Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On carers, and it already has been mentioned to the Minister numerous times, there is no point in getting up to say the budget was all bad. That is wrong. The problem is that while there is a lot of money out there, it is pegged everywhere and there is no accountability as to where it ends up. The real bonanza is in the Minister's Department with all of the social welfare payments out there. Other Departments are pegging money at the OPW, at Uisce Éireann and at health. It is all going all over the place but there is no accountability as to where it is being spent.

The Minister should look at the carer's allowance and it should not be means tested. There has been a motion and a discussion in here about the many elderly people being looked after in their homes by family members, a neighbour or someone from down or up the road. While they are doing tremendous work, they are not getting anything for it. It is very difficult. The means test is a very mean hit on ordinary people.

When I have the floor, I must talk about the VAT rate not falling from 13% to 9%. It was an astonishing mistake by this Government to let people down. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil promised people and when the VAT 9 group came in here, it was promised it would be looked after. The problem is that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister, Deputy Chambers, are totally out of touch with what really goes on on the ground. They are Dublin 4 TDs and if you are a Dublin 4 TD, you do not see the reality. The bottom line is that hairdressers are going out of business, as are childcare people, restaurants, cafés and pubs. Some 600 of them went out of business in recent months and many more besides. If one was out there today one could hear these people objecting to the way they are being treated as they are all being closed down.

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