John Gilroy (Labour)

Did we make certain pledges before the election? We did. Did we make them in good faith? We did. Should we be criticised for making these pledges before the election? We should. We should be criticised strongly for doing so and we need to acknowledge this.

This budget is fairly brutal. We cannot take €3.8 billion out of the economy, on top of €20 billion in expenditure and revenue adjustments since 2008, and not feel the heavy hand of its impact. The low-hanging fruit is long gone. We cannot expect to close the gap in the public accounts unless we seek to make reductions in the largest spending programmes. We are loth to do so but we have no choice. As social protection involves the greatest expenditure, we found savings amounting to approximately 2% of its Vote. No matter where the reductions fall, they will be unpalatable. The Department of Social Protection, by definition, exists to offer protection. We have managed to protect the primary rates of social welfare and would have liked to have extended this protection to all areas, but this was just not possible. Where it was not possible, we offset some of the reductions by increases in other areas. For instance, we increased the age of entitlement to the disability allowance to 18. In parallel, we offset this by increasing the age limit for receipt of the domiciliary care allowance to protect household incomes of affected families. However, measures can sometimes be too blunt in their implementation and scope. As a public representative, I am very unhappy with this one. It is an important duty of a public representative to listen to what people say. There needs to be a mechanism by which this element can be reviewed. I will be asking the Minister to reflect on this. I am confident that he can and will do so.

Senator D'Arcy referred to career guidance teachers and I agree totally with him thereon. It is Senators' duty to point out areas in respect of which we are unhappy.

All reductions are unpalatable but we have managed to protect the most vulnerable. The jobseeker's allowance and benefit remain unchanged. The payment to carers will be maintained and child benefit for the first two children will remain unchanged. In these extraordinarily difficult times, we have achieved a fair measure of success.

In the area of health, €35 million has been found for mental health services. This will support suicide prevention strategies, which are vital. We are committed to building the national children's hospital and we have made significant moves towards reforming our entire health system. The special delivery unit is tackling pressures in emergency departments and in respect of hospital waiting lists.

We have managed to protect education provision for those who are disadvantaged. The pupil-teacher ratio in this sector remains unchanged. Unfortunately, as I stated, it was necessary to increase the student contribution, but we have managed to keep this increase to €250.

Core social welfare payments have been protected and low-income tax increases will take place. These are two very important points. The universal social charge has been reviewed and the threshold has been raised from €4,000 to over €10,000. Some 330,000 people will no longer be liable for the charge.

All in all, this is a very difficult budget and it will place great strain on many people. We have achieved most of what we have set out to achieve. There are some things we wish to do, others that we cannot do and others that we will do. One should remember this is the first in a series of budgets. Decisions taken today, while difficult, will restore our economic independence, maintain jobs and create new ones. It will be a difficult journey. What is needed now is political courage and honesty. The temptation to use the many unpalatable decisions for party-political gain will be great, but I hope it is resisted. We live in very difficult times.