Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I support the call from Senator Fitzgerald and others that Members should debate the budget today. It seems extraordinary that, when everyone else in the country is debating the financial statement that was issued by the Minister for Finance yesterday and the small print contained therein, Members are not so doing. Given there still are 20 Ministers of State, albeit for a relatively short time, surely one of them could come into the House, even if the Minister is not available, to deal with the comments and views that all Members would like to express today on the budget.

A debate also is required on various aspects of it. As Senator Fitzgerald noted, the announcement of the free child care places was one of the very few — probably the only one — welcome pieces of news in the budget. However, it is difficult to imagine how that measure possibly could be implemented, as outlined by the Minister, by January. Furthermore, it seems like a real sop or small concession to working parents, who have seen their incomes so badly hit by the budget. I make no excuses for saying it will hit low and middle income families. Senator Boyle is not present to hear the response of those Members who took exception to his comments about numeracy. It is fair to say that low to middle income families will be badly affected by this budget. In particular, I refer to those who face the abolition of the child care supplement and the taxing of child benefit in future years, and who have seen the doubling of the health and income levies and the PRSI ceiling increased. People have talked about death by a thousand cuts but this budget constitutes death by a thousand petty levies, all of which will add up to a significant reduction of income for families.