Fine Gael has stood up against the benchmarking madness and stood for the hard working taxpayers who will pay for invisible improvements in public services out of their hard earned money. There have been cuts in discretionary schemes on which the poorest sector depend. Child care grants, community employment participation, the treatment purchase fund, FÁS training and integration budgets have all been cut by the Government. Investment in water and sewerage schemes has been cut. Funding for urban regeneration schemes has been cut, with the exception of what is proposed under decentralisation, for which we will have to wait. Funding for the Environmental Protection Agency has been cut. Health spending has been drastically cut. Some 70,000 households in this country live in poverty. People are not even assured of a hot meal every day, yet cuts of €58 million to social welfare schemes are due to be implemented next year. This is what will happen even though a gloss has been put on it.