Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I am taken aback that for once Senators are showing a complete lack of perspective. The arguments made today would be valid if we had abolished child benefit, but we are talking about a cut of €4 a week. There are people for whom that cut might be significant, but the recommendation in the McCarthy report was that we cut it by €30 per week for the first child and €67 per week for subsequent children.