Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

It seems to me from what we saw in the budget yesterday that the Government does not recognise the pressures that many of our working families and working individuals are facing at this time. Examples provided by the Government in its budget documentation yesterday tell us that a married couple with two children on a modest income of €55,000 a year will be down €50 on their income compared to last year. A single person on the same income will also be down €50 on last year's income. Many of these working people are asking me if the Government does not realise the hardships and struggles they are going through. Does this Government not care? Does it not recognise the contribution to the State of these working people day in, day out? These people are paying their taxes and supporting their communities. Yesterday we saw no increase in child benefit for that couple with two children, yet they will face increased fuel, food, childcare and medical costs. Many of the families I deal with use child benefit for rainy days when they must cover an increased bill or an unexpected one. Now they will have to do so with no increase and with rising bills. Unfortunately for many the rain is coming down weekly.

In many commentaries on this budget yesterday Government representatives were at pains to point out that this is the first year of what they hope will be a five-year budget cycle. The Government is right that it is the first year. The choice the Government made yesterday was to support big business and developers over those working people who need the support most. The choice the Government made yesterday was to ignore workers. In some commentaries I have listened to the Government saying that it will look at the costs next September. The reality is that many working families are making life choices now because of spiralling costs and they cannot, and will not, be able to wait until next September or until the next budget cycle.

It was not just workers who were ignored by the Government yesterday. Those with disabilities who are seeking employment were also ignored. People with disabilities have the highest unemployment rates and poverty rates among other demographics in Ireland. I am truly appalled that no specific measures were announced on budget day to tackle the high unemployment and poverty rates among the disabled community. The Minister for Social Protection had said that the payment for disabled people on the disability allowance would go up by over €500, but this relates to the €10 increase in social welfare payments. It is an inflation measure that falls far short of what is required.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul said the increase of €16 per week was needed to cover the cost-of-living pressures currently being experienced by those on low incomes.

Yesterday, the Government gave away €700 million to fast food chains like McDonald's, which are raking in millions and will now get richer while disabled people and their families can barely keep the lights on. This VAT rate cut could have funded a permanent cost-of-disability payment starting at €25 a week and could have fully abolished the means test for carers.

The Government seems to have gone back on its promise of delivering that €200 in childcare fees. We needed to see real and radical policy change towards a public model of early years learning, education and school-age childcare, one that delivers equality for children, affordability for parents and fairness for providers. Extra childcare places will be off little use to parents who cannot afford to send their children there in the first place. This budget should have funded a suite of measures aimed at addressing the workforce challenges facing the sector and reducing costs for parents, while also increasing the number of childcare places.

I also wanted to ask why none of the towns in my home county of Kildare were included in the living cities initiative. I have no problem with the towns added to the scheme but at least three of them have a population smaller than Naas or Newbridge in County Kildare, areas that the Government wants to expand and to put more houses in without the infrastructure and money to back it up.

To conclude, this is, without a doubt, a pro-business budget that puts the profits of already minted fast food chains and property developers before working families. Those working families are struggling to put food on the table and keep the lights on in so many of those cases I am dealing with at the moment. It was a choice that the Government made. It had the opportunity to help those struggling most but instead it bowed to the large lobby groups, who only gave it a passing thanks last night and then sought greater assistance. Politics is all about choices; yesterday, this Government showed its true colours.

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