make ends meet and to ensure the disabled person has a decent standard of care. The cutting of the respite care grant will only add to the difficulties and it will cause major problems for families. If the Labour Party and Fine Gael do nothing else between now and the passing of the Bill, I ask them to ensure that the €1,700 is restored. I am involved with the spina bifida and wheelchair associations and many others and thus realise that families depend very much on the respite care grant. It is important that it be restored.

The Labour Party said child benefit was a red-line issue and that it would not be cut. I could quote many statements from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, the Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, and various Fine Gael spokespersons to the effect that child benefit would not be cut if they were in power. The children's referendum was passed very recently but it was a case of style over substance because the decisions taken by the Government in this budget will certainly do nothing for children or improve their quality of life. So much emphasis was put on the referendum, yet we now see all the cuts that are affecting children.

I was at a meeting in Askamore, County Wexford, last night, which was attended by 120 or 130 farmers, many of whom are in receipt of the farm assist payment. They are very concerned about the reduction. It is an attack by the Government on the less well off in society. When I was growing up, we believed Robin Hood was the man who took from the rich to look after the poor, but the Government has taken from the poor to protect the rich. The Labour Party has lost out badly to Fine Gael in this budget.

See this speech in context