Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Acting Leader ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, to clarify whether the €10 million announced for the pyrite resolution fund will, as we are now hearing, be closer to €50 million over two years? If correct, the increased allocation is a welcome development. Will the Acting Leader also ask the Minister when he intends to publish the relevant legislation?

We got an indication last week that he intends to introduce the Bill in the Seanad. I welcome that and the progress made in this area under the tutelage of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan. I would be obliged if the Acting Leader can find out.

When will the social welfare Bill be published? It is due to be debated in the Dáil on Thursday but has not yet been published. We have heard a lot from the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Government about Oireachtas and Dáil reform but it seems that the social welfare Bill, with some of the cuts proposed, will be introduced on Thursday despite the fact that it is not published on Tuesday. I understand the Bill will be guillotined in the Dáil, with only two days of debate. I welcome the commitment of the Leader, Deputy Maurice Cummins, that no guillotine will be used in the debate on the social welfare Bill, which is due to take place in the House on 5 November. It gives an opportunity to Members to look at what is being done. Some of the proposed cuts are savage in the extreme. One need only talk to the people outside the gates of Leinster House.

I note with great interest the Government propaganda issued today about how the budget affects people. The Government researchers in the press office were able to find six people in the country that the budget did not affect. What was telling is that there is no mention in any of the examples of the cuts to the household benefits package, restrictions to the lone parents allowance, the removal of the single parent tax credit, a further reduction in medical card limits for those over 70 years of age and the removal of thousands of discretionary medical cards. I ask the Acting Leader to find out the cost to the State in producing this work of fiction circulated to every Member of the House.