Pearse Doherty
Donegal · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I move amendment No. 1 to Seanad recommendation No. 2: To delete from the row dated "1 September 2026" down to and including the row dated "1 May 2030" and substitute the following: " 15 July 2026 €502.88 €502.88 €371.85 €371.85 €371.85 €0.00 €210.45 €172.14 €167.25 €79.17 €11.48 14 October 2026 €502.88 €502.88 €371.85 €371.85 €371.85 €0.…”
“Next week, this House will rise, the doors of Leinster House will be locked and Ministers will head off on their summer holidays. Their parting gift to ordinary Irish people across the State will be to have locked in fuel price increases that will hit them in their pockets.”
“That is not acceptable and it is why we in Sinn Féin have tabled this amendment to say that these price increases should not be going ahead and that prices should be properly monitored at the appropriate time.”
“This is tied to the latter amendment and I will speak further at length on that. Recommendation No. 1 deals with the diesel rebate scheme, which operates within a window that closes on 1 October.”
“Hope is what we rely on when we have no control. It is not a substitute for prudent economic planning. There is zero certainty here. There are no guarantees that the Strait of Hormuz will remain open or that global supply lines will not be choked tomorrow morning.”
“As if that were not good enough, the Government is not just hitting people with increases on petrol and diesel. On top of that, it is going to hit them with an increase in the cost of home heating oil, natural gas and a basic bag of coal.”
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“Is the Government finally going to stand up for Ireland and our fishing communities in the face of this economic Armageddon, as they call it?”
“The Irish fishing and seafood industry received terrible news in the past week that there will be further devastating cuts to the mackerel quota as well as cuts to blue whiting and boarfish. This has been referred to as economic Armageddon by the industry. My constituency of Donegal will be hit really hard by this. The European Commission has known for many years about the reckless overfishing of mackerel by fishing fleets from Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Russia and Britain but it has taken no meaningful action and there have been no repercussions. What is the Tánaiste's plan to secure our fair share of fish in our own waters? Is it acceptable in his view and in the Government's view that the fishing fleets from the countries that have recklessly overfished mackerel continue to fish in our waters?”
“Two and half million workers have been abandoned in this budget. I put it to the Tánaiste, at a time when the Government made tax breaks available to investors, banks, developers and landlords, why did it consciously decide to leave workers worse off in this budget? That is shameful.”
“That is not good enough, but it is what the Tánaiste did. Does he get why so many workers out there are so angry with what the Government has delivered in the budget? Does he understand that they feel really let down by the litany of broken promises?”
“It is not in the budget. Families are again shortchanged. The broken promises have caused a lot of hurt out there. You do not get to raise people's expectation when you need their support and then come back empty-handed when they need yours.”
“That is what the Government did in this budget. No matter how hard the Tánaiste tries to spin - no doubt he will try to do it again - he said he had the backs of the students of Ireland. He has double-crossed them. It is another broken promise. The third one is on childcare costs. Speaking to the Irish Independent in October last year, just a month before the general election, he pledged to deliver €200 per month childcare and to do so quickly. Here is what he said: "I actually believe the cost bit we can deliver quite quickly. I believe it can be delivered in the early time of the government." Fine Gael pledged to produce an action plan on childcare costs within the first 100 days of Government. We are now on day 259. Where is the plan? Where is the urgency he had in the run-up to the general election to deliver €200 a month childcare?”
“He broke that promise on Tuesday. In one of the largest tax-cutting packages in the history of the State, at a time when it was never more needed, he could not even give ordinary workers a single cent in an income tax boost. The Tánaiste betrayed more than 2.5 million workers. That is on him. However, he found the money for big tax breaks for developers and landlords. It says everything about his priorities. The second broken promise that he delivered on Tuesday was on student fees. Speaking on social media in November last year, just two weeks before the general election, he said: "I think we need to really phase out third-level fees. I've strong views on that." What happened? How can student fees be phased out while parents and students are being asked to pay €500 more this year than they paid last year?”
“It was a budget that abandoned workers in order to look after those at the top. This budget has Fine Gael's stamp on every page. It is a budget that shows up for developers, landlords and investors, but leaves workers behind. It is as though the Government sat down before the budget and asked, "How many of these election promises we made can we break in this budget?" That is what it did. I want to address some of the broken promises the Tánaiste himself made. The first one is on income tax. He said: "[I] believe we can do about €1.4 billion each year in tax measures over the next five years. And that will be made up of both the changes to the income thresholds ...[and] also changing the entry points to the various USC ban[d]s". That is what the Tánaiste said to The Irish Times in November last year, one week before the general election.”
“Before I begin, I want to mention the developments overnight which have raised the prospects of a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. I hope for a peace that is lasting and brings justice and freedom to the Palestinian people. Tá stampa Fhine Gael ar gach leathanach den bhuiséad seo a bhí foilsithe Dé Máirt, buiséad a thréigeann daoine atá ag obair chun aire a thabhairt dóibh siúd atá ar an bharr. Cuireann briseadh na ngealltanas mór a rinne an Tánaiste ó thaobh cáin ioncaim, táillí mac léinn agus cúram leanaí é seo i gcuimhne dúinn. Some 48 hours have passed since the introduction of the budget. I hope that the real shock and anger of working people and families is starting to register with the Government. They have spent the past two days shaking their heads in disbelief at what the Government served up on Tuesday.”
“In this budget, the Government made a conscious decision to prioritise the well-off, the landlords, the developers and the investors at the expense of ordinary workers. The Government has really shown its true colours. It has taken a calculated risk. It hopes that people will forget this by the time the next election comes around but I fear the people are going to remember this one because the Government has shafted them royally.”
“After 15 years of Fine Gael in government, that lesson, that expectation and that bedrock of life has been shattered for an entire generation. The Government has made the extortionate cost of living the new normal, crushing people's hopes and even aspirations. That is what this budget is about. It is not normal and it can never be acceptable that people who go out to work every single day are skirting inches from the poverty line. It can never be acceptable that households, even those with two incomes, are borrowing from parents, just to pay the bills. It can never be acceptable that our young people are forced to the airports to go to Australia or Canada to seek the opportunity they should have here at home. I have never seen election promises abandoned so quickly and so completely.”
“An raibh an Taoiseach ar na sráideanna nuair a tháinig na mílte daoine agus 130 eagraíocht Ghaeltachta amach le rá go bhfuil €55 milliún sa bhreis de dhíth orthu don Ghaeltacht? Tá an Rialtas ag déanamh neamhaird agus damáiste don Ghaeltacht arís agus arís eile agus sin fírinne an scéil. This budget is going to come and go like the rest of them. Nothing I have heard here gives me hope that the crisis we face will be addressed. I fear that many people are in for a long and hard winter. When we were growing up, our parents taught us important lessons. We were told that if we showed up and worked hard, we could build and secure a good life for ourselves and our family. We were told that life would be affordable and we would have a fair chance to achieve the future we wanted.”
“Shíleamar uilig go mbeadh athrú intinne nuair a tháinig Aire ó Fhianna Fáil chun tosaigh, ach feicimid sa cháinaisnéis seo go bhfuil Gaeltacht arís fágtha ar leataobh.”
“People should not be afraid to go into hospital or to bring their loved ones to hospital, but that is the reality. Despite the huge effort of our healthcare staff, that is the reality. That is why the first thing this budget should have done in health is to provide the €2 billion in capital funding to make our hospitals safe, to drive on the elective hospitals and to guarantee a second emergency department in the mid west. However, this budget again falls way short in relation to all of that. Níl meas madaidh ag an Rialtas seo don phobal teanga nó don Ghaeltacht agus ní raibh le fada an lá. Is í an tAire Gaeltachta is measa a bhí againn riamh atá Fine Gael ag cur suas le haghaidh Uachtaránacht na tíre seo.”
“The Government comes in here every single year and says that this is the budget that is going to fix the housing crisis, that this is a housing budget and all the rest. What happens? Every year the crisis gets worse. House prices, rents and homelessness figures increase and more and more people lose hope for the future of this State. On health, we now have a health system where people are afraid to go into the hospital. We have loved ones who are left for hours on end on trolleys or in chairs, where places of healing are described as war zones and where a person goes through the doors of University Hospital Limerick or St. James's Hospital or many of the other hospitals, and they are expected to stay 12 or 14 hours on a chair before they are even seen, before they even can get onto a trolley or before they are discharged home.”
“I engaged extensively on this issue a number of years ago and we were told - we had briefings from the Department and we engaged with industry - that it would be difficult to administer but, crucially, it would not move the dial on house prices and it would just get pocketed by developers. If this cut is applied to apartments that are already being built, then what is the point of this next year? There is no provision in the resolution that it only applies to apartments that are being built from tonight on - that start or commence. It seems that it is available to ones that are nearly finished now, but maybe that is the intention because we have seen the priorities of this Government over and over again.”
“We are going to vote tonight, with no information really, on a quarter of a billion euro in tax cuts to developers for the sale of apartments. It is going to cost us a quarter of a billion euro next year. If the apartments are not being built at the minute, then they cannot be sold by next year, so this is dead money. This is money for apartments that are already under construction, and I am sure the developers are laughing their heads off and looking at what they are going to do with this huge bonanza they are getting for apartments that are already under construction. The idea of bringing in a quarter of a billion euro tax cut with no information and no detail and to be voted on tonight is absolutely ridiculous.”
“-----because soaring house prices and rip-off rents are hard-wired into Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's housing plan. It is not a bug in the system; it is a feature. Incompetence alone does not explain the housing crisis. It is not by accident that we are in this situation; it is by design. Over a decade into this housing crisis, and we have politicians in government wringing their hands, saying that they are doing all they can to solve it while the crisis gets worse. Every single year the crisis is getting worse. What are we being told now again? It is the old Fianna Fáil tune. We are being told now that we need to give more money to investors and developers and that if we just give them a little bit more, then the housing crisis will be solved. Tax cuts are the big idea from Paschal.”
“What did the Government do in that year? It built fewer houses than in the previous year. You could not make it up. The Government's response to the commission was to build fewer houses than in the previous year. The Government cannot even deliver on abysmally low targets. Why has this happened? It has happened because the Government is stuck to the same old failed policies and this budget will not fix the housing crisis. For many years now, I have been of the view that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will never fix the housing crisis-----”
“Another election promise broken. You have been involved in government for about 16 years and you have made a balls of it, I agree. Just like childcare, you have copied Sinn Féin's plan to abolish the means test for carers. Again, you are welcome to that policy, but let us get it implemented. What Government has done in this budget would mean it would take it more than a decade to abolish the means test for carers in relation to the amount of money that has been set aside, and that is not acceptable to us or indeed the carers of Ireland. Let us get to the issue of housing because the housing crisis continues to deepen. It is dragging people down with it, and it is over a year since the Housing Commission, the Government's own commission, said that we need to see a radical reset in relation to housing.”
“He said earlier this year "Reducing the cost of childcare is a priority for me and I can tell you as leader of Fine Gael we will make real progress on the cost of childcare in this budget". Where is it? There is no reduction in the cost of childcare for people in this budget. Where is the progress on the €200 a month, Simon? Instead of delivering a cap of €200 a month, what you have delivered is a cap of €200 per week. That is what you have delivered, Simon.”
“However, the reality is - and we will see the statistics in a couple of years, Micheál - that the decision here is a deliberate one to continue to leave children in this State in poverty. That is the reality of it. You can shake your head all you want. You have been the architect of the fact that one in five children is in poverty in this State, Micheál. That is the reality. Above anybody else, you have been the architect of that. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael committed to cap childcare costs. Remember that one, Simon. That was the policy that you copied from Sinn Féin and you are welcome to it but we want to see it implemented. Before the election, Simon Harris said that he would produce a roadmap within the first 100 days and that it was a priority for his Government. The 100 days came and went, 200 days came and went but still no roadmap.”
“We need to make sure that every child sees an improvement in their situation. We called on the Government to increase child benefit by €10 and provide a double payment this year, along with other targeted supports. The Government should have doubled the back to school payments. It should have extended the fuel allowance by nine weeks. That would have given people an extra €297. Instead, the Government has only increased fuel allowance by €5. That is worth just €140, less than half of what is needed. The Government has increased core social welfare payments by €10 but, as I said, that does not even keep up with food inflation. We called on the Government to increase them by €15 to reflect the reality of rising costs. What the Government should have announced was a conscious decision to deal with the issue of child poverty.”
“It is happening because of the budgets the Government has introduced in this House, year after year. We called on the Government to deliver effective measures to tackle child poverty. That means targeted and universal measures. The cost-of-living crisis has brought so many pressures on so many households. Many who never thought they would be in this situation now find themselves there because of the Government. Once again, we see no increase in child benefit rates. There is no increase to child benefits. The child benefit was higher in 2008 than it is today. Talk to any parent and he or she will say it is dearer to raise a child today than it was in 2008. However, there is nothing for child benefit. That means no relief for many families. We need support for families and this budget should have provided it.”
“This is mad stuff but this is now normal under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Government has time and again been exposed as a serial waster and nobody takes responsibility. Nobody is held to account. That waste has real consequences, particularly when the Government deliberately underfunds other areas. For too long, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have failed the children right across this State. One in five children now lives in poverty. That is the Government's record. One in five children now lives in poverty as a result of the Government. There is a surplus of €10 billion this year and there will be one of €5 billion next year. One in five children lives in poverty in this State. It is shocking the Government has allowed this to happen. That is more than 200,000 children. It is a national disgrace, and it did not happen by chance.”
“During the year, spending runs out of control and the Government acts like it is normal. There are billions more spent but no more houses built. There are overruns and overruns but no improvement in services. There is a breakdown in financial management in this State, from the hundreds of thousands of euro on bike sheds to the tens of millions spent renting empty offices to the billions of euro on the national children's hospital that still is not even open. The IPAS system, which is like the wild west, has seen the Government make a small number of individuals multimillionaires overnight, with billions of euro being spent without any checks or oversight. Huge sums of taxpayers' money are handed over to operators where there is no signed contract, proof of ownership or leases.”
“We have overruns over and over again. The fact the contingency fund of €1 billion is so large is an acknowledgement that the two Ministers have put up the white flag and said it is now a feature of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that overruns are out of control and we cannot curtail them, so let us put a wee pot of €1 billion there to deal with these overruns in the future.”
“The people of Ireland have had enough of all of that. They deserve so much better than being cheated year after year in every empty budget the Government has served up. We have a situation here where we have spending overruns in the billions. When one looks at the budget the Government produces, one wonders what the point is. Last year, the overruns were €4.6 billion or thereabouts.”
“It is ordinary people who pay the price over and over again. It is like the Government does not believe workers and families are deserving of an affordable life. In every budget, it produces - in fairness to the Government - a master class in delivering for the few at the expense of the many. This budget is no different at all. The Government has no appetite for delivering a better deal for working people. It is too hard for it, too much effort and too much work to change direction and put ordinary people first once and for all. None of that was a problem when it came to striking the grubby deal with Michael Lowry and his band of merry followers. No effort was spared on that score. No bridge was too far to cross. What we have today is the budget of that grubby deal, a budget that cheats and screws over ordinary people.”
“Every single year, including next year, the Government is increasing it. The world keeps spinning but one can always count on Fine Gael to come up trumps for the golden circle and the vested interests.”
“Indeed, the Government committed to increasing the renter's tax credit, but it is not there. A ban on rent increases is nowhere to be seen. We saw skyrocketing rents. Instead of banning rent increases, the Government is letting landlords jack up rent right across the board. Instead of increasing the renter's tax relief, it chose to increase tax relief for landlords. Next year, landlords are getting tax relief. They get €1,000 from Paschal Donohoe because landlords are the priority and renters, even though the Government committed to an increase, continue to get the same. They do not even get it because the landlord will pocket it as their rents go up. The Minister's own officials warned him that the landlord tax relief was one of the worst ideas there was. A former ESRI economist called it the stupidest tax relief of recent times.”
“It is reckless to drive up the cost of living at a time when so many people are just hanging on. It is reckless to drive more people into energy poverty but that is exactly what this budget will do. We called on the Government to increase pensions and core social welfare payments by €15 to reflect the reality of prices that were rising and putting serious pressure on those families. We asked the Government to deliver a €20 increase for disability payments to recognise the additional cost of living with a disability. In the budget today, the Government has short-changed pensioners and those on social welfare. The rate increase of €10 does not even cover the cost of food inflation. That is the reality of it. We called on the Government to enhance and increase the renter's tax credit.”
“Sinn Féin has called on the Government to give working people the break they deserve. We called on it in this budget to scrap the USC on the first €40,000 that people earn. That is the fair way to cut taxes. That would put nearly €750 into workers' pockets this budget. We told the Government to scrap carbon tax increases but it plans to put them up tonight and for the next number of years, all with the support of Michael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae, who could not stop talking about it when they were on this side of the House.”
“They know Fine Gael are screwing them over and over and making out that it is trying to do them a favour. That is the reality of it. The Minister should come off the stage. The Tánaiste should come off the stage.”
“Only in this Government's twisted world could it present a hike in student fees as a cut. The Government is literally trying to convince people that up is down. Whatever way the Minister tries to muddy the water with this, students, parents and others understand it is costing €500 more in fees this year than last year.”
“The sly, sleeveen way of doing business is written all over this budget, presented on every page. For one thing, the Government takes the students of Ireland for fools. That is what it is doing here.”
“Prices are still out of control and the Government is nowhere to be seen. Insurance companies have made the point many times that they are making profits that are two or three times what they make anywhere else, yet the Government allows them to do it. Bailed out banks are making billions - not millions, billions - of euro of profit but pay no tax. That is acceptable under the Minister for Finance's plans. There is no oversight whatsoever of supermarket pricing and profits. Workers and families are looking on today and will be asking how we can have a surplus this year of more than €10 billion and next year of more than €5 billion and there is not any real help for them in this budget. The answer is clear - Fine Gael, with a typical nod from Fianna Fáil, is cheating them at every turn.”
“As we now enter into the winter, when households have to put on their heating for longer and their lights for even longer, people will now be fleeced when they do not have energy credits to shield them. That is on both of the Ministers. That is on the Cabinet that signed off on this budget. There is no doubt about it, but there will be more families this winter who cannot pay their electricity and gas bills as a direct consequence of the decision the Ministers have taken here today. It is not just energy companies that are gouging people. The Government is turning a blind eye to price gouging right across the board. Insurance companies, banks and large supermarkets all make obscene profits off the backs of ordinary workers. By any measure, this Government has failed to get a grip on the cost of living and the rip-off rolls on.”
“We know that prices are going up and up. In this budget, families have been left hammered. It leaves people in no doubt whose side Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are on. Let me be clear: energy credits were never the full answer. They were supposed to buy this Government time to get energy costs down for households but it is time it has squandered. It has refused to take on the big energy companies, which are making bumper profits out of people's hardship. They squeeze and gouge their customers but the Government sits there and does nothing. These companies know they have nothing at all to fear from this Government, so they have free rein to keep jacking up prices, and to keep squeezing and gouging, because Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will do nothing about it.”
“Is it any wonder that one in five children now lives in poverty in this State? Is it any wonder that more than 5,000 children are homeless under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael? You only have to look at the Government's limp response in relation to the big energy rip-off. A record number of households, 300,000, cannot pay their electricity. Nearly 200,000 cannot pay their gas bills and, starting tomorrow, they will see double-digit electricity price rises but no energy credits in this budget. The Ministers walked in here today and told those households the Government is cancelling the energy credits they relied on for the past number of years. That is shameful even for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The Government has presented a budget as if it is all rosy in the garden out there and the cost-of-living crisis has gone away. It has not.”
“This is for people who have to be earning over €125,000 and up to €1 million. Those are the priorities of this Government but the families I talk to in my constituency, who are out there working, earning €30,000, €40,000 or €50,000, get nothing in this budget in terms of tax breaks. Others get tax breaks as well. Developers and landlords will get tax breaks and, of course, the sweetheart deals for the banks remain. You could not make this up if you tried. At a time when households are watching every single euro and need support from the Government, it sticks its hand in their pocket to pickpocket them for the money to fatten the coffers of the wealthy. That says it all about this Government's priorities. It says it all about what we get after nearly 15 years of Fine Gael in power.”
“If you were to read this budget, you would swear the Government believes that is not happening. It has very little to say to them because it has left them high and dry. The Government is not stopping there because it is kicking people when they are already down. It has hit people again and again. Today, it is delivering a huge volume of tax cuts - no doubt about it - but ordinary workers get nothing. Zero, zilch, not a cent. The squeezed middle are not getting anything. Who is getting it? There are tax cuts in this budget. Who is getting them? If you are one of the persons, for example, on the special assignee relief programme, SARP, then Paschal Donohoe has made sure there is €60 million in taxpayers' money to help you. What do they get? People at home will not even believe this. They get a tax cut of over €100,000.”
“The Minister stated it is providing a renter's tax relief, but he knows and I know that providing a renter's tax credit without stopping rent increases means that money does not go into the tenant's pocket; it goes into the landlord's back pocket. That is the reality of it. What does the Government say to the stressed-out couple, when Paschal Donohoe and Simon Harris promised a plan to deliver €200 a month in childcare within the first 100 days of Government? What does it say to the motorist who is being ripped off by greedy insurance companies that are jacking up prices and premiums non-stop? There is nothing in this budget to help them. Indeed, they will be hit worse by pushing up the price of petrol and diesel. What does it say to the people who are fleeced week in, week out in their food shopping?”
“It will not be lost on anybody that in last year's budget, just ahead of the election, there was no problem about providing a cost-of-living package. It is now clear that was just a sweetener, bribing people with their own money for votes. What the Government has got is what it wanted. What we have is a situation where things are worse, where more people are feeling under pressure, more people cannot pay their bills, prices continue to rise and the Government decides that a cost-of-living package is not necessary. What does the Government say to the renter who is already forking out €2,000 a month and knows that more crippling hikes are on the way because it refuses to introduce a rent increase ban?”
“We have heard a lot about the backbenchers and parties not listening to them. Was there nobody on the backbenches who told these lads that there is a cost-of-living crisis out there and people needed to be looked after? The big question today is what has happened. During the general election, Government parties told everybody that the cost of living was the number one issue and would be dealt with by those parties. Simon Harris went everywhere. Everywhere a mic or camera could be found, he said the cost-of-living issue was his number one priority and if he got elected, he would deal with that. The Government delivered nothing for them in this budget. It screwed workers over royally in this budget.”
“Households are being hit by out-of-control prices right across the board. Costs keep rising. They go up and up, the bills keep on coming and working families, and parents who work hard all week, are coming under severe pressure to take care of the basics, including to put food on the table, to keep the heating and lights on, to put clothes on their children's backs and to keep a car on the road. Yet, you lads have the brass neck to waltz in here, puff out your chests, smile at each other and backslap and applaud each other when there is no measure in this budget to help ordinary workers stay afloat under the wave of rising costs, where people cannot catch their breath without being hit by another price hike. How out of touch does the Government need to get? Was there nobody on the backbenches?”
“I have to hand it to you, lads. In fairness, bravo to you. Only Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil could look at a cost-of-living crisis staring everybody in the face, with households hanging on by their fingernails, and say to themselves, "You know what is needed here? Big tax breaks for our wealthy pals and more help to feather the nests of the privileged few at the expense of the many." Well done. Only you guys, the parties that have been messing things up for ordinary people for over a century, could have come up with that one. This should have been a cost-of-living budget. What was needed and what people were demanding was a budget that would make life affordable. The dogs in the street could tell you that. It is far and away the biggest issue impacting people right across the State.”
“If you are a big corporate landlord, a wealthy property developer or one of the bailed-out banks, this budget is a mighty sweet package for you. However, if you are one of the hundreds of thousands of ordinary households impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, or one of the people facing the avalanche of rip-off bills and struggling to make ends meet at the end of the week, then this budget screws you over. It is empty, hollow and a dead end. The only applause or kudos that should have been offered to members of the Government today are for the warped fiction they created in their own heads that enabled them to write this budget because it bears no connection whatsoever with what is actually going on out there in the real world. It has no connection with what is happening in the everyday lives of working people throughout Ireland.”
“There is no help with the cost-of-living crisis, no action to end the rip-off, no break on taxes, a blueprint for the continuation of the never-ending crises in our housing and health, and election promises torn up, one after the other, and thrown in the bin. The first decision and impact of this budget will be that petrol and diesel will go up tonight, hitting hard-pressed families already. It is one of the worst Government decisions we have had. I am shocked at what is in this budget. I was asked earlier by somebody in the media what I thought. I said that I did not believe it, that there would be something the Government would pull out of the hat, and there was no way it would abandon workers in the way that was suggested but, by God, it did that. It gave them nothing. This budget reads as a catalogue of hand-outs for those at the top.”
“That is what just echoed loudly right across these benches of the Dáil - self-congratulatory applause and backslapping that would make you all blush with embarrassment and shame. When all the clapping is done and all the backslapping is over, when the Government benches die down and the dust settles on all of the spin we have heard and on the bluster and deluded arrogance that has come dripping from both Ministers' speeches, where are ordinary people? They are left in the cold. Harsh reality is written here in the black and white of this budget. The Government's big message in this budget, and people have heard it loud and clear, is that people are on their own. This is a budget written by Fine Gael that abandons workers and families to look after those at the top.”