Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

When I hear Fianna Fáil berating the Minister for using the lotto funds as a slush fund for next year’s local elections, it is a real case of the pupil becoming the master. The Government has become more Fianna Fáil than Fianna Fáil itself. That contribution was a fitting conclusion to act one of the annual budget pantomime when we sit here through set-pieces with mock indignation, all the drama and the hype but knowing how it will end before it even starts. Unlike the real Grimm fairy tale where granny is found alive and well, this budget tale is far grimmer where the wolf just does not eat granny but granddad, new mothers and medical cardholders. It is grim for estranged parents trying to look after their children who will lose a one-parent family tax credit for non-principal parents and, particularly, for our young people who are unfortunate enough not to have a job.

This is the Government’s third budget. Many hoped it would have been third time lucky but it has not been for most ordinary people in this State. If one was wealthy this morning, one will be even wealthier going to bed tonight. The Government can dress it up all it likes claiming this is a battle to get our economy back on the road and we are all grappling with an economic crisis. That is not true. What has taken place here is a counterrevolution in which social policy has been stood on its head and the Government has embarked on the path of neoliberal capitalism by eroding public services while driving down wages and living conditions. No wonder the EU establishment is proud of the Government. While we would expect this of Fine Gael, we did not expect it from the Labour Party, in this the hundredth anniversary of the Lock-out.

It is insulting to hear the Government talk about tackling a dependency culture among the unemployed. What about the real dependency culture of the banks on the taxpayer? What about the dependency culture of the elite in this society who act as parasites on everyone else? Has the Government spoke about the dependency culture of the multinational corporations which use this State to bleed us dry by walking away without paying their fair share of tax? Instead, the Government chooses to scapegoat underprivileged young people. It talks about activation measures as if the responsibility for unemployment rests with the unemployed. That is an absolute joke. The Government claims it created 34,000 jobs last year and will do the same this year. It said nothing about the 33,000 people driven out of this State, however.

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