David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator Ó Clochartaigh does not need to join a party with a quorum in this House. He is in a party that has principles, which stands by the people who are being affected by the savage cuts in this budget.

The Minister knows full well many families are struggling. She knows many families struggle to send children to school, to put clothes on their backs, to put food in their mouths and on tables, to put heating oil in tanks and pay gas and electricity bills. Many families are in negative equity and many families struggle to pay basic bills. We must ask ourselves whether this budget makes life any easier for those families or whether it makes it a lot more difficult. We must be fair and honest and admit it will make life more difficult for the majority of middle income and low income families, particularly those on social welfare, because of the kind of cuts in this budget.

With Fine Gael, the Minister, and the Labour Party specifically, went to the electorate and made clear, solemn and unequivocal pre-election promises. One Labour Party Senator has apologised for that. The Labour Party said it would not cut child benefit. It said that was a red line issue which was non-negotiable. However, the Labour Party has turned its back on the people who voted for it. It has also reneged on its promises with regard to the respite care grant and college fees. Some of those constituents have e-mailed me. One said: "The cut is a cut too deep for the most vulnerable in society. Please do not pass it." Another wrote: "Hi, I am a mum of two autistic boys. My husband passed away suddenly three years ago at 39. This cut to the respite care grant and children's allowance will cripple us as a family. Please help." People are pleading for help from the people they voted into office to protect them, but those people have let them down.

In one of her final speeches as Opposition spokesperson for the Labour Party, the Minister said in the Dáil at a time when Fianna Fáil was seeking to cut child benefit.

Child benefit is keeping many families afloat. Child benefit is keeping bread on the table. It is paying the food bills of a significant number of families who have had a massive reduction in their income. Child benefit is, has been and will continue for a long time to be mainly an issue for mná na hÉireann and their children.

She was right to say that. However, now she comes in here and asks us to vote for a cut in child benefit - something she said was a protection for the women of Ireland and should not be cut, but protected. Again, the Minister has failed these people.

The former Labour Party Minister of State in the Department of Health, Deputy Shortall, challenged the Minister across the floor of the Dáil to stop using the word "fairness" in the context of this budget, because it is anything but fair. Senator Cáit Keane asked about the alternatives. We have set these out in our alternative budget.