Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. Inchydoney is dead, long live Inchydoney. The cosy cartel on the beach is no more. Public sector workers have no friends in Government Buildings, especially public sector workers who earn less than €30,000 per year. There is an acceptance by all Members that there must be a rebalancing and that we need to correct fiscal policy to get out of this crisis. Any principle of social justice we believe in must be fair and balanced.

In his Budget Statement the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said we had turned the corner. He is right. We have turned the corner but we have turned into a corner of poverty, debt, loss of income and of families divided by tension and worry. There are families in my constituency of Cork who are living on their nerves and who go to bed at night and cannot sleep because of worry. These are not millionaires and people on large incomes, they are hospital porters, teachers and county council employees who provide a service. These are people who are hurting and who are prepared to make sacrifices, men and women, whom we all know and meet every day. This Government has gone to the well once too often.

As I said yesterday, I do not mind taking a pay cut. I am a single person and I can afford it. The cumulative effect of the public sector levy and the pension last year, the pay cut today and the knock-on effect in child benefit has people on the edge. We talk about mental health. I ask the Government to have cognisance of people. These are not cold budgetary statistics, these are ordinary people who may not be lucky to have a well-paid job. I disagree with the Government in regard to the unfairness of it. In his fine contribution Senator Harris spoke about the Irish people getting a crash course in recession. They have crash-landed with no parachute and no opt-out clause.

As a party we agree there must be a curtailment on the spend on the public sector pay bill disagree and we published our alternative budget. We made no secret of the fact that we would target the public sector pay bill to the tune of €6 million or €7 million but we said that those on lower pay would not be the first port of call and attack, because it is callous. Anybody who purports to be interested in people will understand that. We had at one point €2 billion to £1.3 billion in our savings. There was no reference whatsoever to efficiencies in the budget. Whether we like it not this budget has created a permanent divide in Irish society.

When walking up Molesworth Street this morning on my way to the Dáil I saw a group of school children and, being a former teacher, I asked how they were doing and where they were from. Their teacher asked if I was a politician and I said I was. She said, "we do not like you". I said I was not a Fianna Fáil politician, but a Fine Gael politician. She said that might not be too bad and said there is a misnomer that she is well paid. She said she loves her job but she cannot take any more of this and said her house is in negative equity.

I will give the Minister one small example of how daft the past ten years have been. For years we supervised in schools willingly and voluntarily. How can we justify saying to people that we will pay them to supervise when they did it for generations for no money? That is the Bertie Ahern school of economics of the past 12 years - throw the money out, give out the largesse, buy the election and keep power. I say that as a fan of social partnership. I might be in the odd-ball couple in Fine Gael when I say I am a fan of social partnership. I am a proud member of the ASTI and I believe in the need for a union to advocate and to represent its workers. There was a deal on with the unions and for the first time ever unions were prepared to take a pay cut on behalf of their members. They walked up to Government Buildings on the Friday and Senator O'Toole referred to Secretaries General earlier agreeing or almost agreeing to a deal. Then the plug was pulled and trust was broken. If trust is broken it must be re-established.

I accept Senator Alex White's permutation that one cannot expect the unions to go back. I appeal to the unions and to the Government in the interests of our people to re-enter talks and open dialogue because we need social partnership. We need to have dialogue and communication. Yes, there will be choices that none of us will like but we have to stand up for it.

I have great time for David Begg. The biggest mistake in social partnership was that it excluded the Houses of the Oireachtas. We need a new pillar in a new form of social partnership to include the Houses. I may disagree with Senator Harris, Senator Alex White or Senator Butler but I respect their right to have a view. We in the Houses of the Oireachtas were ignored and we should not be ignored.