Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will do that and will be very effective. By the way, Standing Orders did affect questions last week very substantially, as the Ceann Comhairle knows. Deputies are already complaining about the limitation on time now. It is all designed to give the Government pre-eminence in the Chamber and to reduce accountability. That is the key point. I am referring to social policy. The committee meets only twice. Fine Gael is operating according to an old-school Tory strategy, which is basically to attack those on low incomes. That the deputy leader of the Labour Party is a party to it is a problem.

Has the Cabinet committee prepared for publication the poverty impact assessment of the budget? This was deliberately not published in the budget papers. Has it been prepared? Will it be published? Has the social policy committee considered that?

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