Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

An allowance of 20 minutes speaking time is very generous on the part of the Acting Chairman and I am grateful to him for it.

A tweet was placed by thejournal.ieyesterday saying that an anonymous Labour Party Deputy - they were all anonymous until the past number of weeks because they belong to the anonymity party - had quipped that the budget was good and that I, as a consequence, would possibly consider returning to the anonymous party. I can tell the Labour Party, in its glorious anonymity, that I remain to this day incredibly embarrassed about my association with it. I am as embarrassed today as I was the day I quit its ranks. In December 2012, I voted against budget measures that were nothing less than an attack on those on the lowest incomes in this country. Families struggling to put food on the table and into the lunch boxes of their children going to school were attacked by the Government in that budget. The context then was the same as that of today. I say that because child poverty has increased significantly since the Government entered into office in 2011. What the Government has done since 2011 is equivalent to the robbing of a woman's umbrella in the midst of a heavy rain shower and then the seeking of credit and gratitude from the public for the sun coming out. The Government is demanding gratitude from the drenched lady, saying it is sorry for robbing the umbrella.

There have been cuts after cuts, of which only two have been reversed. Some 40 cuts were initiated by the Labour Party over the course of the period 2011 to 2015 and yet today, we have what constitutes a perverse recollection of the situation over the course of that reference period during which the most draconian attacks took place on the poorest communities in this country. These attacks have inflicted enormous damage on the social fabric of our society precisely at a time when vulnerable people needed a Government which would protect a threshold of decency and defend them and their views within it.

Yesterday, the Government announced the restoration of the respite care grant. Fianna Fáil has called for its restoration over the course of the past few years. However, let us not have Fine Gael or its anonymous colleagues in government crow that this constitutes a reversal of the savage, regressive cuts made in the area of social protection because the vast majority remain untouched.

There were 40 cuts, yet we have members of the anonymous party somersaulting on the plinth saying, "We are back in business." It has only reversed two of the 40 cuts. It is hardly worth the celebration taking place on the plinth. The statistics do not lie. CSO figures show that the at-risk-of-poverty rate rose by 14.4% during the reference period of 2009 to 2013. The level of consistent poverty rose from 4.2% to 8.2%, while the level of deprivation increased in the same reference period from 13% to 31%. These figures are shocking and a shocking indictment of a Government. However, instead of feeling any shame, the cause of celebration about being back in business is that the Labour Party has adjusted two of the 40 cuts. That party now claims to be a social democratic party and is boasting that this is a significant achievement in government.

During the general election campaign in 2011 the Taoiseach and the now absent Deputy Eamon Gilmore promised to prioritise disability services. How hollow that rings when we saw, prior to the recess and a sitting of the Dáil this year, people with profound disabilities camped yet again outside the gates of Leinster House to secure the protection of personal assistants. They have done it consistently from 2011 through to 2015, yet the Government has repeatedly attacked the capacity of people with disabilities. It has ensured their participation has been challenged. I ask it to state why it has failed to advance ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It has failed to advance any human rights cause with respect to the equality of people with disabilities.

The motto of the Government has been, "yes to equality", but only for some. Orwell's Animal Farmcomes to mind - all are equal but some are more equal than others. Economic equality or equality that costs the Exchequer a penny will be resisted. Ultimately, it will be refused and blocked. Despite the promises made prior to the last general election by the Taoiseach and Deputy Eamon Gilmore, the cause of people with disabilities over the course of the past four years has been horrific. There is little respite in budget 2016 for people with disabilities. The €3 increase in pensions does not apply to those in receipt of invalidity pension or blind pension. People with disabilities saw all of their services eroded in the years from 2011 to 2013. This is a group that is vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion. They do not have equality.

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