We are on Leaders' Questions. There are two minutes for the first question, three minutes for the reply and one minute for supplementaries. I call Deputy Martin.
Leaders' Questions
As chairman Keaveney tweeted last night, the die has been cast. Labour and Fine Gael Deputies have voted, one and all, for some of the most regressive cuts to child benefit, respite grants and child clothing allowances, and an increase in tax for low paid workers. This is despite the fact the Labour Party made extraordinary commitments before the last general election. It has now broken every single promise it made. To quote the Tánaiste himself on 11 February 2011, before the election date: "The Labour Party will not agree to having child benefit cut anymore and Fine Gael need to drop their plans to cut child benefit". That is the solemn promise he made to the Irish people. Labour then put posters up all over the country, "Protect child benefit, vote Labour", "Families Need Labour in Government" and "A Cut Too Far – Fine Gael – Every Little Hurts".
The Deputy should know all about it. He did enough of it.
They then go and take €10 per month in child benefit off the first and second child and €18 off the third and fourth child.
When pressed on breaking those promises, the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, said the other night: "Isn’t this the kind of thing you tend to do during an election campaign?" - in other words, you tend to make these kinds of promises. This basically means Labour never had any intention of keeping these promises in the first place. They knowingly deceived the people of this country. They knowingly betrayed the people of this country. Labour's way was the ultimate deception.
That is rich from him.
A Deputy
He has some neck.
That really stretches the imagination.
The Tánaiste might not like those words coming from me. To be fair, Senator John Whelan has perhaps put it far more succinctly, when he said he was one of the Labour candidates who put up and delivered those leaflets. He said: "We have broken that promise on child benefit, we misled the public and I have been made a liar of by the budget cuts to child benefit."
Thank you, Deputy.
That is what Senator John Whelan wrote in yesterday's The Star newspaper. He continued: "The betrayal of the public's trust just adds salt to wound." He then said in a message to, I think, every Deputy in the House, particularly to his own Deputies: "We know in our hearts and souls it is wrong, morally wrong, inequitable and unfair as these budgetary measures penalise ... low-income families the worst."
Thank you, Deputy.
I want to ask the Tánaiste one very basic question. No one forced him to make those promises and no has forced him to break them. Why is the Fine Gael promise not to increase taxes on people earning over €100,000 more important than the Labour Party promise not to cut child benefit?
Fianna Fáil has a hard neck.
He is right about that. It is getting harder.
Labour has a soft neck and it is being tickled by Fine Gael.
Order for the speaker.
Its legacy to this country-----
Is appalling.
-----was to bring in the IMF. This Government's legacy will be to get rid of the IMF.
And everybody else as well, by the look of it.
Its legacy was to put this country into a bailout with the troika.
Answer the question.
This Government will be sending the troika home. This budget is a tough and difficult budget. Nobody has said anything other than that for it but it is a budget that is necessary in order to bring about the recovery that my party promised we would do at the time of the general election and that the Government committed itself to doing when we signed the programme for Government and committed ourselves to-----
What about the pledge in Trinity College?
-----bring about economic recovery to this country, and that is what we are doing. We undertook that we would deal with the problem in our banking system and we are doing so at less cost than Fianna Fáil said would be possible. We committed ourselves to renegotiating the deal with the troika-----
What about child benefit?
-----which Fianna Fáil said was impossible, and we are succeeding in doing that. We committed ourselves to putting the public finances on a sound, solid footing again after Fianna Fáil brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy, and we are doing that. We promised that we would-----
They promised they would protect child benefit.
-----provide for increased employment in this country and we are now seeing increased investment and jobs coming into this country, something that was flying out of the country when Fianna Fáil left it to us.
He promised to protect the vulnerable. The Tánaiste made a lot of promises, all right.
We promised we would restore economic growth to this country, which is happening after four years of recession under Fianna Fáil.
Come to the tea party.
This Government, and the Labour Party in this Government since the Deputy fingered us particularly, is going to bring about the recovery that the people of this country need. The people of this country are sick of recession. We need recovery in this country. This is a difficult budget but it is a budget that is necessary in order to bring about the recovery that this country needs and to secure the future.
(Interruptions).
Order, please.
The Tánaiste did make commitments. We all remember, "It is Labour's way or Frankfurt's way".
We remember Fianna Fáil's way as well.
A Deputy
Has the Deputy forgotten about himself?
We all remember that deception. The Tánaiste voted against every measure to correct the public finances in 2009 and 2010. He spoke on budgets from this side of the House-----
Sit down.
-----saying the Government was going to rob child benefit from people's pockets.
A Deputy
Because he was crazy and he still is.
He was Mr. Angry. Does he not remember Mr. Angry over there? He has now done a U-turn on every single thing he protested about.
What about Mr. Forgetful?
We might forget about you very quickly.
Who are "you"?
The point is he made promises he had no intention of keeping. That is why one of Labour's former Ministers, Deputy Shortall, has described its performance in government as "embarrassing".
Not as embarrassing as the Deputy's.
Deputy Martin cannot lecture us.
That is why Senator Whelan said what he said. He said the Tánaiste had made a liar out of him, and he wrote it in yesterday's The Star newspaper.
I asked the Tánaiste a very basic question which he skirted around. I repeat: why was the Fine Gael promise not to increase taxes on people earning more than €100,000 more important than the promises made by the Labour Party? The Tánaiste went out before the election, looked people in the eye and said that his party would not agree to cut child benefit. He then went into government and cynically stood over that cut.
What about Fianna Fáil's cut to the minimum wage?
With the greatest of respect, the Tánaiste has brought politics, in terms of cynicism and public deception, to a new low.
(Interruptions).
Labour Party Members can smile and heckle all they like, but that is the reality. The Tánaiste's party put up those leaflets before the elections deliberately to mislead people, and we know why that was done. It was done because the party believed power was slipping from it and that Fine Gael would win the election. The Tánaiste made promises and commitments he simply could not keep.
Deputy Martin must conclude.
Senator John Whelan has made the point that there is no shame in doing a U-turn in regard to these cuts, particularly in the case of child benefit and PRSI.
Deputy Martin would know all about U-turns. His party has been practising them for years.
This Government had to do a U-turn last year.
Senator Whelan warned that the ultimate shame will be on Labour Party and Fine Gael Deputies if they refuse to change tack and continue to impose unfair and regressive measures on the lowest-income people in this country. That is the reality of this budget; it is those on low and middle incomes who will suffer the most because of the choice the Government has made.
(Interruptions).
Order, please. I have called the Tánaiste.
I admire the Tánaiste's commitment to democracy.
Deputy Martin is suffering from withdrawal. Why would he not be, after 14 years in government during which his party squandered the boom and put the country into hock?
I guarantee the Tánaiste's party will not be in government for 14 years.
Will Members opposite listen to my answer? If Deputy Martin asks a question, he will get an answer. This is a difficult budget and was always going to be a difficult budget. Nobody has claimed otherwise.
The Labour Party had choices. It could have chosen to increase the universal social charge for higher earners. It could have chosen not to increase PRSI for low-paid workers.
The choice we made was to protect those on low and middle incomes, even in difficult times.
(Interruptions).
Fianna Fáil in government reduced the minimum wage.
Order, please.
Even in difficult times this Government has protected the basic rates of social welfare, something Deputy Martin did not do when he was in government.
This is more deception from the Tánaiste. He is deceiving people with meaningless soundbites.
The Tánaiste must be allowed to conclude.
I am quite happy to answer Deputy Martin's questions, but he and his colleagues keep interrupting me. In this budget we protected the basic rate of social welfare. That rate has not been touched. We have protected education, including by preserving class sizes.
What about cuts to VEC funding?
We have restored €150 million to the education budget. We have introduced something that will be unfamiliar to Deputy Martin and Fianna Fáil, namely, the largest ever package of taxes on wealth in this country, which will raise more than €500 million. Deputy Martin cannot take the fact that even in difficult times, the Government has introduced a budget that is fair, balanced and reasonable and will be effective.
(Interruptions).
Order, please. I have called Deputy Mary Lou McDonald.
There are people watching proceedings in this Chamber this morning who do not know how they will manage their week-to-week domestic budgets because of the cuts the Government is introducing. The Tánaiste has accused others of having a hard neck. I suggest that his is a hard neck of the bright, brassy variety. It is clear that "fair" is a four-letter word in the minds of Fine Gael and the Labour Party. I do not know how he can credibly say what he has said to the very people he promised to protect, including children and their parents, carers and people with long-term sickness and disability. I do not know how any Member opposite will look these people in the eye and utter the word "fair". The Government is rushing through social welfare legislation today to introduce cuts which in real terms and in real time will cause real hardship to real families, real children and real women. Here is the real clanger - these are the very sections of society to which the Government promised protection. So much for that. I do not know whether the Tánaiste deliberately set out to make liars of his Ministers, Deputies and Senators and to make a liar of himself, but he has done that comprehensively. So brass iron is his own neck that he will stand up in this Chamber and waffle on about fairness. I do not know how he does it.
I suggest to Government Members, especially those in the Labour Party, that perhaps the die is not yet cast. Amendments will be brought forward today to see off the worst excesses of these cuts, particularly in respect of the respite care grant and child benefit. The latter is the matter about which the Tánaiste was so passionate and so right not so long ago. The die may not already be cast. Despite Labour Deputies' brass-necked leader, who has made liars of them, perhaps they will step up to the plate and actually defend those people to whom they made solemn promises.
I advise the Deputy that the word "lie" is not appropriate in any circumstances.
Deputies
Withdraw it.
The Leas-Cheann Comhairle should tell that to the Tánaiste.
We do not need any advice from Sinn Féin.
I ask Deputy McDonald to withdraw that word.
I will not withdraw it.
(Interruptions).
The word "lie" is not appropriate in any circumstances.
I cannot hear what the Chair is saying.
I am asking the Deputy to withdraw the word "liar".
Deputies
Withdraw it.
Members opposite are constantly diverting this conversation. I am sick of it.
I ask the Deputy to withdraw the word "liar".
I will not withdraw that word or any other word I have used in this Chamber today. A lie is a lie and a liar is a liar. The people at home viewing these proceedings know that full well.
There are other words that can be used.
"Untruth", perhaps.
Then I shall withdraw the offensive term "lie" and instead use the word "untruth", "porky pie" or "Pinocchio". Are those words allowable?
I call the Tánaiste.
It takes some brass neck for Sinn Féin to complain about basic rates of social welfare in this State. Can it be true that the basic rate of social welfare payment in the part of the island in which Sinn Féin is in government is €87 per week? Is that true? Sinn Féin Members are complaining because this Government has protected the basic rates of social welfare in this country.
(Interruptions).
Order, please.
This Government does not accept that somebody should be asked to live on less than €188 per week.
However, the Deputy's party is content to have people living on €87 a week. That is to have brass neck. The budget is a difficult one because it aims to restore the country's finances and get us out of the economic mess we inherited. It protects basic rates of social welfare and children in the classroom - there are no cuts to basic education services. It protects health services and introduces the biggest package of taxes on wealth ever been seen in a budget, certainly in my time in the House, which will raise more than €500 million. The approach the Government is taking to what is a difficult budget is to protect those on low and middle incomes and ask those with the broadest shoulders to bear the most.
That is not true. The Government is not doing that.
Using that logic, on planet Gilmore, the Labour Party and Fine Gael, the ones with the broadest shoulders are children. Is that right? The ones with the broadest shoulders are carers who rely on a very meagre respite care grant? Is that the case?
Listen to what was said.
The Tánaiste referred to the North. I wish he would do his homework properly when he investigates matters north of the Border.
That would look bad for Sinn Féin.
In comparing the system here and the one in place in the North he is comparing apples and oranges.
(Interruptions).
Oranges and rotten apples.
There are many things people pay for here that we do not pay for in the North. That is a fact.
(Interruptions).
Can we have order for the person who is speaking, please?
Today the social welfare measures the Tánaiste promised to avoid will be rushed through the Dáil. Yet again, the Labour Party and Fine Gael will be seen as brazenly targeting children, carers and mothers and making absolutely no apology for it. They had their chance to have a change of heart. Do they know something? They would have had the full backing of the general public if they had had the courage of their convictions. I have said this to the Tánaiste before. It is not merely the case that the people cannot trust the Labour Party in government. The Labour Party cannot trust itself. It jumps at the whim of Fine Gael. Let it address itself to carers, in particular, mothers and children and explain to them why its masterplan for economic recovery relies on causing them hardship.
The Government's economic plan is about restoring the country's economic sovereignty and getting us out of the economic mess in which we find ourselves. Everybody in the country understands this and that this is difficult and will not happen overnight. Sinn Féin has a fairy tale that we have to make a €3.5 billion budget adjustment, but it also claims that it can produce fairy tale solutions to the problem. The Deputy mentioned homework. She did not do much on her party's proposals. She did not even have them costed by the Department of Finance.
That is a lie.
Of course, there is a reason for that. It is not just laziness; it is being clever. Sinn Féin knows very well that its proposals are an absolute fairy tale.
They have been published.
Then its Deputies comes into the Chamber and give the impression that carers and people on disability and invalidity pensions have had their money cut. That is not the case.
The respite care grant has been cut.
None of the basic rates of social welfare payments for carers, people on invalidity pension, pensioners, widows and widowers, those on jobseeker's benefit has been cut. All such payments have been protected by the Government, even in the most difficult of times.
That is sleight of hand. Pensioners' payments are down.
As for people on low incomes, this is the Government that has restored the minimum wage, introduced legislation to restore joint labour committees for those on low pay and removed more than 300,000 from the USC net. Most important, it is committed to ensuring we generate employment and economic recovery.
There are 20,000 fewer jobs.
(Interruptions).
The best way to tackle poverty and disadvantage is to maximise the number at work and have a successful economy.
Why does the Government not do it then?
It is determined to do it. We will clear up the mess left by our predecessors who brought the IMF into the country.
The Government is worse.
We are sending it home, with the troika, and restoring the country's economic sovereignty. We are getting people back to work and restoring the country's economic fortunes. Sinn Féin's only answer is the fairytale it calls its economic policy.
The Government is doing a great job. Ask carers.
Fabulous.
That is some answer. Fair play to the Tánaiste. Who has the broadest shoulders?
Can I have order for Deputy Shane Ross, please?
Deputy Aodhan Ó Ríordáin should go down to Sherriff Street.
I am interested in the Tánaiste's painting of the brave new dawn. It has been a bad week and a bad year for the finances of the country. In view of the fact that the Taoiseach stated yesterday there would be no wave of repossessions, which runs contrary to what was stated in the Financial Times and other global media and about which the Government is so sensitive, why has the decision been made to introduce legislation to allow the banks greater powers of repossession next year?
Outrageous.
It is because the troika has told the Government to do this. It will be open season on home owners in 2013 because that legislation will not plug a loophole, rather it will allow the banks to repossess at will.
State-owned banks are going to be used as agents, with the connivance of the Government, to put people out of their own homes on a scale not seen so far.
Bailiffs.
That is what the Minister for Finance has stated. In addition - this is the reason I say it will be open season on home owners - the Government has extraordinarily decided on the issue of a property tax that it will bring in the heavies to collect the money from those who are unable to pay.
Big Phil is back, too.
For some reason the Revenue Commissioners have been selected as the collectors of this tax, not any other body. Why is this? The reason is that people will have the property tax which they are unable to pay deducted at source. I am not talking only about the middle classes and high and middle income earners but also about people on social welfare who will be confronted with a situation where the property tax will be taken from their social welfare payment before they can even put food on the table. Will the Tánaiste tell me why the Revenue Commissioners were selected to do this? Is it because the Government knew and did not care, that people would be unable to pay?
The sheriff, too.
The Government has made it very clear that we want to keep people in their own homes and avoid having homes repossessed. That is why at a very early stage in the life of the Government we put in place the Keane group which came forward with a list of recommendations to address the problem of repossessions as as result of mortgage arrears. That is the reason we introduced, for the first time, legislation which I expect will be completed either this week or next, namely, the Personal Insolvency Bill which will introduce radical changes to our personal insolvency laws-----
The banks have a veto.
-----and strengthen the hand of home owners in their dealings with banks. This legislation is long overdue.
Banks will have a veto.
Some of us were not allowed to vote on it.
The Revenue Commissioners were chosen to collect the property tax because that is the agency in the State which collects taxes. If we were to do something different-----
Will they be collecting the septic tank tax?
-----Deputy Ross would write a column for his newspaper or he would get up on stage with his colleagues to discuss the waste of State resources in having multiple agencies doing what one agency could do. Has not the Deputy argued-----
Who collects commercial rates?
Look what happened when the Government put SUSI in charge of student grants.
-----that one agency should deal with matters of this nature?
Who collects commercial rates?
The Revenue Commissioners is the body which is tasked with collecting revenue in this country and it has been asked to lead the collection of the property tax. The House will debate the property tax legislation when it is introduced by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. I am sure Deputy Ross can make all of these points to the Minister.
A guillotine is also being applied in respect of that legislation.
The four angry booksellers.
I asked the Tánaiste two questions, neither of which he answered.
The Deputy is only allowed to ask one.
Why is legislation going to be introduced in 2013 to give the banks a free run at homeowners? Why can the Government not take the view that this legislation is unnecessary-----
If the Deputy keeps going this way Deputy Higgins will give him an application form to join his party.
Well done, Deputy Rabbitte.
-----and that it would more sympathetic to homeowners if it were not introduced?
Does the Tánaiste have sympathy with the view that the Revenue Commissioners have been chosen to collect the property tax because this is the only way the money involved can be extracted from people as a result of the fact that they simply cannot afford to pay? Imagine the scene that will obtain when many people on social welfare payments or modest incomes have money deducted from those payments or their salaries. They will be obliged to make sacrifices in respect of necessities such as putting bread on the table, paying fees and heating their homes. I ask the Tánaiste to reconsider what is being done here. There are other ways of collecting this tax. Did the Government collect the household charge through the Revenue Commissioners? The reason it is not collecting the property tax in the same way it collected the household charge is that people cannot pay. The Government's attitude is that it is going to bring in the heavy gang-----
It is organising the-----
(Interruptions).
-----to collect this money willy-nilly because the latter will ignore the needs of the people from whom it is going to be taken.
Deputy Ross will be out on the streets with Deputy Higgins next.
More than most Members, Deputy Ross knows very well that the tax base must be broadened.
This is not broadening the tax base.
Then what is it doing?
It is taking money from exactly the same people-----
Deputy Ross should not be ridiculous.
(Interruptions).
Deputy Ross's theatrics have a place and people can pay €25 for the privilege of seeing those theatrics in that place.
The Tánaiste would do well-----
(Interruptions).
It is a pantomime over there.
(Interruptions).
A Deputy
Would people pay to watch what is happening here?
We did not have to pay at the box office this morning in order to listen to Deputy Ross.
The Tánaiste will have to pay next time.
Deputy Ross knows well that the tax base must be broadened.
Is including social welfare recipients the way to broaden it? That is a new concept.
That is Labour's way.
He is also well aware that householders are being given various options with regard to method of payment. As he is further aware, over 70% of householders have paid the household charge. I thank them for doing so. When this Parliament decides that a tax should be levied, there is an obligation on everyone to be compliant and pay it. The Revenue Commissioners have developed expertise in the collection of taxes.
They take a long time to get money from tax defaulters.
If we were to give responsibility for collecting the property tax to some other agency, Deputy Ross would be the first to make the argument about duplication of resources and the additional cost relating to tax collection.
Deputy Ross was speaking on behalf of the Socialist Party.