Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

I acknowledge the Minister has stated he intends to put in place some alleviation measures. However, I do not understand how he can stand over these changes in general. There is a need to simply reverse them altogether. Again, I ask whether the long-term cost of this measure was considered, not simply in the departmental budget but across Government expenditure as a whole. Time still remains for the Minister to reverse this decision and I hope he will. I acknowledge he has met the principals who have put the case to him but I genuinely fail to discern how he can stand over the measure. I again stress my request to the Minister to reverse this decision because the long-term impact on the most disadvantaged areas will be phenomenal. In the current environment, these are the people who should be protected the most, rather than being targeted. The Minister referred to fairness in his response but I fail to see how anyone could consider this measure to be fair.