James Bannon (Fine Gael)

It is evident that he is not listening to the people because charitable organisations and others described the Government cutbacks in the Book of Estimates as mean, lousy, cheap and miserable. Stealth taxes have been brought in by the Government, including higher rates and rents and several other charges. People are protesting on the streets of our capital on a daily basis about unfair charges introduced by the Government. There has been a significant cutback in the number of medical cards, even though the Government parties made many promises in that regard in the run up to the last general election. This is putting a huge strain on the health service because the Government introduced policies for which it did not budget. This is evident in the Book of Estimates.

In last year's budget, the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, slashed every area of social welfare and abolished the first-time buyer's grant. In the run up to the last general election – Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats need to be reminded – he said there would be no cutbacks, hidden or otherwise. This was the lie of the decade when we saw the Books of Estimates for 2003 and 2004. Lies buy votes, but they do not give young people houses and elderly people services.

Local authorities are cash starved, although there are higher business rates. Many local authorities will fold up—