Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire, cé go bhfuil mé go huile is go hiomlán in éadan an reachtaíocht seo. Sílim gurb é ceann de na Billí is scannalaí a tháinig os comhair an Teach ón am gur thoghadh mé. Níl aon dabht faoi ná go raibh ar an Rialtas cinnithe contúirteacha a dhéanamh an seachtain seo caite. Ní thuigim cén fáth gur shocraigh an Rialtas ar laghdú a thabhairt dóibh siúd atá ar an ngannchuid. Mar sin, cuirfidh mé leasuithe os comhair an tSeanaid oíche amárach, ag iarraidh a chinntiú nach dtiocfaidh na ciorruithe seo i bhfeidhm orthu siúd a bhraitheann ar íocaíochtaí leasú shóisialaigh.

I oppose this Bill and all that it proposes. It is disgusting legislation which will see the most vulnerable people in our society plunged further into poverty while those at the top, who along with their friends the bankers, the speculators, the Rody Molloys and the Seanie Fitzpatricks have brought this economy to the brink of collapse, remain happy and comfortable in the knowledge that this despicable Government has their best interests at heart.

The Minister tells us that this is for the good of the country, that the cuts are minimal and that with the decrease in the cost of living those on social welfare will not really feel the effects of these cuts. I say this is complete and utter nonsense. Perhaps the Minister should say this to the 23 year old university graduate out of a job and now living on €150 a week. Perhaps she should say this to the single mother who has to tell her kids that Christmas is cancelled this year. Perhaps she should say this to the disabled, the unemployed, the carers, the low paid workers in both public and private sectors, the families and the young couples struggling with massive mortgages to pay. My guess is that the Minister is too afraid to talk to these people as she knows what kind of response she will get.

Token gestures of cuts to the salaries of Ministers and the Taoiseach are laughable when put into the context of how such cuts would affect the most vulnerable. A cut of €10 for many people will mean the difference between having a meal or not. That is the reality. I am sure the Taoiseach will not have too many sleepless nights wondering how to pay the bills on his annual salary of €200,000.

There was no need to touch social welfare. There were many measures the Government could have taken to reduce the deficit, such as introducing a third tax rate, abolishing the PRSI ceiling, abolishing the tax breaks abused by high earners, establishing a wealth tax and stopping the spend of public money on private health care. The Government took the option that offered the least electoral pain. It pays no heed to the fact that people are still waiting months on end before they even get their social welfare. It is cutting a payment that some people have to wait months to get after they lose their jobs, jobs this Government is doing nothing to save.

The option the Government took is self-defeating. It will have the impact of deflating the economy because it takes money out of spenders' pockets. People on social welfare return every penny back into the economy via services and goods. They do not save like the well-off. They do not have thousands of euro stashed away in bank accounts. As well as causing poverty, the Government's cuts will impact on local shops and services, hitting the real economy. Cutting social welfare is short sighted and detrimental to the economy, as well as being a callous and cruel action.

The Minister for Finance spoke of how we need to regain optimism. However, as the reality of this budget sinks in, many families, parents and young people are plunged into despair. They see no future, no choices and no way out. The blight of emigration looms once more over many communities, especially in my county of Donegal and in other parts of the west. The Government is trying to replace the dole queues for our young people with emigration queues. Instead of exporting goods, it is exporting a future generation of young Irish men and women.

Young working class people will suffer most from this budget. That is a certainty and this Bill cements that. More and more young people will be alienated from the political system and from society. The social costs of this will be felt for years into the future. With this budget, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs will have created a new lost generation. She will have created a generation that will leave the country and whose skills, enthusiasm and ability will be lost. They could be rebuilding the economy of this country rather than leaving it.

The Government should have invested in a stimulus package for this budget. Social welfare and the pay of the low-to-middle earners should have remained untouched. This budget will just perpetrate the recession cycle. The problem is the economy, not the deficit. The Government has treated the deficit, but has not dealt with the problems of the economy. My party came up with alternative strategies to the Minister for Finance, but he and the Government ignored them. Instead, they have attacked the most vulnerable in our society. An old saying goes that the measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. In this case, the society created by the Minister and her Government is rotten to the core. It is a society of which they should be ashamed, and I will fight tooth and nail to try to create a society based on fairness and equality. That means protecting those on social welfare payments, protecting the low and middle income earners, and it means making sure that those who have the ability to pay their fair share do so, in order to get this country back on track.

The decisions being introduced in this Bill are disastrous. I have been speaking to young people in my constituency over the last few days. Some 32% of young people under the age of 25 are unemployed, 14,000 of whom are married. With this Bill, the Minister has decided to cut their social welfare payments, some by €50 and others by more than €100. It is disgraceful that the Minister feels she can attack young people the same way she did in previous Bills when she attacked 18 and 19 year olds. It is shameful that this is the way the Government is treating young people.

People are leaving this country. The Minister knows this from the statistics being presented to her and she knows she is exporting the problem created by her and her Government. She is encouraging people to leave these shores, which is one of the most despicable acts any Government has tried to do with any type of Bill.

There are very few Senators from the Government side here today, as I believe they are at a parliamentary meeting. However, I call on my fellow Donegal colleagues, Senator Ó Domhnaill and Senator Keaveney, not to support their party and to support their county. People need to realise that when they vote for this Bill tonight they are voting to take money off more than 20,000 people in Donegal who are dependent on social welfare payments and over 41,000 people who are dependant on child benefit. It is absolutely scandalous that the high earners have gone untouched and that this is the decision taken by the Government. Shame on the Minister and shame on the Government for bringing such a Bill before this House.