Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week we saw a budget introduced here that was unjust and regressive. Unfortunately it has further deepened the divide in society between those who are well off and those at the bottom. For the second year in a row the Government has broken promises made to the electorate. The lies the Labour Party peddled during the election campaign have been exposed in this budget. Despite this, according to the comments of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, over the weekend, that is okay because they were only promises made during election time. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Social Welfare Bill, which could be more appropriately named the anti-social welfare Bill.

In the Bill the Government targets children, low earners, pensioners, small farmers, carers and the disabled. The Bill punishes those dependent on welfare for the sins of those who are well off. While the current economic crisis was caused by bankers, developers and, as earlier speakers noted, by the previous Fianna Fáil Government and its legacy of so-called light touch regulation or no regulation, those paying for it are those who can least afford it and certainly they did not cause the crisis.

We do not have a cohesive jobs plan and the Government is forcing more and more households into the arms of social welfare dependency and moneylenders as a result. Yesterday a report published by the ESRI confirms that 22% of families live in jobless households, twice the EU average. We do not have a jobs plan that is working. The study also shows that household joblessness should be recognised as a risk factor for poverty. It found that welfare payments were the most effective way of reducing poverty. However, rather than tackling the crisis in unemployment the Government and, worse, a Labour Party Minister, are attacking the unemployed and those who are dependent on welfare assistance to survive.

The best way to reduce the social welfare bill is to get people back to work. The abolition of the weekly PRSI threshold for all workers, including those earning only €352 per week, will impact hardest on those workers who are on lowest incomes. The pain is felt greatest by those earning the least. A single worker earning under €20,000 will experience a cut five times greater than those earning €100,000 and ten times greater than those earning €200,000. Not happy with punishing low income households, the Minster for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, will punish children in those households even more.

The proposed child benefit cut is punitive and cowardly. It will be the political legacy of this Government. A family with four children will be down a further €58 a month. The total cut to child benefit for a family of four since 2008 amounts to €208 per month. In her heart of hearts the Minister for Social Protection must know that this is wrong. This cut will add to child poverty, which currently stands at 19.5%. The current position is that one in five children are facing poverty over the Christmas period but the Minister's response is to cut child benefit.

There are cuts that are not apparent in the Bill, hidden cuts that impose reductions for the second year in a row. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance is cut by €50. This allowance is not a luxury, it is necessary. It is a necessity for many of the 700,000 people living in poverty when they are preparing children to return to school in September, an expensive period for parents. Following the Minister's cuts to the winter fuel allowance last year for pensioners and the disabled she has now cut the electricity allowance. This is an important point because many pensioners who live in old houses that do not have central heating use this allowance for the extra heating needed during the winter months to keep a bedroom warm at night.

The Social Welfare Bill is a litany of cuts and spineless decisions. Jobseeker's benefit was cut by three months following the earlier three month cut by Fianna Fáil. Only a short time ago it was for 15 months but now it is down to nine months. The respite care grant was cut by a sizable €325 down to €1,375.

The Bill will impact negatively on small farmers.

The proposed increase from 85% to 100% on farm income liable for tax will have a huge impact on small farmers, in particular this year owing to bad weather and fallen incomes.

The Government's cut to the respite care grant has been greeted with a great deal of protest. I understand there will be another protest on this issue outside Leinster House tomorrow. This cut, which it is proposed will yield €26 million, will have a huge impact on carers, including 6,659 carers in Laois-Offaly. The grant is a relatively small amount. This cut of €325 per family will have a massive impact on carers, particularly those living in rural areas in terms of the running cost of cars which provide them with necessary transport. The grant is a lifeline for many of the carers with whom I have met down through the years. This was repeated to me by some of the protestors outside yesterday.

The Government is determined and is not for turning. Neither are the protestors for turning. They are not going to go away. What makes these cuts even more unbearable is that it was not necessary to introduce them. The Labour Party and Fine Gael chose this option when other decisions could have been made. A previous speaker said that this is a difficult budget. It is a difficult budget, as are all budgets, particularly given the current state of our finances. Nobody has a magic wand but other choices could have been made. Sinn Féin put forward alternative budget proposals, in respect of which it has been derided and told it was living in fantasy land. However, those proposals are based on solid information from the Minister's office. Are those who suggest Sinn Féin is living in fantasy land saying that the people in the Minister's office do not know what they are talking about and are giving us and the Parliament false information? Surely, that is not what they are suggesting.

The Government had choices. A wealth tax could yield €800 million. Standardisation of discretionary tax relief could yield €965 million. A third rate of tax on income over €100,000, which proposal the Labour Party supported prior to its entry into Government, could yield €365 million. The Government had choices. The ones it made are the meanest. The rich will be rubbing their hands with glee while poor people will be rubbing their hands to keep them warm. That is the truth. The Government could still reverse these cuts. I appeal to it, party political differences aside, to use this opportunity to do so. Let us at least unite around these issues.

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