The devil was truly in the detail of the budget last week. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, boasted that there would be no cuts to primary weekly social welfare payments. However, the deeper one examines this budget, the more devastating and sinister the cuts become. Despite stating that payments to families at risk of poverty will remain unchanged, it is clear that as a result of changes to the main means testing arrangements, families in receipt of carer's allowance now find that their family income supplement will be cut savagely. Before this callous budget, vulnerable citizens never regarded the carer's allowance as income when applying for family income supplement. Like many Members, I have been contacted by many low-income families who find themselves far worse-off now than before the budget. One woman has four children all under the age of eleven. One of her children has autism and another is being assessed for autism. Her husband is the sole income earner in the family. They depended on family income supplement but as a result of this budget their income will be cut by an incredible €139. This represents a savage cut for a family of six on one income. We have received other similar e-mails. A gentleman with three children aged three, seven and a ten week old baby contacted me. One of the children has Down's syndrome and is cared for at home by his mother while the father holds down a low-income job. This family is facing a cut of €140 to their income. This money is not spent on luxuries but rather on the bare necessities of life. There were no headlines on budget day about these cuts or the impact of these cuts but instead they were sneaked in with the approach of wait and see. Changing eligibility criteria like this is having a devastating impact on low-income families. Despite what the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, said when he described the cuts to social welfare as unpalatable but necessary, there can be no justification for cuts of this scale. Will the Taoiseach agree to reverse these savagely unfair cuts to the income of people on family income supplement who care for loved ones with special needs within the family?

The decisions taken by Government in drafting the budget are all unpalatable. As Deputy Martin is well aware, there were adjustments of €3.8 billion in the budget for 2012, comprising of €2.2 billion current spending and €1.6 billion in taxation. No matter what way one looks at it, in order to comply with conditions this country has signed up to, it is never an easy choice to decide what is in the best interests of everybody. I made it perfectly clear in speaking before the budget that no single citizen would be left untouched by this.

The well-off are not touched.

The Fine Gael supporters.

However, we reversed the situation concerning the minimum wage by changing the universal social charge threshold from €4,004 to €10,036. This brought 330,000 people out of the universal social charge. In the case of carers and others who are vulnerable, individual circumstances vary from family to family. I come across many individual and personal cases.

The fact of the matter is that we must deal with this issue ourselves because nobody will deal with it for us. From that perspective, starting at the top, the situation was changed in respect of residency and citizenship for those who are exceptionally wealthy, with increased charges and payments to be made through capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax, DIRT and so on. All of these things, right down the line, impact in one way or another on everybody.

As I stated, the choices are never easy and all of them are unpalatable. We warned about this and in so far as the protection of the vulnerable and those who are under pressure is concerned, be it from mortgage distress or the ravages of unemployment, one tries to balance it out in as fair a way as possible. Any individual circumstance, such as the one the Deputy raised in respect of a family of four, needs to be looked at from an individual perspective and what can be done to help this family in their difficulty. Obviously, until we get to a point where our finances are under control and we can focus on jobs, growth and getting people off the live register and back into the world of work, people will never be fully satisfied. They cannot be fully satisfied in circumstances in which one has to make changes that impact on people's lives in this way.

I am trying to maintain the anonymity of the people who wrote to us. The Taoiseach's answer does not give any sense of understanding the enormity of the impact of this premeditated budgetary change to means test those on family income supplement who are in receipt of the carer's allowance. People are saying they know we have a great deal on our plates but please stand up for them and their families. The writer of the e-mail states the family currently receives €190 in family income supplement — I am skipping paragraphs — but if the carer's allowance is included as income and means tested, this figure will be reduced to only €50 per week. This is not a misprint. The decline in income, from €190 to €50 per week, is unacceptable and cannot be justified.

I received a telephone call from a constituent who indicated that staff in the same company who are earning €90,000 — this did not include the caller — had said the budget is all right because it does not affect them. How in the name of God can anyone in this House claim that this is a fair budget if those who, by definition, are on the lowest tier of the income ladder given that they receive family income supplement are hit to the tune of €140, €100 or €50 per week? While the amounts vary, these are not isolated cases. The common denominator is that people on family income supplement are caring for somebody who needs care. They would not receive the carer's allowance otherwise.

The Deputy's time has expired. He should ask a question.

The Government has been aware of this since September yet it took a decision which is having an enormous, devastating and incredibly damaging impact. The e-mails we are receiving on the budget describe it in language such as being "driven to despair" and "over the brink" or being "unable to deal with it". Some of those affected have mortgages while others do not. I cannot get over that any budget would impose income reductions of this size on families on very low incomes. I highlight this cut because it demonstrates the fundamental dishonesty and unfairness of the budget. The decisions and choices the Government made were wrong and it pursued the wrong strategy to fulfil certain election commitments.

Deputy Martin understands well that the Government had to introduce a budget of this nature because of the circumstances in which the country finds itself.

It had choices.

The common denominator in every contribution made by the Deputy is that he calls on the Government to reverse the cuts. He said we should reverse the cuts he has just described, those introduced last week, the reduction in the allocation for the A5 to the North and the increase in VAT.

There are alternatives.

It is neither possible nor credible to do as he asks. His party did not put forward an alternative solution.

We proposed alternative taxes but the Government did not agree with them.

The Government asked for alternatives and we complied with its request.

The Government did not cut carer's allowance simply because of the job carers do.

The Taoiseach is digging a bigger hole.

Deputy Martin understands that every one of us meets carers who look after their loved ones in the family context. Everybody knows the pressure they are under, the commitment they give and the value they give to the State through the care, consideration——

We have the Taoiseach speaking on tape during the election campaign.

I thank Deputy McGrath for his intervention.

Carers create a saving for the State through their love of kith and kin. This is why carer's allowance was not cut in the budget. I do not know the circumstances of the entire family to whom Deputy Martin refers.

The problem I raise relates to more than one family.

I ask the Deputy to kindly send me the letter in his possession and I will have the individual circumstances of the family investigated.

The e-mails I received were general and will have been received by the Taoiseach also.

As I do not know all the facts of the case to which the Deputy refers, I ask him to give me the letter. Asking me to reverse this cut because it is unfair or unjust is not the answer. The Government has to make choices, none of which is easy or palatable.

This particular cut is affecting a small number of people in a disproportionate manner.

In so far as one can in the circumstances, one tries to protect those who are vulnerable, isolated and caught in a trap. That is why, for instance, we did not touch carers and the universal social charge was changed to reduce the pressure it placed on 330,000 people.

The change to the universal social charge benefited people by €4.

The entire focus of the Government will be on creating jobs and opportunities for people. I ask Deputy Martin to give me a copy of the letter in his possession and I will have the case assessed.