Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The House debated the budget for two hours last night but that was not nearly enough time. I hope there will be an opportunity to have a more comprehensive debate next week on the fallout from the budget when we can deal with some of the negative details. I acknowledge there are positive aspects to the budget but many of its elements can be summarised as regressive. I do not intend to make a political point. We can all throw political points across the floor but the people who will suffer as a result of the budget are the individuals on lower incomes, in particular, lower-income families and mothers. The House will debate the X case and abortion this evening. Unfortunately, the unborn child is affected in this budget because the average maternity benefit will be cut by ¤800 as a result of a taxation measure introduced in the budget. The unborn child will be paying ¤800. That is a disgrace. Child benefit will be protected but an unborn child is targeted-----