Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Those are the facts.

I am sure pensioners are delighted with the derisory €3 increase in their weekly pension. Will it pay for a cup of coffee and a scone? Perhaps it will in Sligo, but I doubt it would pay for coffee and a scone on St. Stephen's Green. I wonder what they think of the increase of €800 per week in take-home pay that some people will receive? Did the Government prioritise to the extent it should have prioritised? Did it take the opportunity of spending an additional €1.5 billion on trying to address the issues that need to be addressed? The answer is "No".

This was a continuation of the classic set piece which started in the 1970s and of which all parties, including Fianna Fáil, were guilty. I would like to think my party is learning from its mistakes, having correctly paid for them the hard way. Following all the lies we were told in advance of the previous general election, the Government delivered the plan produced by the previous Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, and has sought accolades that are owed to him. It has botched the opportunity afforded by a fiscal space of €1.5 billion, to use the Government's terminology, by failing to prioritise the people who are most in need. It has cast aside rural and regional areas and the elderly, who received a derisory €3. It did nothing for people in mortgage arrears and as, Senator Hayden, noted, it did nothing for people paying rent. On the contrary, the Government has presided over 1,000 repossessions in the past year, of which 616 were family homes. Since 2011 it has been possible to protect family homes, but the Government does not care about that issue. Its only care is being re-elected; that is all that counts. It has thrown €1.5 billion at those areas that it believes will produce the most votes. Sadly, this budget will underpin the divide between the haves and have-nots.The the greatest failure of the Houses of the Oireachtas over the past five years has been presiding over a two-tier recovery, and that is set to continue.