David Norris (Independent)

I have the highest respect for my colleague, Senator MacSharry, but the present Government has been in power for so long that, accident or not, it has presided over a situation where the four pillars of society have come into disrepute, the church, the law, the banks and politics. Not a single one of them can stand with its head high in this State. That is partly because the Government has been in power for too long and it has become too lax. We have heard about tweaking the pensions Bill, but one thing is certain, the people will tweak the Government at the first opportunity.

As regards the pensions Bill, I would support the Government in taking hard decisions, and so would the people of Ireland, but they will not do it when there is an unsteady hand on the tiller and when there is complete uncertainty and total amateurishness in evidence. Unfortunately — I hate to have to say it — this is what has happened. The pensions reserve Bill has been instanced.

I was in this House before Christmas, at the time of the budget, when the Minister for Finance gave an undertaking that the weakest, the poor, the children, the needy etc. would be preserved. Now early in the new year we have the pensions reserve legislation, under section 17 of which early child care supplement is to be cut by 10% and the entitlement of children is to be terminated six months early. This is an extraordinary abandonment of the weakest people in society.