Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I certainly will.

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “That” and substitute the following:“Dáil Éireann declines to give a second reading to the Social Welfare Bill 2012 because it unfairly places the burden of recovery on children, carers and the low paid and having regard to the failure of the Government to consider taxing high earners and wealth instead.”

The Government is bankrupt of ideas and has lost its way entirely. Like his party colleague last night, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, Deputy Twomey here this afternoon, unable to defend his party's decisions in this budget, resorted to misrepresentation and falsehoods regarding Sinn Féin's role north of the Border.

The test of our respective performances will come at the next general elections in each of these parts of Ireland. I warrant that Sinn Féin will hold and likely build on its latest vote share. I wonder whether Deputy Twomey and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, can look forward to the same prospect, but I doubt it.

Who were the winners in budget 2013? The Government pretends there were no winners but the reality is that the most highly paid, the wealthy elite, escaped yet again and those struggling on the edge of poverty suffered most. "The more you have, the least you lose" and "Winner takes all" are the mottos of Fine Gael, the big political winners in this budget. It has beaten the Labour Party hands down in all the discussions that allegedly took place in advance of the presentation of the budget last week.

The Labour Party boasts that it has protected the core social welfare payments. This is a false claim. It claims to have fought the good fight in Cabinet and pushed for a 3% increase in the universal social charge for those earning over €100,000. It lost and that is the bottom line. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, rejected the Labour Party and instead took his lead from the bosses of multinational corporations. The House need not take my word for it. What did the Minister, Deputy Noonan, say himself? He said: "The people who were advising us not to do it were the multinational sector in the country...". He said it was down to the pay packets of multinational chief executives. That sums it up. This is the Government that cherishes all the chief executives equally while the children are left out in the cold.

I deplore the cuts to child benefit in the budget. They are possibly the most far-reaching of all the cuts. Let us make no mistake: child benefit is a core payment and it has been slashed, contrary to Labour Party claims and pre-election commitments. The incomes of households with children were already falling further and faster before the budget. The Central Statistics Office survey on income and living conditions demonstrates that the incomes of households with children fell five times more than the incomes of childless households between 2009 and 2010, the latest years for which figures are available. Households with children are three times more likely to be in debt arising from ordinary living expenses than households without children.

The value-for-money review of child benefit published in 2010 by the Department of Social Protection demonstrates the dependence of middle income families on the payment. Its analysis found that households in the fourth and fifth of ten income brackets fall below or onto the poverty line after paying their taxes and the child benefit payment then lifts them onto and over the line respectively. These are the families that pay for everything but are entitled to nothing.

The child benefit cuts come on top of other penalties and obstacles encountered by struggling families. In November the Minister informed us that working families who are in poverty and who applied for family income supplement in June of this year may be waiting as long as April next year before a decision is made on their claims. Child care and after-school care are remarkably expensive. Working families with young children spend up to 41% of their income on child care. According to the Commission for Energy Regulation families with children have the most problems with many falling into arrears on their energy bills. Despite programme for Government commitments, basic health care for children is decidedly expensive. According to a report by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies published at the end of November this year, this is the only state which does not offer universal coverage of primary care. The average cost of a general practitioner visit here is €51 compared to €22 in France. We are one of only three states to charge individuals for essential prescription drugs. Common medicines are many multiples more expensive to purchase in Ireland than elsewhere. We are one of only six countries to charge for attending hospital emergency departments. The hospital charge is considerably higher here than elsewhere at €100 compared to between €2 and €30 in each of the other countries that charge. Now, families who face child benefit cuts must also face higher charges for medicines through the trebling of prescription charges for medical card patients and the increase of the drugs payment scheme monthly ceiling to €144. The reduction of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance is another heavy blow to those least able to sustain the hit.

I have no doubt that the Social Welfare Bill, in combination with the health cuts, will damage the health of children. It would be fairer, simpler and economically sounder to introduce a third rate of income tax on all high earners. However, Fine Gael and Labour Party Ministers have set their faces against fairness. Will all members of their parliamentary parties follow them? I regret that this is what they all will most likely do.

See this speech in context