Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)

After listening to the Taoiseach and his Government speak about balanced growth and fiscal responsibility, I have to ask whose balance, whose growth and whose responsibility? The ordinary worker and the small business owner feel that this budget has punished their efforts of a good, honest day's work. It is the same for the vintner or pub owner, the shopkeeper in Mallow whose electricity bills have almost doubled, the self-employed electrician in Mayfield who rang me last night and has not had a day's sick pay in 22 years, and the family who drive from Glenville into Cork city every morning and now face an increase of the carbon tax on top of VAT, excise and fuel prices that are already some of the highest the State has seen.

These are the people who pay their way. These are the people who do not ask out for handouts. They just want a little bit of fairness. Yet, this budget rewards the biggest and the best that are connected: multinationals, developers and Departments with new investments. There was €1.6 billion allocated to a contingency fund for IPAS. There was not one cut to the inflated NGO sector. However, the workers who keep Ireland moving are left with the highest cost and shrinking take-home pay with no relief in sight. The Government talks about fiscal discipline but there is nothing disciplined about punishing those who get up and work. The Taoiseach talks about compassion but there is nothing compassionate about ignoring those who pull up the shutters at 6 a.m. to keep the lights on in their business, struggling and worrying about how they will pay their staff on a Friday afternoon.

This Government calls it balanced but the scales in this Government are fixed; they are fixed in favour of bureaucracy and against the backbone of our country. Let me put these questions directly to the Taoiseach. Does he justify giving new incentives to large corporations while the self-employed, tradesmen and small shopkeepers are barely surviving? Will this Government stop treating workers as a funding source for everyone else in this State and instead reward them for their effort of getting up and working? Does the Taoiseach accept that the so-called green taxes have become a double tax on rural communities in Ireland? These are people who have no train to take, no bus to catch and no choice but to drive.

Fairness is not just a slogan. Fairness is when people get up early, work hard, play by the rules and do not get punished for it. Right now, this Government is not playing fair and fairness is well and truly gone.

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