Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have every confidence in him. Emigration, which has been the great safety valve for successive Governments, has continued at a frightening rate and has been embraced by this Government as a policy option. There are 28,000 fewer young people in employment since Labour and Fine Gael entered Government. There are currently 374,800 people on the live register. I know the Government does not want to see this but this budget will not reverse that situation. The Government had the opportunity to start a process of reversing six years of successive pay cuts and stealth charges which have stretched ordinary families just to meet their daily needs and to avoid plunging into further debt. That is the reality for people in work today. Being in work is not sufficient. It does not guarantee that a family can make ends meet from week to week. The austerity budgets have brought emigration in this State to levels unprecedented in modern times. Almost half a million citizens have left in the last eight years. A total of 224 citizens emigrate every single day in search of a better standard of living and a better future and some of them are leaving jobs to do that. It is not a lifestyle choice. It is because they cannot live here. What an indictment it is that half a million of our citizens are forced to flee? Again, we see societal damage and a massive human cost to society, to communities and to families. Tá teaghlaigh ar fud fad na hÉireann thíos go dona leis an bhfadhb mhór seo. We have all met people in this situation. People from Mayo are scattered throughout the world. I have met parents in tears as they recount the fact that the children they reared and educated have been forced to leave for Canada, Australia and elsewhere. In 2014, we are still raising our children for export.

What was needed this week was a budget designed for a fair and sustainable recovery and for inclusivity - a recovery that needs no family behind, not one that rewards the better-off. Despite the furious spinning by Government sources, before and after its publication, the basic unfairness of its political and economic approach to date has been reinforced by this budget because politics is fundamentally about choices. It is about making the choices that will have the beneficial effects for citizens, society and the economy. It is about making the choices that benefit the elderly person or couple, the bachelor or the spinster living up the long lane in isolated parts of rural Ireland. The Government should bear in mind as winter approaches that older people living with the reality of fuel poverty will be forced to go to bed early or to save on heating bills and now they are worried about the cost of a cup of tea or a warm bath.

The Tánaiste lauded the €5 increase in child benefit. This was a red line issue for the Labour Party in opposition.

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