John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill which puts into effect the measures of the recent budget. Whatever the criticisms, and we all have them, we must acknowledge that it was one of the most difficult budgets, probably in the history of the State, to put together, especially due to the fact that at the beginning it was stated that income tax would not increase because one cannot tax work and the main social welfare payments would not be reduced. Difficult decisions had to be made in this budget, as in the previous one, but I commend the Minister for including some protections and safety nets. Last year the Minister took 300,000 persons out of the universal social charge and this year there are also a number of protections. It is not enough and we all would like to see more, but we must not forget the reason for some of these difficult decisions is because of the recklessness and bad decisions of previous Governments. We cannot merely take everything and not balance the books in some ways.

In that context, I compliment the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and his team for the promissory notes deal of two weeks ago. Everyone acknowledges it is only one, perhaps small, step but in many respects it is a major step in regain economic sovereignty. What I would hope would come about as a result is that it would give some flexibility in future budgets to allow more safety nets and protections, in particular, for low and middle-income families.

I have talked to many such families over the past couple of months. Deputy Martin Ferris referred to small farms and farm assist, but many of those families are also affected by other measures, such as the child benefit reduction and the lack of eligibility or having to wait for student grants. There are many difficulties here and we must acknowledge that there has been much pain taken by those families on low incomes who are just above the line.

I particularly refer to the matter of farm assist. There are 1,820 persons on farm assist in my constituency of Mayo. The scheme provides a safety net for farmers on very low income and due to the reductions in some of the farm payments, they got farm assist which helped them. Under the changes proposed here, a married couple with two children on an income of €15,000 a year, which is a very small income, will see their payment reduced from €131 per week to €83 per week. This does not apply to those on family income supplement. There is a discrimination against the small farmers here. One also must remember that it is only those on farm assist who qualify to get on the rural social scheme which means that their employment prospects are affected as well.

In addition, there are the child benefit changes that were announced in this budget and even the proposals of which we have heard in the past 24 hours. I intend to follow this. Child benefit is vital to many thousands of families around the country and whatever proposals are introduced in the coming budgets or finance Bills, there needs to be a restructuring where those on higher incomes suffer all of the reductions in child benefit and those on low and middle incomes do not suffer any further reductions in it.

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