Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I am getting down to it. Schedule 2 itemises the cuts to which young people will have to adhere, the benefits that will be drastically cut. We should put those in perspective and not muddle it up in a spin of 0.4% of 1% of national debt. We should be clear on this. A young person who has worked building the Irish economy for the past year and a half and who has paid taxes and PRSI will see the benefits to which he or she should be entitled reduced by more than €104 as a result of the decisions that will be taken here in a few minutes. It is not 0.4% of 1%; that is the real effects of the cuts that will be implemented today with the passing of this Bill.

These are difficult decisions. The Government has decided to support them but we should be honest and admit that these measures are drastic. What is being introduced in this Bill is utterly disgusting. I do not want to name individuals in the Green Party. It is in government and it supports the Bill. It is a minority party. This is not about the Green Party or its members. What is being done here is ridiculous. The cuts the Government is implementing are not minor adjustments that will bring people back to levels they were at a few years ago. It was a long time since young people, many of whom are married as I mentioned earlier, were only supported by the payment of €100 in this State. That is the third worst social welfare payment for an individual in the EU 15. It is ridiculous. If members of the Green Party have decided to vote for this, they should be honest about what they are doing. This legislation is disgusting. I mentioned earlier that this legislation is usually one of the worst items of legislation to come before the House. It should be the worst but, unfortunately, it is not because we have had worse this year. This is what is sickening about it.

In terms of the 0.4% of the 1% of debt, in a few months we will come to the House and pump billions of euro into the banks. It will be the billions of euro we have taken off the 20 year olds, blind people and child benefit recipients that will go into the banks. That is absolutely terrible. That is only one part of the jigsaw. The Minister should be honest about what the Government is doing. Choices were made although other choices were presented to the Government. We presented choices, costed by the Department of Finance, on where revenue could be created. I refer, for example, to wealth tax, standardising tax relief and the introduction of PRSI ceilings. All those options were available to the Minister. Our proposals were not about the public sector, services or attacking social welfare recipients. That is absolutely disgusting and it should not be happening. I do not agree with the Fine Gael proposal but the Minister should acknowledge that other options were available. The Minister decided to ignore them. There are other ways out of the problem but the Minister decided to ignore them for a reason I will never understand.