Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is an expert at delivering these budget statements. As usual, he led off with all the guff about how great he was and he buried all the bad news. It is not possible to make an adjustment of €2.5 billion in the way the Government does without hitting people where it hurts. This budget was written by spin doctors and the devil is always in the detail. The Government has returned as usual to the same hard-pressed families and asked for more such as hikes in excise duties; cuts to maternity benefit - the second time mothers have been hit - cuts to illness benefits and a 7% cut in the drugs initiative. I congratulate the Tánaiste on that one. What is the Government's reason for the cut to the telephone allowance? They have cut the benefits for old-age pensioners hard and now taken the telephone allowance from them in order that they cannot telephone to complain about it.

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