Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Bhí mé anseo nuair a bhí an tAire ag labhairt and she said - with a pinch of salt - that she wanted to have the Bill passed for Hallowe'en. I asked was she going trick-or-treating and she said she was getting too old for it but she is going off like the tooth fairy with all of her grants. I know she is giving many of them to Monaghan and they will appreciate them but there are all these different payments, with €300 once-off payments for households receiving fuel allowances, the €200 once-off payment for pensioners and a €400 payment for carers receiving the carer's support, which are all very welcome. Of course they are.

The trick of the loop, however, is that people are being fleeced with tax. The carbon tax was put on the same night, at 12 midnight and some of these payments will not be paid until 4 January. The Minister will hope to be sitting back on that side of the House but she might end up being stuck sitting on this side of the House. I am sure she will be back, even though we do not know if we will be back or not as it is up to the people.

This is a three card trick. The Minister said she had loads of money and loads of calls on it but the one call that was on it was for the enablers. These are the people who came up today protesting, even though that is not in their nature, but to make their case once again. In the past 12 months alone, 600 such businesses have closed. Why is the Government so blind? There are none so blind as those who cannot see at all. They suffer. They are the enablers. They pay the wages, the VAT, the insurance, the PRSI, the sick pay, the additional minimum wage, the whole lot and they are getting nothing. They expected and believed that they might get the VAT rate back to 9%, where it might give them some bit of a lifeline, but no.

This Government has a dead set against the self-employed and small business people. It is fine if one is a Google or a big business or a beef mogul, where the red carpet will be laid out for you, but the ordinary small businesses that employ one to ten or one to 25 people are crucified. The working man is also crucified and he did not get much in this budget either. This was a bribe budget. We should call budget day bribe day now, because that is what it was. One can fool the people if people want to be fooled. The saying is: fool me once, it is my fault, but fool me twice and it is your fault. I do not think that the people will buy this because these payments will be gone like snow off a ditch. The Government will be going around like the tooth fairy, as I said, at Hallowe'en. The Government may need the masks going to the houses and a good costume so that people do not know who they are as at some houses, people are an-crosta ar fad. They are waiting in the grass and behind the doors. They are angry at the way the Government has mistreated, neglected and abused them with the waste of money which it is spending every day of the week.

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