Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

The architects of our downfall are walking around town scot free. The Minister and the banks would again have been in a cosy cartel in regard to the €40 million in bonuses only for the fact that ordinary people and the Opposition took up the issue. The Minister could not do anything last week but all of sudden yesterday he found a loophole to ignore the court order.

What do the Minister, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have against carers? In the past two years carers have taken a 10% cut as a result of the abolition of the Christmas bonus and this year's and last year's budgets. There has been a severe and a savage attack on the carer, the blind person, the widow and on those on disability. Some 42,000 carers give almost 3.7 million hours of their time per week to help those in most need. How does the Minister show his appreciation of them? He cuts their payment again and makes them feel unworthy, like second class people. These people save the State a fortune and that is the appreciation shown to them.

The Government's mantra has been fix the deficit and the banks and everything will be okay. It has forgotten about the ordinary citizens. The task of the Government is to protect and look after citizens but it has ignored them. Why has it ignored them and cut their payments? The Taoiseach, the Ministers and Members of this House and the other one can take a pay cut. We are well paid for what we do but other people are not. The Government did not have the bottle to cut Members' pay because it wanted to get the troops through the Tá lobby in the Dáil. However, it is okay to cut other people's payments.

I fully accept we are living in stringent times and that we must implement unpalatable measures. However, this Government has failed to protect the citizens. That is the first task of government but this Government has been in dereliction of its duty in that regard. The people should tell it that through the ballot box.

This is not about politics or elections; it is about people. The Government has lost sight of that because of its cosy cartel of bankers and developers. The Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, can say what he wants. I am not afraid of him.