Michael McCarthy (Labour)

Like Senator Twomey, it gave me no pleasure to walk past the picket by the CPSU this morning. However, I did so in the belief that we were coming into this House to debate the issue. I hope we will have a good, healthy debate this evening, exchange views with those on the other side of the House and then vote on the legislation. That is why we are here.

I refer to the CPSU and the unfairness of the pension levy and the view my party has taken on it. The pension levy is a pay cut or a tax by any other name. The Government is legally prohibited from introducing a tax between budgets. This is the only way it can introduce a pay cut by the back door.

People accept we all need to put our shoulders to the wheel to ensure the public finances are restored to the levels they were at last year and the year before that. We all know the pain needs to be shared and that people from a wide cross-section of society need to come together to do that. However, the social partnership talks are essential to that process. That model, which was quite good and served this country well during the 1980s, was effectively abandoned by the Government. The pension levy was introduced at the last minute and could not possibly have been sold to the unions at 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the morning. I ask the Leader to use his good offices to ensure the voices of the 3,000 members of the Garda Representative Association who protested yesterday and the thousands of members of the CPSU who are protesting today will be heard at some level in Government.

We are witnessing a seismic realignment of the political landscape. The core Fianna Fáil vote, as evidenced from the recent opinion poll, is being eaten into because of unpopular decisions. That may well be what happens when a government is in power for 12 consecutive years. There may be a level of arrogance which blinds government. The Government should listen to its own people if it will not listen to the Opposition. Grassroots Fianna Fáil people are up in arms over this as is the ordinary, hard-pressed and hardworking family which is struggling to pay a mortgage used to buy a house, the price of which was overinflated because of the property bubble. The Government was warned time and again about the property bubble by political leaders, leaders of the trade union movement and economists but they were not listened to.

I urge that we return to the social partnership model and that the plans to introduce the pension levy be abandoned because of its unfairness. I hope some element of commonsense will prevail. It is not good enough for the Government to say it will tweak elements of the legislation. That is not good enough for the thousands of young gardaí, nurses and teachers, some of whom are being let go because of the announcement by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, two weeks ago to cut €9 million in the special educational needs area. At a time of economic difficulty, it is the most vulnerable who should be most protected, but, unfortunately, the Government has gone after the most vulnerable and that is unforgivable.

The appointment of a successor to Mr. Brian Goggin from the board of the Bank of Ireland, which was announced yesterday, is appalling. It sends out a message that one of its own is now at the helm of that bank. Have we learned anything since last September? Have the banks any idea of how offended people are and how betrayed they feel? What will take place in this House tonight and tomorrow is nothing short of treason — it is treason by any name. It is a pay cut and a levy. However, we still see the same banking practices and the same people being appointed to senior positions, and that is not good enough.

Two weeks ago I raised the issue of the sports capital programme. The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Cullen, is the only Minister in Cabinet who is anti-rural Ireland. He abolished the first-time buyer's grant and increased development charges for one-off rural houses by as much as 400% or 500% and cost people who are building them approximately €10,000. The same Minister, not to mention the fact that he oversaw the e-voting fiasco that cost €50 million, has now decided to abandon the national sports capital programme. Two weeks ago I asked the Leader what would become of the money that will be given to the Department from lotto funding. If the programme does not exist for 2009, what will happen to that funding?

Is it true that the moneys reaped from the pension levy will go to recapitalise and bail out the banks? If that is the case, young gardaí, nurses and teachers will pay for 30 years for the greed of capitalist bankers and developers.