Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I know we are in Easter week but I get the sense that Government Senators have taken it a step too far because some of them are acting the role of Pontius Pilate, trying to convince us they had no hand, act or part in the economic downturn and the direction that they, as representatives of the majority party in Government, have taken this country. They have left us in hock to the banks and developers for billions upon billions of euro.

I would like to be positive and examine the good aspects. I can find one, which my party proposed many years ago in a pre-budget submission that focused solely on education. I refer to preschool education, which is to be welcomed. I am fearful that the announcement, made two days ago, will come back to haunt the Government. It could be similar to another announcement made on a budget day, that of decentralisation. I know of the difficulties of trying to get my two children under five years of age into the crèche in my home area. The facilities do not exist in most of the country, neither in the private nor community sector. I hope there is a plan by 1 January for every child between the age of three years and three months and four years and six months so that all can avail of the preschool facility within a short distance of home.

I listened to the diatribe from Government Members telling us that this was the only option. Ministers told us the same thing, giving us two harsh options and asking which one we wanted to take. They tell us we are devoid of ideas and that they had to do this. The reality is different. When the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach asked parties to step up to the plate and provide solutions to the gap in the public finances, Sinn Féin stepped up to that plate.

Two days ago, the Government introduced cuts, savings and additional taxes of €3.3 billion. Sinn Féin identified nearly the same sum of savings and additional revenue, over €3 billion, in its pre-budget submission. The difference between the Sinn Féin and the Government documents is that Sinn Féin does not attack the weakest and most vulnerable in society. It does not take €30 million out of building schools, when 1,400 schools or one out of four, are on the school building waiting list. It does not take €300 million out of building roads or public transport. It does not take €200 million out of social housing for the 40,000 families on the housing list. It does not get rid of the early child care subvention, the €1,000 that many families depend on to help pay crèche fees for their children of one, two and three years of age. It does not attack the most vulnerable in society by cancelling Christmas, getting rid of the Christmas bonus and halving the social welfare payments of 18 and 19 year olds. When the Minister says there were no options, that Minister is telling mistruths. There were other options and Sinn Féin provided them.

This Government did not want to take that path because no option is easy and every option will make a certain section of society uncomfortable. The Sinn Féin options ensured fairness, that those over €100,000 would pay a tax rate of 48%, that all discretionary reliefs would be granted at the standard rate rather than the higher rate and that savings would be made in the public services and other areas. Those have been shown to the Government but the Government did not want to annoy those with whom it was in bed. They have had a love affair with the bankers, speculators and greedy developers. They are the people who got us into this position in the first place.

I will not pretend that this is good for the country because it is not. It is clear the Government is devoid of views and strategy to bring us out of the current mess it has led us into. We need to get out of this through a job creation strategy and the Government has not given one iota of consideration to job creation. In the past two weeks Sinn Féin has launched a €2 billion job creation strategy. We have costed and sourced the required funding, with part of it being a €300 million job retention fund where subsidies would be given to employers who could assure that there was a market for their product but are suffering difficult times. A subvention of up to 20% of labour costs of employers would be given in this respect, which makes sense.

It makes sense to give an employer €100, €150 or up to €200 to keep a person in work so that a person can pay PAYE and spend money in shops, restaurants and bars. The person would not have to rely on the State for social welfare payments. It is another good idea dismissed by the Government.

This budget has attacked many people. I listened to the Minister for Finance last night on Newstalk radio when he was pushed on the issue of mortgage interest relief. There has been a 100% cut for everybody who has a mortgage over seven years and the Minister stated that tough decisions had to be made. When he was asked why he did not cut the relief for landlords, some of which have ten, 20, 50 or hundreds of houses in this city and others, he said that he cut the relief by 25%. He was asked why he did not make the same cut of 100% as experienced by the ordinary Joe Soap and he said the landlords had mortgages too which they could default on.

That shows very clearly where the loyalties of the Government, particularly the Minister for Finance, lie. They are with the landlords who were in bed with the bankers and the property developers who made millions of euro during the boom. He will cut their mortgage interest relief by 25% but people who are now on social welfare payments experience a 100% cut, which is disgusting, unfair and harsh. It is unreal that the Government has attacked people in that way.

I listened to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs on another national radio station when she was asked why Ministers' salaries and those of highly paid officials within the public service were not cut — some of the CEOs of State bodies earn €500,000 annually — and she indicated that we needed to carry out studies to compare such salaries with those in other EU countries to see if other prime ministers have cleaning staff in their houses or other perks.

When it came to the 18 and 19 year olds who through no fault of their own have found themselves unemployed, the Government carried out no such study. They took out a mallet and implemented cuts of 50%, reducing the payment to €100 from €200. That is unfair. There are many other areas like this.

I spoke in this House about the danger and fear that our elderly feel in communities because of increased levels of crimes such as burglary. We now hear that, as of Tuesday, community supports for the elderly will be suspended and funding is no longer available to the dozens of community groups who were out there on a voluntary basis, ensuring our elderly people had access to this fund to provide greater security, personal alarms and other matters of personal security. That is definitely unfair.

We have heard it all before with regard to roads. The Government told us the national development plan will be protected and we need to get people into work by building infrastructure and roads and preparing to get out of this economic recession. What did the Government do last Tuesday? Of the €604 million allocated to local and regional roads through local authorities earlier last year, it cut 25% of funding. The Minister met the Department yesterday and will instruct local authorities to hand back 25% of the announced funding.

This is another example that the Government does not know whether it is coming or going. Last October there was an announcement relating to the schools building programme. In February an additional €75 million was allocated to the schools building programme but in April €30 million was taken from it. It is clear the Government has no strategy and is making it up as it goes along.

This is a damning indictment of the Government. There is a bitter pill to swallow for all of us in the budget, but the pill should have been directed in the right way. There were and still are other options. The Government indicated it will increase taxation by €2.5 billion in the budget at the end of the year and by an additional €2.1 billion in the following year. My sincere wish is that those in government will not be in control of the Department of Finance at that time, as their record has been appalling. If Fianna Fáil holds on to the reins of power despite the lack of public confidence, I ask the party to revisit the documents we have presented, with other sensible proposals that would ensure job creation and the protection of public sector services. They would ensure that the most vulnerable in society would be protected.

I started off by saying that the role of Pontius Pilate has been played. Easter is a very important time for many of us as we commemorate the leaders of the 1916 Rising. As I was coming here today I wondered what the educator, Pádraig Pearse, would have thought of the way the Government has left thousands of people in prefabs and dilapidated buildings and cut their school building fund as it bails out banks and greedy developers. How would James Connolly, the champion of the worker, have felt as the Government has taxed the poorest and most vulnerable?