Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The budget targets the young, the old and the sick. Once again, the Government is making the vulnerable pay with mean-spirited cuts and there is none more mean-spirited than the abolition of the bereavement grant. This will force bereaved families to go to a community welfare officer to receive assistance. Until today families could, as of right, apply for and receive the bereavement grant. They will now have to queue at community welfare clinics to apply, on the whim of a community welfare officer, for supplementary welfare benefit to allow them pay for the burial of their loved ones. This shows the depth to which the Government has sunk in targeting the vulnerable and weak in society.

The budget could have been different. It could have been a budget which told the people we were at the end of the austerity process. It could have told them they would have some respite and encouraged them to go out and start spending and participate again in society. However, the Government has chosen not to do this. The Department of Finance's figures show that a neutral budget, with no cuts in expenditure, would see the deficit reduced to 5.8% next year without doing anything. Instead the Government has decided to take another €2.5 billion out of the economy to reduce the deficit to 4.8%. We could have introduced extra taxation on those who could afford it to reduce the deficit to the troika target. I estimate it would require a sum of only €1.1 billion to achieve this target. Instead the Government has attacked the vulnerable, the elderly, the unemployed and the young. This is the choice it has made. It could have reduced tax relief on pensions to save hundreds of millions of euro. It could have introduced a third tax rate for those earning more than €100,000. It could have started the process of introducing a wealth tax which, according to the Department's figures, could raise more than €400 million, but it continues with the cuts in social welfare and to attack those on medical cards and the elderly.

The cut in jobseeker's payments for those under 25 years of age to €100 a week shows the spirit of the Government. There is a film called "No Country for Old Men". We are telling young people who are unemployed through no choice of their own, need support and should be encouraged that this is no country for young people. We are telling them that they are not valued in our society and to get on the boat, head away and emigrate. This is the only message we are sending to them.

The targeted cuts in the telephone allowance will affect vulnerable people who are dependent on household benefits, including elderly persons who live alone. The telephone allowance will be removed completely from them to save €44 million. This measure could have been avoided.

The prescription charge is being increased to €2.50 per item. Many people come to my office because they cannot afford the €19 a month charge. How will they be able to afford the €25 a month charge which the Government will impose on them?

Hidden in the Estimate figures for the Department of Social Protection is a reduction in rent supplement of €54 million next year. It will be made more difficult for people to access the supplement and individuals will be put at risk of homelessness. The attacks on them will continue. The Minister announced €30 million for housing as if this were something about which we should all sing and dance in the streets. As has been outlined, €30 million is a drop in the ocean when one has more than 100,000 families on housing lists throughout the country. This is at a time when there is €440 million in European Investment Bank finance which the voluntary housing associations are unable to draw down. This money is available to the country to provide housing for its citizens, but the voluntary housing associations cannot draw it down. The Government is doing nothing to change policy to make it available. The €30 million for housing will do nothing to alleviate the difficulties faced by so many in danger of homelessness. The Government is also removing mortgage interest benefit. From next year those who are struggling will not be able to obtain any respite.

The Government could have made different choices. It could have decided not to reduce expenditure in the budget and still achieve the troika targets. It could have decided to introduce a wealth tax and make these targets even more achievable, but it did not do so. It chose to attack the young, the old and the sick and this is to its shame.

See this speech in context