Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The mandate the Government received was not to do the things it is doing, it was to do them differently from the last Government. The people listening in to Leaders' Questions will be very disappointed and depressed. The Taoiseach says Commissioner Olli Rehn is happy. Is that how the Government judges its policy, if Olli Rehn says it is good? It gets a pat on the head. What about the people that we have just talked about, those who, the Taoiseach acknowledges, because he could not do anything else, did not create the crisis? The Taoiseach has cited that we are looking for an adjustment in the deficit in our budget proposals which is the same as the Government's, and that is true, but he asks what the difference is. Tá difear mór ann. It is about who carries the burden. We have not seen this budget but if we go by the past number, they were very unfair and mean and they placed the burden upon working people, small businesses and all those who, the Taoiseach freely acknowledges, did not create the crisis. There is the big difference; our budget is fair and tries to lift the burden of those who cannot bear another austerity budget.

The Taoiseach keeps talking about growth projects but the Government does not deliver. There is zero growth this year. Why does the Government not increase the respite care grant for carers? Why does it not provide the €12.58 million needed for bilateral implants for profoundly deaf children? The Taoiseach spoke about listening. I have talked to the Taoiseach about that issue on at least four occasions, I have given him two notes on it, I have written him formally on three or four occasions and I have talked to the Minister for Health on the issue as well. Young profoundly deaf children in this State are given one implant. It is like giving a blind child one eye. Every other state puts in two cochlear implants and the HSE recognises that this is best practice. That is something the Government could do. Why does the Government not take the approximately 300,000 citizens out of the universal social charge net? That is something else the Government could do. Why does the Government not invest in jobs, particularly for young people?

If the Taoiseach is determined to stick with austerity - there is still room to change - I appeal to him to explore with us the social consequences. If the Taoiseach acknowledges, as he has done quite freely, that the litany of citizens who are under great pressure did not create the crisis, then what will another budget do to them, especially if they are already in distress, scattered throughout the globe, on the dole queues or on the waiting lists? What are the social consequences?

As for those in the Labour Party, I appeal to them to wake up to the reality of what they said they would do in government and what they are actually doing in government.

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