Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the key lines in the speech of the Minister for Finance yesterday was a quotation from Yeats's poem Easter 1916: "Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart." My colleague Deputy Pearse Doherty aptly responded by quoting Yeats's poem September 1913:

What need you, being come to sense,

But fumble in a greasy till,

And add the halfpence to the pence,

And prayer to shivering prayer, until

You have dried the marrow from the bone;

For men were born to pray and save;

This is apt because the very mentality that Yeats despised and excoriated in his poem appears to be alive and well in this Government.

The miserly attitude, the cynicism, the narrow-mindedness and disregard for the less well off are clear as the Government fumbles in its greasy till. It is a cold-hearted and callous frame of mind that allows the Government to take the telephone from the elderly and the coffin from the bereaved. The poem asks us:

Was it for this the wild geese spread

The grey wing upon every tide;

and indeed, well may our current generation of wild geese wonder what value the Irish State places upon them as the grey wing upon the tide brings them to Melbourne, Perth, Toronto, London or Boston. The poem is also apt because this is a Government that has shown itself to have no regard for all that adds colour and vitality to our lives. This year, yet again, we have seen an attack on all that makes us unique as Irish people - our heritage, sport and language. Funding for the heritage subhead is down 5%, following on from a 9% cut last year. This will affect our ability to preserve and promote our heritage and to educate the next generation in it. Tá dúchas fíor-láidir againn. Is mór an trua nach bhfuil an Rialtas ag tabhairt tacaíochta dó mar ba chóir.

The Government has attempted to portray itself as one that is kind to and supportive of the arts, but the reality of this budget betrays that depiction. We see a reduction of €9.2 million in arts spending, while culture and film have suffered an 8% reduction on top of a 5% reduction in funding last year. This means less funding for the Arts Council, less support for the arts in local communities and, more specifically, fewer plays and exhibitions and less support for young people getting involved in the arts. This means that the arts will become something that is available to the few rather than being the property of the people.

Tá an tAire tar éis ionsaí uafásach a dhéanamh ar an nGaeltacht don tríú bliain as a chéile. The Government and the Taoiseach like to create the impression that they are pro-Gaeilge, with a cúpla focail now and then, but the reality is far different. Funding for Údarás na Gaeltachta has been cut yet again, this time by 13%. The authority's current budget is down to €3 million, while its capital budget is down to €5.7 million, hampering its ability to promote employment in the Gaeltacht and to advance the 20-year strategy for the Irish language. The Minister has announced a specific fund of €500,000 for the promotion of the 20-year strategy, but this is more than accounted for by the other reductions in spending and is totally inadequate in any case. Another €1.3 million is expected to come from Irish language and Gaeltacht structures. The Government is also cutting €2.1 million in excess of an agreed 3% efficiency saving for the North-South head. This will mean a cut in funding for Foras na Gaeilge and the key bodies that deliver Irish language supports throughout the island. By contrast, the Sinn Féin Minister in Northern Ireland, Carál Ní Chuilín, has maintained funding at its current level. Tá an-bhrú ar an nGaeilge faoi láthair. Ba chóir don Aire tacaíocht a thabhairt don teanga, in ionad maoiniú a bhaint as.

We want to promote our heritage and culture and share them with the rest of the world. The Government has tried to create the impression that this is a tourism-friendly budget, but it has not considered the ramifications of the €16 million cut in tourism expenditure. I am pleased that the 9% VAT rate has been retained; I lobbied, with industry groups, for its retention. However, the aforementioned cut of €16 million could cancel out the benefit of the 9% VAT rate. Marketing and promotion are essential to attracting tourists to Ireland and heightening awareness of Ireland as a destination. The Government was very keen to play up the benefits to Irish tourism created by The Gathering but yesterday's decision seems to indicate a complacency which will allow its benefits to dissipate.

We have much to share and enjoy in terms of our heritage and culture but we are not supporting and promoting it as we should. While I would not accept that romantic Ireland is dead and gone, there is certainly no sign of it on the benches opposite.

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