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

The Tánaiste is misleading the House. We proposed a €7 million improvement in the provision for free travel, and I can supply her with the appropriate documentation to that effect. It is not just about reviewing treatment benefits and so on. A number of schemes are referred to specifically in these amendments, but there are other cuts to consider. Working lone parents, for instance, have been clattered by the Tánaiste. That is deserving of a review. She has taken €44 million out of the pockets of the most destitute in this country by abolishing the school clothing and footwear allowance, even though applicants had to pass a poverty test to qualify for that payment. The Tánaiste did not advert to the telephone rental allowance in her reply. Many of the cuts to household benefits came under the aegis of this Government, despite all the promises the Tánaiste's party made before the last election. I certainly can produce that documentation. The Labour Party was going to look after the poor and weak and counterbalance Fine Gael. The reality, of course, is that the Tánaiste has taken almost €2 billion out of social welfare since she assumed office, while all the time lecturing the rest of us about how social transfers help to alleviate poverty. Does she not accept the corollary is also true, namely, that reducing social welfare transfers increases poverty?

The Tánaiste is saying she is not prepared to commission a report or study to review the effect of the various cuts, as set out in my amendments Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive. She is rejecting those proposals even though she has stated on numerous occasions her intention to reverse the cuts as resources allow. The Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, drew the wrong conclusion from something I said earlier when he seemed to have the impression that I was enthusiastic about this Government being re-elected. I emphasise, in case anybody misunderstands, that I was speaking tongue in cheek. The Minister of State even urged me to give my first preference to the Labour Party in the next election. The standard bearer for his party in my constituency is the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. Although I am not arrogant enough to say with certainty that I will not need my own first preference vote, I am reasonably confident, from the feedback I am getting on the doorsteps, that the Minister, Deputy O'Sullivan, will need it a hell of a lot more.

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