Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a savage attack on young people who want to go to college. What are we doing to them? We are raising the fees by €250 per year. I wonder if the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Kelly, saw Labour Youth outside tonight with banners objecting to the savage attack on young people. He is telling them they must have less money. I am not saying we should pay young people to stay at home, as the vast majority I know do not want to be at home and would prefer to be in college or, as Deputy Donnelly noted this morning, furthering their education or doing voluntary work in schemes or programmes. They want to try to get into the labour market. That is what they want to do, and not to be cut the way they have been cut. Increasing the fees as they return to college is another savage blow. But those in the Government should not worry. The people are waiting, as they were waiting last week for them, when they tried to demean politicians - all of us in our noble trade, who do our best and make many mistakes. The man who never made a mistake never made anything. What did they say on their cheap posters? "Save €20 million. Fewer politicians." They got their answer from the people and they will get it again. They will not be long waiting for it. The Ministers of State opposite will get it more than anyone. In north and south Tipp, east and west Tipp, from Carrick-on-Suir up to Moneygall, they are waiting in the grass for them, and why would they not be?

I am very disappointed about the cut to the household benefits package. Muintir na Tíre is based in Tipperary town, as the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, knows, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, might find it if he goes looking for it. It runs the community alert scheme and put in panic alarms for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country. Neighbourhood watch groups, community alert groups - the Government is going to banish them, because its members do not want people phoning them up with their problems. It wants to lock people in their homes and deny them a vote, but they do not use the phone to vote, thank God. They will come out in their wheelchairs and they will come out with their walking aids to rid the Government out of office. Fine Gael and the Labour Party might condemn what happened with the last Government. For previous budgets, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, was in Brussels, where he said he was going to stay. He was not long coming back, but he might return there. The people will be waiting for the Government, because what it has done to people who depend on alarms is an insult.

We also had to bow the head to Angela Merkel. We could not have a budget without Angela. We had to say, "We are keeping the 12.5% corporation tax rate, but we are going to examine it." We are going to be good boys, confess all our sins and look for absolution from Angela. Well, I say to hell with her. We should have our own sovereignty. The Minister talked about getting it back, but we will never get it back while she is reigning over us and while we are showing the white feather. The Taoiseach is going over and asking "How high should I jump, Ms Merkel?", which is a disgrace. He got his answer last week. The people told him where to jump, and they did not tell him to jump in front of Angela - they told him to jump in the sea. A Minister of State, Deputy Ring, was talking about fishing boats a while ago. He can go off with them.

The property tax will be doubled next year. When the Ceann Comhairle allowed me in on the Order of Business this morning to speak about freedom of information and data protection, I said that WikiLeaks would be in the ha'penny place compared to what happened before this budget. The details were leaked. I heard every syllable of the budget on "Today with Sean O'Rourke" coming up the road yesterday. It was a professional leak by spin doctors. At least they are doing something good, for all they are costing millions. When Deputy Hogan was a Minister of State he leaked half a page of the budget half an hour before it was to be announced, and he was sacked. All the good bits of this budget were leaked, but not the bad bits. We are getting some of them today; we will get more tomorrow, and we will get much more over the next few weeks, but the Government Deputies will get it when they go back to the people.

Such leaking is an insult to the House. The Taoiseach wanted to banish the other House, but this has undermined every Member of this house, including me and the Deputies opposite. That the budget was sent to the media before we saw it in the House was an utter disgrace. The Government members think that with all their PR they can get over that and ignore the people of Ireland-----

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