Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"recognises the fact that relative income poverty has increased by 50% in Ireland over the last six years and that the Minister for Finance has deliberately favoured higher income earners in successive budgets and calls on the Government to discriminate positively in favour of the poor, disadvantaged and those on low incomes in the forthcoming budget."

Never before has a Government had so much money and delivered so little to the poor, the disadvantaged and those living on the margins of society. Why did Fianna Fáil choose to table such a motion when homelessness remains at such an alarmingly high level, the carer's allowance is still means tested, people on the minimum wage are still in the tax net and do not qualify for a medical card, spending cuts, or adjustments as the Minister might prefer to call them, are targeted at people working with the disadvantaged and those with disabilities and local authority lists are at crisis levels? I could go on but I know it would not make a blind bit of difference to my colleagues on the Government side of the House who obviously believe poverty and disadvantage do not exist.

The question is often asked as to who is poor. The national anti-poverty strategy in 1997 and the NAPS review of this year stated: