Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Coghlan. This budget is the greatest sham job in Irish political history and it will indict the Members opposite for all time. CORI states the "budget lacks vision as banks escape and children are targeted". It concludes its analysis of the budget by stating:

Ireland is at a crossroads. It is facing a wide range of challenges. The roots of the current economic crisis lie in policy decisions taken in previous years. It is crucial that similar mistakes are not made again.

The political legacy of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats has come home to roost. Shame on them. They are penalising the ordinary people who flocked to them in the last seven days of the election campaign and they have thrown away the family silver. It is disingenuous of Senator Boyle to state Fine Gael offered no policy options before the budget because it did. The reality is that Fine Gael's proposals were very much about achieving one third of the required savings through new taxes and two thirds through spending cuts. It is absolutely nauseating when one hears Government Members, particularly Fianna Fáil Members, talking in the House about having put Ireland first. They never did that, they put themselves and their friends first.

This budget has made cuts of €3.75 billion this year and it is to find €4 billion next year and €5 billion the year thereafter. Where will it stop? We have heard nothing from the Members opposite. Life is about jobs, job protection and job creation. This budget contains no job policy whatsoever.

What is to happen to the ordinary citizen who is struggling today to try to make ends meet? I do not refer to fancy holidays, fancy cars and exotic lifestyles but to ordinary daily life. The Government and its policies have led us to where we are today. It blew the boom because it chose the wrong options. If, instead of being arrogant and condescending, it had listened to those of us who know something, but not everything, it might have been better off.

Senator Hanafin, whom I respect greatly, spoke about Holy Week. The dark days of Holy Week are replaced by the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday, but sadly there is no light at the end of the tunnel for us as a nation. One can talk about Mr. Peter Sutherland all one wants. The reality is much different to what Peter Sutherland spoke about this morning. Ask the Irish people. Ask those struggling today and who will be down €3,000 or €4,000 per year. These are not big bankers or developers. These are ordinary citizens on middle and low incomes with two kids, child care costs and mortgages. They are forced to pay high property taxes because of the policies of the Government.

In this budget the basic premise that one cannot tax one's way out of a recession was forgotten. The people were asked to let the Government off the lead again. It might be unpalatable but it is the reality. Go to the doors in Cork South-Central, Sligo, Dún Laoghaire and Dublin South and one will hear it from the people, as we heard on Today with Pat Kenny yesterday morning. The budget hammered low to middle income earners with tax increases. Entrepreneurship was not rewarded and neither were people who try to do the best they can, which is what we all try to do.

The policy of tax individualisation has returned. A married couple with no children and a single income of €50,000 will lose €1,500 or €3,092 at an income of €75,000 excluding the health and PRSI levies. A married couple with two children and a single income will lose €2,500 at €50,000 or €4,000 at €80,000. Is it equitable that a couple with two children should pay more? We are penalising people.

The fundamental question with regard to this budget is where is the jobs plan. Where is the vision? Where is the renewal? There is none. The two Brians have left us off the lead and they have forgotten about the reality that we must have work and enterprise.

This morning, I received an email from a married man with two children. He stated he had bust a gut for ten years and was screwed by high house prices followed by child care costs and now was taking a massive tax hit through levies on pensions, health and income and was also being affected by changes to the child care supplementary payment and PRSI ceiling, a wage freeze in his work place and a cut in the number of hours his wife works. He stated all of this will mean that he will be down by €50,000. He stated he voted Fianna Fáil all his life but will not do so now.

The decision with regard to the social welfare cuts to the bonus payment is mean and scrooge-like and will save very little. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Jimmy Devins, who is a decent man, will return to his Cabinet colleagues and state that we can change this. It is penalising the people.