Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let us consider the analysis done by the Department of Finance on the way this will impact on people. We can see that people earning over €50,000, €60,000 or €70,000 benefit. The top 14% of earners are going to get three times more money back into their pockets than people on the lower levels. How is that progressive or fair? People on low incomes are finding it difficult to make ends meet yet the Government has decided on this policy. The Labour Party has backed the Fine Gael Government with its Tory-style economics to try to put three times more money back into the pockets of people who have far more money to begin with. It is totally disgraceful on the part of the Government.

I note that fishermen seem to have been hammered as well. There has been a cut in the capital grant available for fisheries. This has not been touched on in the commentary so far.

The Government has shown its true colours today. Those in the Labour Party have shown that they buy into the Fine Gael school of economics. In fairness to Senator Gilroy, much of it follows on from the model that had been proposed by Fianna Fáil previously. Certainly, it is not the type of budget that Sinn Féin would have brought in. We would have brought in something more fair.