Mary Lou McDonald TD - Budget 2013 speech

Speaking in the Dáil this evening Sinn Féin Public Expenditure and Reform Spokesperson Mary Lou McDonald TD described the Government's treatment of children in Budget 2013 as disgraceful noting it runs against all the fine words and concern voiced by Ministers during the recent Children's Rights referendum.
Deputy McDonald said:
"This government doggedly confuses hard decisions with bad choices. It looks for the soft options, for soft targets. Labour and Fine Gael share the same perverse instincts as the last Fianna Fáil lead administration, that punishing struggling families is somehow fair.
"Fine Gael and Labour's Budget 2013 announcements have failed the fairness test. This budget is deeply unfair to those on low incomes, to children, to single parent families, to homeowners in negative equity and to the elderly.
"The treatment of children in this budget is disgraceful. It runs against all the fine words and concern for child welfare expressed in the course of the children's referendum only some weeks ago. The cut to child benefit, increase in pupil teacher ratio, and the abolition of the PRSI exemption will all impact badly on kids. Tokenistic gestures such as a meagre €2.5 million for childcare places and educational supports in disadvantaged areas and €14 million for child care for low income workers; cobbled together no doubt to save the blushes of the Labour party. These measures are a drop in the ocean of what's needed and don't even come close in compensating for the real damage done to children today.
"The spectacle of a government that talks tough when punishing its own people and yet time and again returns home from European Council meetings with its tail between its legs is truly pitiful. It is unworthy of those that Fine Gael and Labour are supposed to represent.

[@chewbacka3210]

Thank you Mary Lou, you said it as it is and has been, but with true passion.

[@welshhibby]

A disgrace that the place was empty

[@mr__daly]

She is much younger than i imagined. I've only heard her on the radio once or twice when i was back in ireland while on holiday.
She's a tough cookie. Just what Ireland needs now. A cat among the pigeons.
14:14 "The Minister for Financial Misery" hahahaha

[@GhostEire420]

let her in to run the country!! She has bottle