David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I acknowledge that the Government inherited a mess, difficult decisions needed to be made, budgets needed to be balanced and choices were available. The Minister must accept that her party in opposition opposed four austerity budgets, and rightly so. The Labour Party opposed the budgets because of cuts to child benefit, cuts to the Christmas payment to people in receipt of social welfare benefits and the dreaded universal social charge, which has been adjusted slightly, but not reversed.