Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I compliment the Minister, as I would any Minister, who is fighting at the Cabinet table for her departmental Estimates and the public expenditure proposals leading up to and including the budget proposals. I commend her for successfully negotiating a considerable reduction in a cut of almost €1 billion originally being provided for. That is the good news.

I know it is the convention to say the Minister looks forward to hearing views on the measures contained in the Bill, but is the Government listening? It is somewhat ironic that, on the one hand, the Minister for Social Protection has commended the measures to both Houses and, on the other, her recently elected constituency colleague who has only been here for six weeks did not at least see fit to give her the courtesy of supporting her very first Social Welfare Bill. There are obviously some questions to be asked of the Labour Party's ideological approach to the Bill. As someone who canvassed in the Dublin West by-election, I was told on the doorsteps that "If that fellow Nulty gets in, he will be gone off the ship within weeks." At the time we thought it was a joke, but the joke is on the electorate of Dublin West.