Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government is seeking votes by giving a few cent to everybody.

The Members of this House - those on all sides - were elected to govern a society, not just an economy. Let us take a step back and consider the type of society that exists almost four years into the lifetime of this Government and in the aftermath of the introduction of its fourth budget. According to the CSO, approximately 4.5 million people live in Ireland. As measured internationally, some 750,000 of these individuals - one in six - live in poverty. I refer here to those who are obliged to live on incomes which are below the level that would guarantee them a minimum standard of dignity. The position is worse for people under the age of 17, one in five of whom - nearly double the OECD average - lives in a state of poverty. The Tánaiste referred to the recent UNICEF report, which is extremely interesting in the context of what it has to say about child poverty. One of the conclusions reached in the report is that there are now 130,000 more children living in poverty here than was the case when the Government took office. The Tánaiste may refer to the recession in this regard but the details contained in the UNICEF report give the lie to that argument. UNICEF analysed the position in all OECD countries, including those that were as badly or even more adversely affected by the recession as Ireland, and discovered that the level of child poverty has actually decreased in 18 of them. In Poland, child poverty fell by as much as 30%. It is not just a question of the state of the economy; it comes down to the choices the Government has made. The conclusion in this regard is inescapable. As a result of the choices made by the current Administration, 130,000 more children are living in poverty than was the case when it took office.

Even the figures to which I refer do not tell the whole story. One can use whatever yardstick one likes to measure the impact of what has occurred. I refer, for example, to the deprivation rate, which is used to calculate the number of people forced to go without at least two of the 11 basic necessities of life. The figure in this regard in Ireland has reached 1.2 million. This means that 27% - one in four - of our population of 4.5 million must go without two of the 11 basic necessities of life. In the context of a just society, the most recent figures for income distribution show that last year the top 10% of households in this country were in receipt 24% of all disposable income whereas those in the bottom 10% received just 3% - or one eighth as much - of it. That certainly does not sound very fair and it does not appear that we have moved very far along the road towards creating a just society. All I am referring to here is income distribution and I am not even taking access to and control over capital into account, which remains in the preserve of those in the upper echelons in society. If one combines capital and income, then the levels of inequality, not to mention poverty, in Ireland are not just indefensible, they have become positively dangerous.

Ireland in 2014 is a country of two populations, namely, a pampered, protected and privileged elite, on the one hand, and, on the other, a huge and growing coterie of people who are shackled by poverty. The Government has no coherent guiding vision in terms of how to achieve a fairer or more just society. The tactic has been to cut social welfare provision in many different areas and then perpetrate the myth that payments have been protected and the poorest in society have been safeguarded. The obvious question that arises relates to the €2 billion cut to the social welfare budget. That must have been some sort of statistical glitch. According to statements made by various Ministers, it never happened at all. As was the case when one of the Ewing brothers on the television programme "Dallas" was shot, perhaps it was just a dream. Regardless of whether that was the case, the nightmare continues for those most affected by the cuts.

The core values of a just society should be human dignity, equality, respect for human rights, solidarity, sustainability and pursuit of the common good. The Government does not appear to have the slightest idea of how to ensure the maintenance of such values. Worse again, it does not seem to have the slightest intention of trying to do so. The budget, of which the Bill before the House forms an intrinsic part, provides no guiding vision whatsoever. It is a management agenda and a collection of miscellaneous and unconnected items, utterly devoid of social vision. It is, however, designed to have the broadest possible appeal. Effectively, it is nothing short of political lap dancing. To paraphrase Disraeli, the Government has made its conscience not its guide, but rather its accomplice. The Taoiseach is relentless in continuing to utter the mantra that his main objective as head of the Government and leader of his party is to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business. That is fair enough, but it must be remembered that he governs with the support of Labour, which represents itself as a socialist party. Surely the leadership of the Labour Party should be saying to the Taoiseach that if his objective is to ensure that Ireland is the best small country in the world in which to do business, then its objective is to make it a better small country in which to live if one is poor, vulnerable, disabled or disadvantaged. There has been absolutely no sign of this in any of the four budgets considered by this House since the Government took office.

When introducing the budget, my constituency colleague, the Minister for Finance, made his usual poetic allusion by quoting Robert Frost and stating that he would not take the road more travelled.

On the subject of roads, the Irish poetess Anna MacManus - I think poetess is the correct term - wrote a remarkable poem called "The Passing of the Gael" around 15 years before the aforementioned work of Mr. Frost. The poem begins with the writer addressing Ireland by one of her mythical names: "Oh, Kathaleen ní Houlihan, your road's a thorny way". For the poor children of Kathleen Ní Houlihan, the vulnerable, disadvantaged and weakest in society, the road continues to be a thorny way. Each budget introduced by this Government has seen that road become harder.

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