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

It can be done and the Government could go further, but it has refused to do so.

Why not restore the respite care grant? I remind the Tánaiste that it was one of the nastiest, most vicious cuts implemented on the 82,000 carers of loved ones the length and breadth of the State. Why not restore the €325 grant and put it back into their pockets? Has the Tánaiste still not learned the lesson that the Government should not cut the grants to people caring for their loved ones at home?

The reduction of €5 million in the cost of the rental of school books is welcome, but it does not go far enough. We have argued that half of all core subject school books should be provided free of charge. The Government has failed to deliver on the commitment to roll out school meals in an additional 500 schools, for which Sinn Féin called.

The Government is silent on the fuel allowance which it was forced to extend last year as an emergency measure. Why not extend the season permanently? Too many citizens are living in fuel poverty.

Our alternative budget measures allowed for an adjustment of €2.5 billion, with 30 taxation and spending measures which have been costed by the Department of the Taoiseach, in order to eliminate waste in the public service, make it more efficient, reduce the higher salaries and the salaries of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and ask those who earn the most to pay their fair share in taxation in order to help the recovery of the economy.

Not only is the Government not prepared to give something back, but it has slashed another €1.6 billion from essential front-line services. Parents of sick children and children with special needs have described it as very stressful to have medical cards for their children taken away by the Government. The parents of these children should not be forced to become full-time lobbyists to get the attention of the Taoiseach. They should not have to spend precious time away from their children, attend protests or write letters to Departments.

They should not have to provide a begging bowl to get what is theirs or what is required for their children by right. Where is the Government's threshold of decency?

I encountered a group of parents and children earlier this year and it is absolutely astonishing to imagine that until now, the Government has been implementing a policy of providing profoundly deaf little children with only one hearing implant. That is the equivalent of providing a short-sighted child with a pair of glasses with only one lens. We all know the provision of two ear implants is better for a child's development so why are they only being given one? To make matters worse, when an implant fails - as is frequently the case - these children are cast back into a world of silence once again.

I and many other Deputies have heard the heartbreaking stories from the parents of these children, who have had to witness their baby's distress, confusion and frustration when the child goes from hearing the world around them to hearing nothing. The parents have run a campaign over the past year for their children and all the nation's children. They are in the Gallery and they are the true heroes. They are the people who stand to fight this Government in order to get what their children should have by right.

This country's purse strings are not the Government's alone. The money by which it runs the State and with which it pays Ministers handsomely comes from taxpayers' pockets. It comes from the pockets of the parents in the Gallery. When the Government cuts or under-funds health services, it cuts or under-funds the services that taxpayers have paid for. If the Minister for Health cannot manage the health budget, he should be fired. If he has neither the guts nor the will to take on powerful lobby groups which are sucking money from health services instead of putting it into front-line services, he should be sacked.

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