John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have been listening quietly, maybe uncharacteristically, to this debate all afternoon, which has been very informative. Most of the contributions have been genuine and made in good faith and well articulated with passion. The Opposition's job is to hold the Government to account. It is doing a good job of that today. It has put forward several suggestions for alternative savings, such as a wealth tax, increments, horses, advisers, bureaucrats, a sugar tax, a tobacco tax and an increase in the universal social charge, all of which could well be supported. Despite the Minister having saved ¤390 million in her Department, which is spending ¤20.2 billion, the cost of social protection is going up by ¤150 million this year. If the Minister did not make this saving the cost of social protection would increase by ¤500 million. That is the fact.

We could do all that the Opposition suggests, and I think we should do many of these things but we must do them in addition to the other measures. No one will say that we should allow the cost of social protection to grow. Opposition Members will all agree with me on that point. In the 1980s the Labour Party and Fine Gael did not make the necessary decisions. I hate the phrase "hard decisions" because the decision-makers are not affected by the decisions. The hard decisions affect other people. They allowed the deficit to grow until they drove the country almost into the ground. The country is almost in the ground, even moreso than in the 1980s, and we must do these things. If we say that we will not reduce the respite care grant where will we make the savings? Do we make them in the disability sector, in jobseeker's allowance, carer's allowance, rent or lone parent's allowance, or in family income support, domiciliary care or household benefits? No matter where the reductions are made in any of these benefits those affected will say they are unfair. They are certainly unpalatable and no Government, not even that of the Opposition when it was in government, would even dream of making them unless they were necessary.

I recognise that the Opposition Senators are genuine about their proposals and their passion but I dislike their saying that we sheepishly and slavishly follow the Whip. I am not sheepishly and slavishly following a Whip. I have put a great deal of thought into this and have said that I will support the Government. These are unpopular, terrible things to do but I will support them because that is the right thing to do. Senator Ó Murchú said there is a right thing to do. There are many right things to do, one of which is to protect and ring-fence money for one group of people. Difficult as it is, the right thing to do is to put the interests of the country first and support the Government.