David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend the authors of the motion before us. I hope it is passed and there is a good chance it will. That should not necessarily mean that nothing happens because we are one House of the Oireachtas and that should mean something to the Government. If one House states it will not support cuts, surely that should be a wake-up call for the Government if democracy is to mean anything. I do not accept what Senator Kelly said, namely, that the Seanad has voted in favour of a motion and nothing should change. That would be a sad day for democracy.

The last speaker was incredible, in terms of how out of touch he is with reality and how the cuts will impact on many families. We see this sort of Thatcherite nonsense time after time, when Governments bring forward measures like this and point to extreme examples, such as where a family with three children is living on €578 a week. That is very much the exception, if such families exist at all.