I call Deputy Pearse Doherty to move the motion. I understand the Deputy is sharing time with Deputies Ó Caoláin, Crowe, Colreavy, McLellan, Martin Ferris and Healy-Rae.
Confidence in the Government: Motion [Private Members]
I move:
That Dáil Éireann has no confidence in the Fine Gael and Labour coalition Government; which has failed to fulfil its obligations to make political decisions and choices which benefit the citizens of this State.
It is disappointing that there is no senior Minister present for the debate. This is a simple motion which states that the House has no confidence in the Government because Fine Gael and Labour have failed in their obligations to make political decisions and choices which benefit the citizens of this State. When this Government was formed, there was enormous hope and expectation that things were going to be different. In the months following the formation of the coalition, that hope and expectation was slowly dashed. As Fine Gael and Labour began to break successive election promises and commitments in the programme for Government, public confidence in this Administration began to ebb away.
What the Government did on Wednesday last opened the floodgates to deep disappointment and burning anger. Across the State, people of all political persuasions and none have lost confidence in the Government.
The Sinn Féin motion is simply an echo of the frustration and disillusionment felt by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people across the State. It is a reflection of the anger of ordinary people who are asking themselves why Fine Gael and Labour lied to them and why the parties now in Government made pre-election promises on child benefit and property tax only to break those promises within months of taking office. Pre-election promises may mean little to politicians like Deputy Pat Rabbitte or his colleagues in Cabinet. Those promises are the reason the voters chose one candidate or one party over another.
For almost a week now, my offices in Leinster House and Donegal have been inundated with calls from angry and upset people, not just constituents of mine but people from across the State. Some of them want to vent their anger, some want to explain the human impact this budget will have on their lives and all of them feel that this Government has let them down and betrayed them.
Budget 2013 marks the total betrayal of the election promises of this Fine Gael and Labour Government. I could give countless examples of why Members on both sides of the House should vote no confidence in this Government. Tonight I will focus on three examples: the cut to the carer's respite grant, the cut to child benefit and the family home tax. Last Wednesday, a woman from County Sligo telephoned my office. She was in tears. As a blind pensioner who lives alone in a rural area her telephone and broadband are her lifelines to the outside world. They are not a luxury but are vital for her to live. Through her tears she said that if the cuts to the telephone allowance went ahead she would not be able to afford her telephone and Internet service. She would be cut off, isolated and her quality of life would be destroyed. This is the human face of this Fine Gael and Labour budget.
Today I had the great privilege of talking to the carers who gathered in front of Leinster House calling for the reversal of the cut in the carer's respite grant. They are all remarkable people. Each of them told a different story of how this cut would impact on them and the loved ones they care for. As the protest came to an end and after many hours of carers standing in the freezing cold, I invited some of them to come in and warm themselves with a cup of tea before they headed home. Caroline from Dublin was one of them. I had never met her before. She told me her own personal story. Caroline is wheelchair-bound. She lives with a debilitating and progressive disease yet she is a woman with remarkable strength and courage. I initially thought that Caroline was the person being cared for but in fact Caroline is the carer. She lives alone with her 75 year-old mother who suffers with Parkinson’s disease and is a diabetic. Caroline administers her mother’s dialysis each day at home. She spoke about the challenges of being wheelchair bound, of getting her mother out of bed, washing, showering and dressing her every day and of all the other duties.
While she started telling the story with the kind of humour that comes naturally to a daughter talking about caring for her mother, her eyes welled up and she broke into tears. She asked why the Government valued her so little. She said that she hated the way this Government made her feel about herself. Caroline is a 24 hours a day, seven days a week carer. Her mother would be unable to function without her support. Every day, Caroline has the strength and courage to carry out the countless invisible tasks of a carer so that her mother can live with dignity. This is the human face of budget 2013. This is the real consequence of Fine Gael and Labour's proposal to cut the respite care grant. For every cut to a vital support there is a story like Caroline’s. This is what Fine Gael and Labour are doing to the people they promised to protect.
This is a budget that attacks carers, the sick, older people, children and families. It is a budget that will increase financial hardship and poverty for tens of thousands of families. The cuts to child benefit, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the taxing of maternity benefit are all anti-child measures.
During the general election campaign, the Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore said there would be no cuts to child benefit under his watch, that this was a red line issue for the Labour Party. If any of its Deputies bothered to turn up to listen to this debate, I would not have to explain to them the difficulties and the impact this will have on children and families. They know only too well. That is the reason this issue was a central part of their election campaign. How does the Labour Party expect those families who will be affected by this cut, particularly those who voted for the party on the basis of this promise, to have any confidence in it?
I will now deal with the family home tax. The Government claims it is a property tax but this is not true, it is a tax on the family home. A total of 170,000 families are in serious mortgage distress. Hundreds of thousands of them are in negative equity. Tens of thousands of people paid huge sums in stamp duty at the height of the boom. A total of 1.8 million households have less than €100 per month after essential bills are paid. Fine Gael and Labour campaigned on a promise to assist those who are struggling to pay their mortgages. They promised to ease their burden. Instead, the Government has slapped a tax on the family home on top of all the other stealth taxes and charges contained in the budget. The Government could have introduced a wealth tax, making those with the most pay the most. It could have cut the lavish pay of politicians, senior civil servants and bankers. It could have introduced emergency legislation to claw back the massive pensions paid to the bankers and former Cabinet Ministers who wrecked the economy. Instead, Fine Gael and Labour chose to hit carers, the sick, children and families. They chose to behave just like Fianna Fáil before them.
These are just three reasons why the public has lost confidence in this Government. It has lost confidence because the Government made a choice to make ordinary people pay for the bad decisions, the failed policies and the stroke politics of Fianna Fáil and their crooked banker and developer friends. This is what budget 2013 is about. There is no doubt that Fine Gael and Labour have broken their contract with the people. They have ridden roughshod over their election promises. They have torn to shreds their programme for Government commitments. They have destroyed the hopes and expectations of the entire population. This is the reason Sinn Féin has tabled this motion of confidence in the Government tonight. The Government never had the support of Sinn Féin but now it has lost the support of the people. I urge the House to support this motion.
I will begin my contribution with a quotation.
I spent half an hour outside the gates of Leinster House today with parents of disabled children who are having their respite services removed ... It is very clear that these parents are under terrible pressure. Due to a penny wise, pound foolish HSE initiative, which the Minister approves, they will lose their respite care. Parents who are getting on in years cannot cope without it and will give up, much and all as it will hurt them to do so, and these children will end up in full-time care, costing the State many multiples of the money required to provide respite care.
Those are the words of Deputy James Reilly, then Fine Gael health spokesperson, speaking in this House on 7 July 2010. This is the Minister who, with his Cabinet colleagues by means of budget 2013, has cut the respite care grant, in one of the meanest attacks on the vulnerable in many years. The Minister is also trebling prescription charges for medical card-holders. The quotation I have cited was from the debate on the Bill introduced by the former Minister, Mary Harney, to impose prescription charges.
In that debate Deputy Reilly also stated:
The Bill is vehemently opposed by the Opposition with good reason. It will be aimed at the most vulnerable, sickest and weakest in our society. [...]
Anything that discourages people from taking their medicine results in them falling ill, developing complications and having to attend hospital, often being admitted. A single day in hospital more than wipes out the cost of drug treatment for an entire year for the vast majority of people. These might be savings in theory but, as has so often happened previously, they might transpire not to be savings at all. [...]
This 50 cent charge might not appear to be much to the Minister or me, but it is for many low income families. International research shows that any disincentive for people to take medicines should be avoided, as certain patients will inevitably end up in hospital.
Every word of this is as true today as it was on 7 July 2010, yet the Minister has increased the charge from 50 cent per item to €1.50 and has increased the monthly maximum to €19.50, in addition to increasing the drugs payment scheme limit to €144. A Government that repeatedly trumpets its belief in the crucial role of primary care in our health system has undermined primary care with this rise in drugs charges for patients.
Last week the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, claimed in a radio interview that the Labour Party did not commit to the reversal of the prescription charges. That is not true. In Labour's "Plan for Fair Health Care", published on 8 February 2011, it is stated:
Medical card holders qualified for free drugs until this Government introduced a 50 cent per item prescription charge in 2010. Labour in government will remove this charge.
This was less than two years ago. Last Wednesday, Labour's commitment was blatantly broken. The words of Labour Party health spokesperson Deputy Jan O'Sullivan in the debate on prescription charges in the Dáil on 7 July 2010 are still true:
The people who will be affected by it are the poor and the sick and they are not the people who should have charges imposed on them because of the drastic situation in our public finances. They are the very opposite of those who should have to pay.
The Bill copper-fastens the inequalities in our society.
I pointed out in that debate that when Government representatives were challenged, their main argument was that the charge was one of only 50 cent per item and a maximum of €10 per month. I said that was pure deception because the Bill in question empowered the Minister at any time in the future to make regulations to vary the charges. I said we knew that that Minister and future Ministers would increase the prescription charges for medical card holders and I predicted that would happen if the Bill were passed. Deputy Reilly, who is now the Minister, agreed with me on the floor of this House, pledging to reverse the charge. Of course, the then Minister, Ms Mary Harney, gave no such undertaking. I little thought that, within such a short time, I would be standing here protesting over the trebling of this very charge on prescriptions by the Fine Gael-Labour Government. In opposition, the parties promised to abolish it.
I have gone into detail on this one aspect of the budget because it illustrates clearly that the Government is not only grossly unfair but also grossly dishonest. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, confirmed this by letting the mask slip on "The Week in Politics" last Sunday when asked if he had not violated Labour's election commitment that, by voting for the party, it would protect child benefit. He replied: "Isn't that what you tend to do during an election." Shame on all in government. The Government should go, and go now.
At the last general election, the people overwhelmingly rejected the policies of the Government of Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats.
And the Deputy's plans.
My plans were not rejected at all; I actually got elected. Irrespective of that, there is a consensus among the electorate and political commentators that the last Government stayed too long in power, lost touch with people, ignored the escalating financial crisis and, believing its own propaganda, assumed was good for at least another term in office. People voted for a fairer and better way, a change and an alternative. Unfortunately, they have not seen that change or alternative. The Government got elected on the back of promises it made to an electorate that expected and demanded a new approach.
During the general election campaign, in 2011, the current Government parties promised to protect working families and vulnerable citizens from unfair policies and measures that would drastically affect their living standard. However, the ink was hardly dry on the programme for Government when the current Government began its assault on working families and those on low and middle incomes. The Government promised to oppose any attempt to introduce cuts to child benefit, yet, in the next couple of days, it proposes to cut child benefit and penalise families who are hanging on the edge of a financial cliff. We heard the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources say at the weekend that one tends to do this during an election campaign. When the governing parties entered office, they parked their election promises and somehow buried the legitimate aspirations of the electorate.
Cuts to child benefit, no matter how they are wrapped up and presented, are plainly and simply wrong. The cuts are anti-child and anti-woman and penalise large families. They will push even more families, including children, into poverty.
I find it repugnant and difficult to listen to well-meaning Government Members who defend in this Chamber policies that they were elected to overturn and reject. They are actually implementing the policies of the preceding Government. At the weekend, a Minister seemed to have no problem with all these social welfare cuts. He stated: "When the facts change, I change my mind." I question what that means.
The reason circumstances have not changed is that the Government has failed to negotiate a deal to remove the burden of private banking debt from the shoulders of taxpayers. During the election campaign, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, now Tánaiste, proclaimed voters had a choice between Labour's way and Frankfurt's way. Is this budget Labour's way? That is the question people are asking. Where is Labour's stamp on the budget? In government, it has refused to impose losses on unsecured, unguaranteed senior bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. The State will pay €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish Bank on 31 March 2013 and €4 billion to Bank of Ireland in May 2013. The Government cut child benefit, introduced a family home tax and reduced respite grants to carers while giving the unsecured bondholders a free pass to as much of the Irish people's money as they wanted. This is the crazy point and what is annoying the people. The Government parties said one thing and did the opposite. That is what is killing people who are suffering in their homes.
One has only to walk outside Leinster House to see the change that has happened under the current Government. One can see in the doorways the number of people sleeping rough on the streets. The Minister of State, Deputy McGinley, will note the increasing number. This is the responsibility of the people in this House. We have failed the homeless. Christmas is approaching and they have no roof over their heads.
The cruellest cut of all is the cut to the respite care benefit. It represents the difference between sanity and insanity for some families, as we all know. We all rightly praise the carers but ultimately the Government is cutting the respite care benefit.
I described the position of students during the week. We are starving them out of education through the budgetary cuts and the delays associated with the SUSI programme. We need to reconsider the budget as there is no fair provision. The Government says it is a fairer budget but there is nothing fair about it. The Government needs to think again about it.
The spring of 2011 was a time of political excitement. After 14 years of mis-government, which left a legacy of political corruption, service malfunction and financial destruction, there was a chance of a new start.
The general election in 2011 was an exciting time for me, as a first-time TD, but it was also an exciting time for the Irish electorate who were crying out for change from the tried and failed ways of the previous Government. During the election campaign I recall that Fine Gael and the Labour Party tried to outdo each other in portraying themselves as being different from the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government. The change of government seemed to herald a new dawn, a new way of governance. Perhaps I was a little naive but I believed the now-Taoiseach when he said on my first day in the Dáil that there would be openness, transparency and a willingness to work with the Opposition parties and Deputies in the interests of the Irish people. Were we really going to see the promised democratic revolution? After nearly one year and nine months in government my only question is: where is its democratic revolution?
I will read a summary of an e-mail I received from a distressed constituent last week. It states:
This time twelve months ago my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He was a decent hard-working man who provided for his family and paid his way all through his working life. Over the past year the situation has become increasingly difficult. My elderly mother is now my father's carer. My father is in need of 24-hour care and attention. The situation is so severe that my mother's dress size has reduced from size 14 to a size 8 in one year. My father is still very physically active despite his disease. From early afternoon until his bed time at 10.30 p.m. he walks laps of the house, attempts to go home even though he is already at home and is constantly anxious about the farm that he has retired from. He has very poor co-ordination due to the medication that he is on and is prone to accidents. Only last week he fell and cut his cheek.
Daily tasks are now a struggle for him. Shaving has left him with many cuts and scratches; finding the toilet has caused him problems and has led him to urinating in random places around the house.
His HSE transport to day services was withdrawn last month. My 72 year old mother, a frail nervous woman who was never the main driver, now has to drive Dad for respite care.
The only saving grace for my mother has been the respite care that my father has been receiving. My mother is 72 years old and these periods of peace are possibly the only reason she has not fallen sick herself. My mother is saving the state major money by caring for her husband at home and she is doing it because she thinks it is the right thing to do.
My question is this: is it part of Fine Gael's and Labour's democratic revolution to take respite care from this elderly woman? What is in the happy Christmas and new year greeting card to this couple? A reduction of €325 in the respite care grant, a increase of €250 to €350 in the family house tax, and a continuing reduction of respite care services and transport as the HSE and voluntary organisations struggle in vain to meet people's needs with diminishing resources. The Minister's only response when we in Sinn Féin point out that there are fair alternatives, choices that could be made, is for those on the Government benches to shout abuse at us - abuse that has nothing to do with the cases we put forward - just like their Fianna Fáil and Green Party predecessors. A merry Christmas and healthy and happy new year indeed. Shame on the Government.
The motion proposing no confidence in the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government comes in the wake of one of the most savage budgets in the history of this State. This week will see a reduction in child benefit payments, cuts in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and cuts to the respite care grant. The Government is clearly anti-children. More importantly, it is anti the ordinary man and woman on the street who are struggling to make ends meet. Attacking the poor and the vulnerable, introducing measures that increase inequality and poverty, and protecting the rich and affluent by refusing to introduce a wealth tax are, by any standards, the hallmark of a vicious and cruel state. When these same facts are pointed out in this House, the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, has no defence. Instead, his only response is to resort to personal insult, defamation and slander of my party's leader, Deputy Gerry Adams. Let me tell him that the Irish people are not fooled by such diversionary tactics. They know only too well the lengths to which the Government is prepared to go to defend its own power and privilege and, more importantly, to protect the class interests of a rich and pampered minority of Irish society. On what basis, I might ask, has the Government reserved for itself the right to become the political and moral conscience of the Irish people? The Taoiseach presides over a Government that misled the Irish people and that has reneged on almost all of its election promises. He is the head of a party that has at its core a deep-rooted ideological belief that places the primacy of the market over the welfare and well-being of ordinary Irish men, women and children. If there is an ethical, moral and political bankruptcy present in this House, it is to be found not in the Sinn Féin Party but in Fine Gael and its lackeys in government, the so-called Labour Party. The country is led by a puppet Government that takes its instructions from the institutions of market capitalism. Let us not be under any illusion: Fine Gael and Labour Party politicians, by virtue of the policies they are now implementing, are nothing more than heartless, bureaucratic functionaries administering the Irish State in the interest of bondholders, speculators and a European political elite.
The Government has betrayed the Irish people and its own election promises. In terms of a vision or a plan, it is morally and politically bankrupt. It has one and only one agenda and that is to cling to power at all costs. To do this it is willing to cut child benefit when the incomes of households with children are already falling further and faster. The same households are three times more likely to be in debt arising from ordinary everyday living expenses than households without children. Yet, according to the Government, a family with children is fair game and it will be penalised. Even worse, if one is a carer who works 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the home, then in the eyes of the Government one is also fair game.
What type of government, one must ask, would go after two of the most vulnerable groups in Irish society - children and carers? The answer is simple: a Fine Gael-Labour Party Government that has turned its back on the people who elected it, that is politically bankrupt and that is prepared to wage war on the most vulnerable and powerless groups in Irish society. In the coming months the same Government plans to introduce a tax on the family home. It appears there are no depths to which the Government will not sink when it comes to attacks on the living standards of the vulnerable and the overworked. I call on the Government to do at least one decent thing since it came to power - that is, to reverse the proposed cuts to the carer's respite grant.
Deputies Ferris and Healy Rae are sharing time.
The performance of the Government since coming into office has been and continues to be disgraceful. It consists of a litany of broken promises and betrayal of the trust of the electorate. It has conducted its campaign with false promises that it has since betrayed. It has also betrayed the promise not to continue with the failed policies of Fianna Fáil. Unfortunately the Government continues on that path.
The Government has no mandate to punish or pauperise ordinary working-class people and the less well off.
Nor has it the mandate to continue the failed policies of Fianna Fáil. The onslaught on unfortunate people dependent on State support and those organisations which deliver the support services to these people, which incidentally saves the taxpayer millions each year, are not on the Government's radar. The Government's actions confirm Fine Gael and Labour have an agenda against the less well-off. Whichever party is responsible for it, both parties are complicit by the fact they continue to penalise people with disabilities, students and families.
Along with all other sectors of the community, farmers were also negatively impacted by the budget. Among the areas where the axe fell were the disadvantaged area scheme, the sheep grassland payment and the suckler cow welfare scheme, as well as cuts to farm assist. These cuts will penalise less well-off farmers.
I wish to read into the record correspondence I, along with every other Member, received today, particularly for the attention of the Ministers opposite, Deputies Howlin and Varadkar and the Minister of State, Deputy O' Dowd. The e-mail states:
My name is X and l am a lone parent, full-time minder to my two young daughters, Sarah, 12, years old and Amy, 15, years old. I am a former civil servant, retired early on health grounds and on a very small pension. Amy suffers with chronic complex congenital heart disease, is attending Crumlin for haematology services, dermatology services and specific dental services. Amy has also developed amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis, which at the moment, means fortnightly checks by the endocrinology team.
I would not know where to begin to try and describe to you what a day in the life of this household is like. Amy has had five open heart surgeries and 32 other surgical interventions, countless trips up and down to Crumlin. She has had two tours of duty in Southampton General Hospital lasting 2 months each, where they saved her life on several occasions. The HSE responded with a €1,000 grant to cover our costs, which ran in excess of €15,000. We have even spent Christmas Day in Crumlin, a memorable affair thanks to the staff of St. Brigid's ward.
I will not get started on the HSE. They recently "lost" four completed application forms for Amy's medical card which was due for renewal in February this year. Amy's medical card was issued in May this year and is valid only to February 2013, whereby the whole game starts all over again. The absence of bad language in the last three lines is nothing short of miraculous.
So what is Santa bringing Amy and Sarah [me] this year: a reduction in child allowance; annual respite care grant reduced from €1,700 to €1,375; car tax increase; a reduction in the household benefits package; local property tax; prescription charges tripled; the threshold for the drugs payment scheme increased.
All of this is happening on the Minister's watch. You are responsible for Amy's well-being and her life. Your Government and those Members opposite who support it are directly responsible for what has happened in this case.
Deputy Ferris, through the Chair please.
That is what has happened to a 12 year old child in this country. That is what has been carried out in the name of this country by this Government.
The Deputy is a disgrace.
That child is only barely surviving. Her father, a lone parent, is trying to ensure she does survive. She gets no support services from the State and the family was offered a measly €1,000 for treatment in the UK which cost €15,000. She has had five open heart surgeries along with 32 other surgical interventions. That is why I, this party and the people out there have no confidence in this Government. That is why the people are disgusted with the Deputies opposite for supporting the wrongs being carried out by the Government.
I thank Deputy Ferris and Sinn Féin for sharing time with me.
Last year, at the opening of a care facility for helping people with special needs in Kenmare, County Kerry, when the Taoiseach met Donal Harrington, he put his hands around his back and told him not to worry as the Government would look after him and his wife. Donal is the full-time carer for his daughter, Georgia, who has special needs. They live in Hawthorn Woods, Kenmare and are a respectable family doing their best. Donal, like myself and others, took the Taoiseach at this word then. However, it turned out to be broken promise. The Taoiseach and the Government have taken a chunk of the respite care grant from the likes of Donal. It is a desperately needed grant. Every penny is accounted for and it is not a slush fund.
Our young people who are living in houses they cannot afford were promised they would be helped by Fine Gael and Labour if they were elected to government. Now, their children's allowance has been cut and a property tax will be imposed on them by a Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government who did not even have the courtesy to come into the Dáil last week for the budget. It is the first time in the history of the State that a property tax will be introduced and the Minister responsible did not see fit to stay in Ireland but had business to attend to in other parts of the world.
Our elderly people who built this country, and for whom we all have great respect, were promised they too would be taken care of. What have they got? They have to pay the property tax and endure cuts to their household packages. More broken promises. Promises made and promises broken.
The only thing our students did not get during the last election was a pledge written in blood. The Minister in question knew he would be Minister after the election but went ahead and signed a pledge declaring no cuts to student grants or an increase in fees if in power. The students bought it then. If I were a student, I would have bought it too. We all took it hook, line and sinker but Labour and Fine Gael will not catch them again. Promises made and promises broken.
Our farmers believed they would be taken care of by the Government. It must be remembered these are the people who have to put up with the worst type of weather with all types of problems facing them but they do not have the comfort of any agreement taking care of their income. They have been cut and cut again and now must suffer another €80 million to be cut from agriculture funding.
Rural Garda stations are being closed by a Minister for Justice and Equality whose breathtaking arrogance both inside and outside this Chamber is incredible – if one passed him on the corridor, one would note he is oozing arrogance. He sold out rural Ireland by closing down a further 100 Garda stations when it will not save one cent. I have proof that it will actually cost more money to keep Garda stations closed rather than it would to keep them open.
At this stage, the public will remember for a long time the lies, the misleading and mistruths done by Fine Gael and Labour. Deputy Ferris and I know how Government party Members go to community meetings declaring about how they are all about standing with the people when in fact they will do the divil and all for the people. When they come up to Dublin, they forget all about it. They are delivering nothing at home only pain, hardship and misfortune. They are trying to give the impression they are doing something for the people when they are not. When they come up here it is a different story because we know it as we see it at first hand.
I wish to share time with Deputies Varadkar and O'Dowd.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:
“has confidence in the Government as it deals with the current economic crisis in as fair a manner as possible, while prioritising economic recovery and job creation.”
It is usual when a motion of confidence is moved in this House that there is some expectation that it might be successful. This is not such an occasion. The motion before the House amounts to little more than political posturing by the Sinn Féin party.
The Minister would know a lot about that.
Sinn Féin is a party that complains about political decisions but has shown little or no capacity to make any decisions. Its policies are the stuff of fantasy. We can provide the policy document.
Which part of it?
That party claimed it would not accept one cent of EU or IMF funding.
We did not.
When it comes to decision making-----
(Interruptions).
The Minister, without interruption.
We do not use vulgarity in this House, normally.
The Minister has no problem cutting the carer's allowance.
We have had an orderly debate up to now.
I know. Deputy O'Brien has no standards at all. When it comes to making decisions, Sinn Féin will not make them, at least in this part of the island. It makes decisions in Northern Ireland but its members do not like to be reminded of them down here.
Does the Minister know where that is?
In Sinn Féin land it is always someone else's fault. The Government has been in office a mere eighteen months.
That is too long.
It inherited an economy in an EU-IMF programme. Even in the awful days of the 1980s we avoided that. It was an economy unable to sustain itself. It was an economy which, until that programme was agreed, would have run out of money to pay the wages of teachers and gardaí. It was an economy which would not have been able to pay any child benefit to any of its citizens or any pensions to its elderly. All of this was largely as a result of a decision taken by the Fianna Fáil Party when last in government, and supported by the sponsors of the motion, to socialise private banking debt and place it upon the backs of the people. Sinn Féin has a brass neck to move this motion.
After 18 months the Government's stewardship is changing the country. The economy is on the road to recovery. Economic growth returned last year and the economy is set to grow again this year. Every programme target set has been met. Our deficit is coming down. This year's target of 8.6% of GDP will be met. Our tax revenues are growing again. Our public sector is being modernised and industrial peace has been maintained. Our international reputation has been rescued. Our bond spreads have come down and we have secured independent funding in the markets for the first time in four years. We have introduced a jobs initiative and an action plan alongside a stimulus plan to invest in vital infrastructure and jobs. The last CSO quarterly household survey shows unemployment coming down for the first time in many years.
That is because people are emigrating.
The recovery is under way precisely because the Government has taken difficult decisions. No one on this side of the House takes any pleasure in what has happened to our country or in the decisions we have had to take since coming into office to begin the process of rebuilding and recovery.
I stated in my budget speech last week that the people have endured a fiscal correction without precedent in any modern western economy. The people have done so with an amount of dignity and courage. Most independent commentators agree that the burden has been shared progressively throughout the social spectrum. Not every decision made by Government has been perfect; it never could be and never will be.
The State has responded to the crisis. In a recession, more is asked of the State and its public services, not less. We have tried to ensure the least well-off are protected as much as possible. I use the term "protected", but no one has been immune. The scale of the crisis has ensured that much. Anyway, the people know we need to get out of this programme. They realise that failure to do so will not only delay restoring our economic sovereignty but will see further financial correction imposed upon us from outside the State, with little or no freedom and without the possibility of any Irish Government resisting. We need only look elsewhere in Europe to see that this is an inescapable fact. Moreover, the people realise that when the future of Europe is being discussed, Ireland needs to participate in the discussions without the constraints of being a programme member dependent on others. They know, too, that we are making slow and painful progress and that this crisis has brought down an awful burden on the young people of our country. The people have no intention of allowing the agony to be prolonged. They expect, rightly, some generosity from our European Union neighbour countries because the young population of the State has paid the greatest price for the stability of the European banking sector. While the solidarity received thus far is welcome, it falls short of what we need and deserve.
We know that Ireland bears its share of responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in. Our people are paying a heavy price for these failures. However, the people know that systemic European weaknesses played a part in our banking and property bubbles. The Government expects our European partners to acknowledge as much.
The people know we have other problems to tackle and that the fiscal crisis is only the first of the hurdles we must overcome. Our unemployment problem remains. Today's ESRI report reveals a particular problem involving non-working households which goes beyond the fiscal crisis and requires a measured and considered response. The people know that this fiscal crisis has caused legacy issues that will take us years to address. They know that what has happened in Ireland is both tragic and complex. It is trivialised by the motion before the House.
No change of Government would change the problems we must address as a nation. Are Sinn Féin or Fianna Fail or both together offering such a solution to the people? Even after last week's budget and the difficult decisions we made, we will borrow €1 billion plus per month next year to pay our bills. Sinn Fein's response is denial. Its position is to ignore the problem, to hope it will go away and to tell the EU and IMF, as per the Sinn Féin pre-election submission, to take a hike and that Ireland will mind its own business.
This is a national Government committed to restoring our county's fortune.
No, it is not a national Government.
Two parties, of different ideological perspectives, have come together.
It is not a national Government.
(Interruptions).
The Minister, without interruption.
That party believes it owns the word "nation" as well as our flag, but it owns neither. Two parties of different ideological perspectives have come together to pursue a single shared aim. Deputies on this side of the House who support the Government do so not because it is easy. It is not easy. They do so because they know the long-term interest of the people requires decisions to be taken because the country does not enjoy the resources it once had. They do so because they know the national interest is more important than their own careers or the advance of their party. They do so because they recognise the world that faces us as it is, not as others would pretend it to be. They are putting their shoulders to the wheel, not hurling abuse from the ditch. None of that can be said about this motion or the party that has moved it.
I wish to speak against the Sinn Féin motion and in favour of the Government amendment which expresses confidence in the Government as it deals with the current economic crisis. This is a good Government. As the Minister, Deputy Howlin, noted, it is a Government of national unity and is, therefore, unprecedented. For the first time in the history of the State, the two largest parties in the Dáil have come together to form a Government. The main party on the centre right and the main party on the centre left have come together to form a Government. That is not a normal thing to happen in a democracy but we do not live in normal times. We live in very difficult times and we are doing what is necessary. In coming together the two parties have given political stability to the country through to 2016. We have provided a strong enough majority in this House and the other House to make the necessary changes. It may be the case that along the way we lose some people, but we need to be in a position to be able to do that. We cannot have a Government dependent on a few Independents or in a minority position.
I acknowledge that we have made mistakes and that change has come too slowly, which frustrates people. I too am frustrated that this has been the case. Times are tough. Far too many people are out of work, far too many individuals and families are struggling to make ends meet and the burden on business is great, with many forced to close. However, when one considers what this Government inherited, it has made enormous progress in the past two years. The target set in respect of the budget deficit was 8.6% of GDP. We are beating that target, coming in at 8.2% and the deficit next year will be lower. I acknowledge it is still a huge deficit and that it is worse than that of Greece but we are at last for once moving in the right direction.
Unemployment has fallen to 14.6% and has now stabilised. The most recent quarterly national household survey indicates that for the first time since 2005, bearing in mind unemployment started to rise long before the recession occurred, the number of people unemployed is decreasing. This is not only because of emigration. We know from the same statistics that employment is increasing again for the first time, in particular in the private sector. While people will say that there are 26,000 fewer people in employment today than were in employment a year ago, this is because of the Government's policy of reducing the number of people in the public service.
What about the 150,000 people who have left the country?
Employment in the private sector is increasing. As stated by the Minister, Deputy Howlin, we now have growth as measured by GDP. Believe it or not - one would not believe it if one spent too much time reading the newspapers and listening to the media and I say that as a statement of fact rather than a criticism of the media - retail sales have increased for four months in a row, which has not happened for a long time. I sincerely hope this continues throughout Christmas and when the budget measures hit people's pockets in January. Property prices are showing signs of stability. We have been, to a degree, able to return to the bond markets and tourism increased by 10% in 2011 and at worst figures this year will be flat. It is hoped they will increase slightly. Also, our international reputation has been restored. A year ago people talked seriously about Ireland defaulting but that is no longer the topic of serious discussion. A year ago we were part of PIIGS along with Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. That is no longer the case. People see a clear distinction between the countries of southern Europe and Ireland. This is important because it has allowed the IDA to have its best year since the late 1980s in terms of the creation of jobs in this country.
We did not get one job in Kerry.
It is also important because it has allowed us to become a credible exporter again. Exports have not only recovered to where they were prior to the recession. We are now exporting more than we did before the recession began. That is not to diminish the difficulties which people are facing.
When it comes to motions tabled by Sinn Féin Members on this side of the House often, and for good reason, like to refer to Sinn Féin's record in the North, the Troubles and the terrible things done in our name, without a mandate, in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. However, I will not speak about that tonight. Rather I will speak about Sinn Féin's record in recent years since it formed part of the Government in Northern Ireland. Rates in Northern Ireland, which is the property tax applied in Derry and Belfast, are approximately £1,000 per annum per household. I know bin charges are included in that fee.
It is £700 per annum.
It may well be £700 per annum for the average house. The sum of £700 is equal to about €900.
The Minister should read the list of what people get for it.
That fee includes nothing else beyond bin charges. In the Republic of Ireland the property tax on the average house will be approximately €300 to €400 per annum.
The people will get nothing for it.
They will not even get free bin collection or free water.
There has been respect for the-----
If the Minister is going to speak about the North he should at least get his facts right.
There has been respect for speakers up to now. Please allow the Minister to continue as he has only five minutes remaining.
I do know my facts.
The Minister does not know his facts.
The Minister, without interruption.
I will give the Minister the facts later if he wishes.
I know it may be difficult for some Members opposite to understand it but this country is still a democracy and we are allowed to speak in our national Parliament. I did not interrupt any of the speakers opposite nor do I intend to do so as long as I am here for this debate.
At the same time, Sinn Féin members here called for a boycott of the household charge and are now calling for a boycott of the property tax.
That is another falsehood. I ask the Minister to name one Sinn Féin Deputy who called for a boycott.
Quiet, please.
That is false information.
That is not true. The Minister is making a false accusation.
The Deputy will have another opportunity to speak tomorrow.
In which case, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I am happy to clarify the record.
I call on the Minister to withdraw that accusation and to say which Sinn Féin Deputy called for a boycott.
Name the person.
Deputies, please. Time for this debate is limited.
On a point of order, will the Minister say which Sinn Féin Deputy called for a boycott?
Stop shouting down the Minister.
There is only limited time for this debate. I call on the Minister to continue.
The Minister should deal with the facts.
If the anti-democratic people across the floor would allow me to clarify I would be happy to do so.
We are anti-lies.
May I speak?
The Minister should clarify the matter.
He should name the Sinn Féin Deputy concerned.
I have been allocated ten minutes to speak but have not been allowed to do so by the anti-democratic forces in this House. I will clarify what I said. Sinn Féin is campaigning against the property tax and some elected representatives of Sinn Féin are boycotting that tax.
Which Sinn Féin Deputy called for the boycott? The Minister said a Sinn Féin Deputy had "called" for a boycott.
This is not Question Time.
I have clarified the matter. There is no greater act of disloyalty or infidelity to the State than that. These Sinn Féin representatives have no difficulty paying tax to Tory councils in Westminster. They pay Tory taxes on their empty apartments in Westminster and pay rates on their mansions in Northern Ireland yet they will not pay taxes that are due to local government and this State. Never has there been greater disloyalty and infidelity than that.
When it comes to welfare, in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is in power, the minimum wage is £6.19 per hour for people over 21 years and is much lower for people below that age. In some cases, the minimum wage is just over £2 per hour. The carer's allowance in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is in power, is £58.42 per week. It is reduced if a person is in receipt of other welfare payments or income.
By whom?
That payment here is more than €200 per week. The State pension in Northern Ireland is £175.45 per week. Here it is €230 per week.
Who fixes that pension?
As I understand it, based on research I have carried out, there is no respite care allowance in Northern Ireland. One has to apply to one's health trust in respect of a holiday. When it comes to child benefit-----
(Interruptions).
Deputy Ferris.
Sinn Féin takes credit for jobs but nothing else.
Deputy Nolan, I can handle this.
If there are any other examples as to why these people should not be allowed ever get into power, it is their failure to allow people to speak.
That will not be the Minister's decision.
They cannot tolerate opposition or anyone who disagrees with their views.
That will be the decision of the Irish people, not the Minister.
Deputy O'Brien.
I will not be lectured by the Minister.
The Deputy will have an opportunity tomorrow to reply.
Stop shouting people down.
I will not be lectured by the Minister.
This is the alternative to the current Government.
One would expect the Minister to tell the truth.
I will have to suspend the House if this continues. The Minister has a minute and a half remaining.
I thank the Chair for his protection. Thank God we have the protection of the Chair in this House and the protection of the Garda Síochána and Defence Forces because God forbid if people like Sinn Féin ever got into power.
That is a disgraceful comment.
Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I think you should suspend the House.
Silence please, Deputies.
As I said, there is no respite care grant in Northern Ireland and one has to apply to the health trust for a holiday. Child benefit in Northern Ireland is £80 for the first child, reducing to £60 for each subsequent child.
That is set by the British Government.
The only interest Sinn Féin has taken in economic policy is to seek a transfer of corporate taxation powers to Northern Ireland so as to reduce corporation profit taxes for corporations. At the same time, it refuses to take an economic Ministry because it does not want to take responsibility for the measures in place in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin will of course argue that it is only implementing Tory policies. In reality, Sinn Féin is party to a Government of a State which is dependant on Tory subsidies. When they have to balance the books in the way we here have to balance our books they will be reducing those already paltry welfare rates further.
In its pre-budget submission Sinn Féin proposed €3.5 billion in spending cuts and new taxes. Yet, it claims to be against austerity. Regardless of how one does it or dresses it up, the removal of €3.5 billion from the economy is austerity. Regardless of from whom one takes money, it will have a dampening effect on the economy. Sinn Féin can dress it up any way it likes. It is a pro-austerity party and should stop pretending otherwise.
Sinn Féin also proposed the taxing of pension contributions at the standard rate in its pre-budget submission. What does this mean? It means a pay cut for every public servant earning €35,000 per annum or more because they will be taxed at the standard rate on their pension levy. It means a pay cut for any private sector employee or self employed person who contributes to a pension because they will be taxed on their pension contributions. Sinn Féin wants pay cuts not only for the high paid but for everyone earning more than €35,000 per annum.
That is not true.
It is true. Deputy Ferris does not even know his own party's policies. It is hilarious that people like Sinn Féin think they could actually be involved in governing this country.
Sinn Féin has also proposed new spending of €338.68 million on eight or nine specific areas. They do not include in any of those areas additional funding for local authorities, public transport, tourism, sport or the arts. They do not propose to reverse last year's cutbacks to capitation, to agriculture or to the redundancy rebate, or to reverse the removal of the clothing and footwear allowance for two and three year olds. In fact, Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission does not propose to reverse any more than nine of the cuts made by the Government last year. In reality, it actually now accepts most of those cuts, and that is reflected in their submission.
That is not true.
Finally, to echo the words of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, the Government is doing the things it is doing not because they are easy but because they are hard. The Deputies in this House who support the Government do so not because it is easy but because it is hard. Often it is very hard to do the right thing.
When the Government came into office a year and a half ago the international ten-year rate for our bonds was about 15% and we could not borrow any more at that rate. All of these very difficult financial decisions have had to be made because we have surrendered our economic independence to the troika and we are bound by the conditions under which they lent to us. If there is any measure we can make of the changes that have taken place in the country since we came into power, it is that those ten-year bond yields were at 4.7% yesterday. There is increasing international confidence in the capacity of the Government to deal with our financial situation, to take the tough decisions that have to be taken and to work together, as we do, as a united Government to ensure that we create a future, particularly for our young people.
The emphasis in this budget, which has been missed by many people, is on creating the conditions to create more jobs. It is also about facing up to the question of how to increase inward investment. In the last 12 months the IDA has announced 11,000 new jobs as a result of foreign direct investment, which is the largest figure it has had in many years. There is also recovery in private sector job creation; in the last 12 months we have seen the creation of almost 20,000 new jobs, whereas in the previous few years we lost more than 250,000 jobs. We believe that the country is on course. The difficult decisions have been, are being and will continue to be made. It is like a ship turning around in the ocean - it is happening slowly but it is surely happening and the signs are very clear. When I go to Europe and meet my colleague ministers there is a universal acceptance among them that we are different from Greece, that we are meeting our requirements, tough as they are, and that we will stay the course.
One of the issues about which Sinn Féin has attacked us tonight is the property tax, which is effectively a wealth tax. The more one's property is worth, the more one will have to pay. Is there anything more democratic than that? One pays according to the value of one's property. I agree with Deputy Varadkar with regard to the property taxes in Northern Ireland. Let us be very clear on this. There are two parts to the property tax in Northern Ireland. The first is set by the Executive, which is the regional input. Then there is a local addition, which is made by each of the individual councils. In Belfast last year, Sinn Féin supported an increase in the local property tax of 2.5%. Not alone is the party not against the tax; it actually increased it. If one examines the property tax data on the Falls Road or any other road in Northern Ireland one can see that each property is listed by number and street name. One can also determine whether the owners have built an extension, whether the property has a garage and so forth, as there is a proportionate increase in the property tax if one improves one's house in any way. The figure I was given for what each household pays in property tax is the equivalent of €1,200. How can Sinn Féin sustain opposition to an unfair household charge - and it was unfair - of €100 while at the same time increasing a tax of more than €1,000 in the North? That is the reality up there and that is the truth of the matter.
We are spending €1 billion more per month than we actually take in. How do we address that? Some people argue that we should tax those on higher incomes, but we do that already. The OECD has said that the Irish PAYE system is the second most progressive tax system in the world. The more one earns, the more tax one pays. That is fair and equal. At the same time, we must attract new businesses and investment. Our highest rate of tax is 52% at present but we are competing with other countries in Europe and around the world for inward investment and the income tax rate is a key indicator. We do not believe we should increase the higher rate of tax. We believe that the tax system we have is fair and proportionate in every respect.
I wish to focus on my own constituency, which also happens to be the constituency of Deputy Adams. Since we came to power almost 18 months ago, more than 2,000 jobs have been created in County Louth. In fact, one in every ten euro of inward investment is going to what is called the North-South economic corridor. Many people are missing what is really happening in our country and particularly on the Belfast-to-Dublin corridor. It is has a first-class rail system, a fantastic road network, ubiquitous high-speed broadband access and a massive potential to grow. There is a new synergy between Ireland, North and South, in terms of the realism of both Administrations, and by working together we can make even greater strides. Obviously, people coming to work in County Louth can come as easily from County Down as they can from County Dublin. That is how we are developing the region in which I live. That is the future for our country.
Having lived in a Border county all my life I know all about the horrors and the evils that existed, but I acknowledge and accept that Sinn Féin has moved on from that and I very much welcome that fact. Let us try to build and increase the bonds between North and South. That is the future for this country. Developments should also have an impact from Donegal to Louth and across all of the Border counties. There is room for new synergies in our health systems, North and South, and that is an area which is under active discussion. That is the way we must go. We are in a new Ireland. We are in a very difficult place financially right now but we are getting there and are working together.
The other issue I want to address is water reform. At present in the Republic approximately 54% of all treated water never gets to a tap. We spend €1.2 billion on our water infrastructure. Over the next few years we will create thousands of jobs through improving our water infrastructure, which is a very progressive move. We should stress the positive, stress the changes that are happening, look to the future, look to young people and put away all of this negative opposition for opposition's sake. We must build on the good things about which we all agree and work together.
In September, Fianna Fáil tabled a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, because of his handling of the health services and Sinn Féin has now tabled a motion of no confidence in the Government. The reason we are speaking on this motion is not because of what happened yesterday or the day before but because of what was said by the two parties in this Government before the election. An analysis of the commitments made by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in advance of the election will show the extent of the betrayal in this budget's measures on child benefit, the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, farm assist, jobseeker's benefit, redundancy payments, supplementary welfare, back to education allowances, respite grants, household benefits packages and fraud and overpayment controls. This is another regressive budget.
It is ironic to hear Fianna Fáil speak about betrayals.
There is no point in dressing it up in any other way. It is regressive because those who are on lower pay and social welfare will have to pay proportionately more than those on higher income.
Take all the measures into account.
It is a mathematical fact, as has been pointed out by the ESRI in regard to last year's budget. The Government's statement of common purpose announces:
On the 25th February a democratic revolution took place in Ireland. Old beliefs, traditions and expectations were blown away. The stroke of a pen, in thousands of polling stations, created this political whirlwind. The public demanded change and looked to parties that would deliver the change they sought. [...]
That is why Fine Gael and Labour, the two largest political parties in the State having achieved historic levels of support in the general election, now seek to use their mandate to form a Government for National Recovery.
That is exactly what we are doing.
The next line is important from the Labour Party's point of view: "A Government that will be built on partnership and parity of esteem between our two parties." This budget was a Fine Gael budget.
That is not true.
It completely stymied any attempt by the Labour Party to defend the vulnerable and those who need the support of the State.
Fianna Fáil cut the social welfare rates by 8% in its last budget.
That is a fact. Prior to going into government, the Labour Party promised it would not cut child benefit or social welfare rates. It would not even increase the price of a bottle of wine.
It was not quite like that.
It was as if Fine Gael wanted to rub the Labour Party's nose in it. Fianna Fáil supports this motion of no confidence partly because we do not have confidence in the ability of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to continue in office. He was supported by the Government in the vote on our motion of no confidence in him. The Labour Party lost a colleague in that vote.
Fianna Fáil lost the vote.
We lost the vote but the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, lost a colleague. She is losing colleagues on a regular basis. We know we will not win the vote on this motion, but I assure her that when she meets the people on the streets, they will tell her they feel betrayed by the Labour Party. There is no point in it claiming the challenges are huge. It knew about these inordinate challenges when it gave its commitments.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is now taking credit for implementing the programme which his party claimed was the worst thing that could ever happen.
We got it changed.
It is little changed. The only changes have been made by Ministers who introduced savage cuts in areas where they could have been avoided.
We restored the minimum wage.
If the Labour Party wanted to look after the most vulnerable, it would have fought tooth and nail for an increase in the universal social charge for those earning more than €100,000.
We have taken €500 million from the rich.
I am confident they would not begrudge carers and those who need respite care grants. It is shameful for the Labour Party to defend this budget when it threatened to walk out of Cabinet if it did not get its way. It walked back in rapidly when it thought it might be left outside the door.
This motion gives us the opportunity to hold the Government to account. The Oppositions should not be ridiculed for holding the Government to account because it is our duty to highlight and expose the massive U-turn by the Labour Party from what it said to what it has done. It was going to burn bondholders. The Tánaiste was like a modern day Genghis Khan about to sack Europe. He was on his way to Frankfurt, but nothing has been done. If the Government gets a deal on the promissory note, it will be because it has accepted the principle that Irish people will carry the burden of banking debt.
We are not the ones who put it on the people. We voted against the guarantee.
It is merely kicking the repayments down the road. The Labour Party stated clearly it would renegotiate banking debt and that it had no intention of adding it to our sovereign debt.
Deputy Kelleher has some neck after what he did to the country.
I have accepted what I did. I am on this side of the House and the Minister of State is opposite, but her party is in Government on a flawed mandate because what it promised and what it is doing are at variance. We support the motion for many reasons but primarily because of the Government's attack on vulnerable people and because the Minister, Deputy Reilly, continues to sit at the Cabinet table. To those Government Deputies who are crying crocodile tears and promising to make every effort, I remind them:
When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions.
Ní fhéadfainn a rá ar chor ar bith go gcuireann sé áthas orm labhairt ar an rún, ach tá sé fíor-thábhachtach go bpléifí an rún seo agus go ndéanfaí scrúdú ar na geallúintí agus an méad a bhí ráite ag páirtithe an Rialtais seo sula ndeachaigh siad i gcumhacht agus ag aimsir an olltoghcháin deiridh.
The Government should do the honourable thing by seeking a fresh mandate. If recall elections were allowed in this country, it would have been recalled long ago. Despite its protestations, it knew before it came into office exactly what the financial situation involved. Right up to the election the parties now in power accused us of understating the financial difficulties we faced and that things were a lot worse than we claimed. Despite their concerns, however, they wooed the electorate with extravagant promises. I do not doubt that the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, will protest that the Government is doing a good job in the circumstances and that the electorate realises that. If she believes that argument, she should go before the electorate, apologise for the fact that all the promises the Government parties made were empty, and state that this time they are going to stand on the programme they are following, which happens to be the programme of the previous Government. They would then have an honest mandate rather than one built on a tissue of false promises.
The bank guarantee is a hardy perennial for the Government. Unlike its colleagues in Fine Gael, the Labour Party argued before the election that the guarantee should not have been provided, but it has since renewed the guarantee on two occasions. It was happy to accept the receipts from the guarantee, which totalled €1.2 billion this year, and it paid unsecured bondholders in full. It has failed to achieve any form of debt write-off from Europe and has tacitly admitted that it will never do so. It neglects to explain that if the banks had collapsed, their depositors would have lost their savings.
Under Fianna Fáil, anyone who bought shares in the banks that failed had his or her shareholdings wiped out. We did not guarantee shareholders in the banks and many ordinary people lost all of their money. With regard to subordinated bondholders, they received 10 cent in the euro and were virtually wiped out. Who did we save? We saved depositors in the banks. It is time for the Government and, in particular, the Labour Party to state they would have burned depositors in the banks. One might say we should burn tier one bondholders, but there are a number of snags with that theory. First, in Anglo Irish Bank, for example, some €50 billion of the funds belonged to depositors, as opposed to €10 billion in the case of tier one bondholders. Therefore, if we had burned tier one bondholders and the bank had been allowed to collapse, depositors would also have been burned. Furthermore, in law, tier one bondholders rate equally with depositors. Therefore, one could not burn one without burning the other.
With regard to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders, the Government knows now and could have known before the general election, if it had checked, that its bonds were not taken out in Ireland but in another jurisdiction. Therefore, there is nothing the Government can do to change the law and if it had defaulted, it would have been taken to court immediately in Britain for non-payment of the bondholders. Therefore, it has perpetrated a huge lie, shown by its own actions to be an untruth. The fact is that it has followed a policy of paying bondholders and renewing the guarantee. The saying goes: "Let me be known by my actions, not by my words". The actions of the Government have validated those of the previous Government and shown the falsity of its stance when in opposition.
The issue of promises has been mentioned by my colleagues. Let us look at three of the main promises made. A promise was made with regard to the student charge, but the famous promise made at Trinity College Dublin has been totally broken. A promise was made on child benefit, curiously enough by the Labour Party, but it has been broken and smashed. The effect has been cumulative, such that the bigger the family, the harder the hit. I will speak more about this issue in the debate on the Social Welfare Bill tomorrow. A promise was also made with regard to income tax. I did not realise how many of the current Government were educated by Jesuits until the past few weeks. In their nice Jesuitical minds there is a fundamental difference between changing PRSI rates and changing income tax rates. However, as the ordinary public see it, it is all the same. It is money that comes out of their wage packets. Because of the way it was done, the same amount of money was taken from the person earning €400 a week and the one earning €4,000 a week.
As I said, if the Government believes its programme is right and the one the people want and voted for, it should have the courage and go and ask them. It should have an election, not based on the false promises it made - probably the greatest ever made in an Irish election - but on the policies-----
I heard somebody mention the 1977 general election.
The promises the Government parties made in the last general election place the promises made in 1977 in the tuppence ha'penny place.
Outrageous.
If the Government really believes what it is doing is what the people want and voted for, what is its problem in asking them to vote on it? I know the answer. The answer is that it knows what I know, namely, that the people did not vote for what they are getting. They were misled in an outrageous abuse of power. However, as has been pointed out, the sheep will come here tomorrow and vote for the Government. I do not expect defections; I expect that they will hold solid. However, that does not justify morally the things done by the Government. In particular, it does not justify being elected with one clear mandate and implementing a totally different set of policies.
I do not believe anyone comes into the political arena to cause hardship and suffering, particularly to those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale or people with disabilities. The optimist in me believes in the essential goodness of people, which is why it is so difficult to understand the rationale behind some of the cuts introduced by the Government. I am not using this occasion to engage in political point scoring or trade insults or derision. However, I must think back to the short time I spent in the previous Dáil when the current Government parties were doing to the then Government what those on this side of the House are now doing to it. I wonder what it adds to confidence in the political system. I know difficult decisions must be made, but what proportionality and fairness lie behind the cuts the Government is introducing? It is creating a more unequal society.
The decisions to be made come down to choices. There are always choices, but some of the alternatives receive no airing or recognition. It was very disappointing to hear that organisations such as Social Justice Ireland which wanted to make lengthy submissions only received approximately six minutes to make two proposals. Therefore, there was no real engagement with civil society groups. However, there was real engagement with powerful businesses, lobby groups, interest groups and employers and we see how successful they were. This can remain a low tax country, while broadening the tax base and reforming the tax system to make it fairer. There are taxes on income, but tax receipts can be raised elsewhere, for example, through the 12.5% corporation tax rate. Even a small percentage increase in that rate and a modest financial transaction tax would have taken the vicious sting out of the budget and the harsh, pitiless decisions to cut the respite care grant, child benefit and other allowances to the needy would not have been required. There are alarming figures for what is being lost to Ireland and other countries in the developed and developing world because of transfer pricing and we are allowing the country be a tax haven.
I acknowledge one positive aspect of the budget, namely, the role played by the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, in keeping the budget figure for the drugs task forces at 3%. I know there are challenges for these forces, but this is a positive move. I look forward to the Minister of State taking on the issues of the below cost pricing of alcohol and a tax on nutrition. These two measures would be along the lines of prevention. We must also stand up to the powers that be in Europe and not pay what is not our debt. I want the kind of society in which we live to be socially inclusive and fair. Ach ní dóigh liom go bhfuil an buiséad seo cothrom.
I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to speak on the motion which expresses no confidence in the Government. I commend and thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward because I, too, have no confidence in the Government's ability to fulfil its obligations to make political decisions and choices that will benefit the citizens of the State. I say this for many reasons, but mainly because of its failure to deal with the issues affecting people in their daily lives. The Government has penalised citizens for the actions and the greed of others. Is it fair that cystic fibrosis patients, for example, should be sent home from St. Vincent's Hospital in the middle of winter because there are no beds available in a new €22 million cystic fibrosis unit? Is it fair to cut the respite care grant by €325? Is it fair to cut the household benefits package? Is it fair to take €10 from the child benefit payment to the poorest families or low-paid workers? Is it fair to cut the telephone allowance by 50%, from €310 to €155 a year? Is it fair to cut home heating support payments for the elderly? Is this fair for the 57% of older people who suffer from a chronic illness, one third of whom have a disability? Is it fair to bring forward a budget that hits the poorest, while protecting the richest, making this a harsh society, and failing to stimulate our floundering economy?
Is it fair for a Government to be in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which undertakes to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of children, by introducing a budget that is out of step with this obligation?
I would like to conclude by quoting from a letter I received today from Mr. Eugene Dowling who is the secretary of the Fine Gael branch in Dunboyne, County Meath and has a child with Down's syndrome:
I am writing to you as a very concerned father of a Down's syndrome boy. I am secretary of the Fine Gael branch in Dunboyne, County Meath, and I would know Minister Shane McEntee and Regina Doherty TD quite well and campaigned for them in the last election. For the first time ever, we won four seats in Meath East-West. I am particularly disappointed with this Government's cut to the respite care grant. This is a savage cut of 19.1%, or €325, to the most vulnerable people in society. You promised to protect these people in your election manifesto, but all we get at ground level is a kick in the face.
This letter was not written by a member of Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin or a supporter of an Independent Member. That it was written by a Government supporter speaks for itself. If a Fine Gael party officer has no confidence in the Government's handling of the respite care grant issue, how can the Government ask anyone to have confidence in it? I, therefore, urge all Deputies to support the motion.
Debate adjourned.
The Dáil adjourned at 10.40 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 12 December 2012.