We are on Leaders' Questions. There are two minutes for the first question, three minutes for the reply and one minute for supplementaries. I call Deputy Martin.

As chairman Keaveney tweeted last night, the die has been cast. Labour and Fine Gael Deputies have voted, one and all, for some of the most regressive cuts to child benefit, respite grants and child clothing allowances, and an increase in tax for low paid workers. This is despite the fact the Labour Party made extraordinary commitments before the last general election. It has now broken every single promise it made. To quote the Tánaiste himself on 11 February 2011, before the election date: "The Labour Party will not agree to having child benefit cut anymore and Fine Gael need to drop their plans to cut child benefit". That is the solemn promise he made to the Irish people. Labour then put posters up all over the country, "Protect child benefit, vote Labour", "Families Need Labour in Government" and "A Cut Too Far – Fine Gael – Every Little Hurts".

The Deputy should know all about it. He did enough of it.

They then go and take €10 per month in child benefit off the first and second child and €18 off the third and fourth child.

When pressed on breaking those promises, the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, said the other night: "Isn’t this the kind of thing you tend to do during an election campaign?" - in other words, you tend to make these kinds of promises. This basically means Labour never had any intention of keeping these promises in the first place. They knowingly deceived the people of this country. They knowingly betrayed the people of this country. Labour's way was the ultimate deception.

That is rich from him.

He has some neck.

That really stretches the imagination.

The Tánaiste might not like those words coming from me. To be fair, Senator John Whelan has perhaps put it far more succinctly, when he said he was one of the Labour candidates who put up and delivered those leaflets. He said: "We have broken that promise on child benefit, we misled the public and I have been made a liar of by the budget cuts to child benefit."

Thank you, Deputy.

That is what Senator John Whelan wrote in yesterday's The Star newspaper. He continued: "The betrayal of the public's trust just adds salt to wound." He then said in a message to, I think, every Deputy in the House, particularly to his own Deputies: "We know in our hearts and souls it is wrong, morally wrong, inequitable and unfair as these budgetary measures penalise ... low-income families the worst."

Thank you, Deputy.

I want to ask the Tánaiste one very basic question. No one forced him to make those promises and no has forced him to break them. Why is the Fine Gael promise not to increase taxes on people earning over €100,000 more important than the Labour Party promise not to cut child benefit?

Fianna Fáil has a hard neck.

He is right about that. It is getting harder.

Labour has a soft neck and it is being tickled by Fine Gael.

Order for the speaker.

Its legacy to this country-----

Is appalling.

-----was to bring in the IMF. This Government's legacy will be to get rid of the IMF.

And everybody else as well, by the look of it.

Its legacy was to put this country into a bailout with the troika.

Answer the question.

This Government will be sending the troika home. This budget is a tough and difficult budget. Nobody has said anything other than that for it but it is a budget that is necessary in order to bring about the recovery that my party promised we would do at the time of the general election and that the Government committed itself to doing when we signed the programme for Government and committed ourselves to-----

What about the pledge in Trinity College?

-----bring about economic recovery to this country, and that is what we are doing. We undertook that we would deal with the problem in our banking system and we are doing so at less cost than Fianna Fáil said would be possible. We committed ourselves to renegotiating the deal with the troika-----

What about child benefit?

-----which Fianna Fáil said was impossible, and we are succeeding in doing that. We committed ourselves to putting the public finances on a sound, solid footing again after Fianna Fáil brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy, and we are doing that. We promised that we would-----

They promised they would protect child benefit.

-----provide for increased employment in this country and we are now seeing increased investment and jobs coming into this country, something that was flying out of the country when Fianna Fáil left it to us.

He promised to protect the vulnerable. The Tánaiste made a lot of promises, all right.

We promised we would restore economic growth to this country, which is happening after four years of recession under Fianna Fáil.

Come to the tea party.

This Government, and the Labour Party in this Government since the Deputy fingered us particularly, is going to bring about the recovery that the people of this country need. The people of this country are sick of recession. We need recovery in this country. This is a difficult budget but it is a budget that is necessary in order to bring about the recovery that this country needs and to secure the future.

Order, please.

The Tánaiste did make commitments. We all remember, "It is Labour's way or Frankfurt's way".

We remember Fianna Fáil's way as well.

Has the Deputy forgotten about himself?

We all remember that deception. The Tánaiste voted against every measure to correct the public finances in 2009 and 2010. He spoke on budgets from this side of the House-----

Sit down.

-----saying the Government was going to rob child benefit from people's pockets.

Because he was crazy and he still is.

He was Mr. Angry. Does he not remember Mr. Angry over there? He has now done a U-turn on every single thing he protested about.

What about Mr. Forgetful?

We might forget about you very quickly.

Who are "you"?

The point is he made promises he had no intention of keeping. That is why one of Labour's former Ministers, Deputy Shortall, has described its performance in government as "embarrassing".

Not as embarrassing as the Deputy's.

Deputy Martin cannot lecture us.

That is why Senator Whelan said what he said. He said the Tánaiste had made a liar out of him, and he wrote it in yesterday's The Star newspaper.

I asked the Tánaiste a very basic question which he skirted around. I repeat: why was the Fine Gael promise not to increase taxes on people earning more than €100,000 more important than the promises made by the Labour Party? The Tánaiste went out before the election, looked people in the eye and said that his party would not agree to cut child benefit. He then went into government and cynically stood over that cut.

What about Fianna Fáil's cut to the minimum wage?

With the greatest of respect, the Tánaiste has brought politics, in terms of cynicism and public deception, to a new low.

Labour Party Members can smile and heckle all they like, but that is the reality. The Tánaiste's party put up those leaflets before the elections deliberately to mislead people, and we know why that was done. It was done because the party believed power was slipping from it and that Fine Gael would win the election. The Tánaiste made promises and commitments he simply could not keep.

Deputy Martin must conclude.

Senator John Whelan has made the point that there is no shame in doing a U-turn in regard to these cuts, particularly in the case of child benefit and PRSI.

Deputy Martin would know all about U-turns. His party has been practising them for years.

This Government had to do a U-turn last year.

Senator Whelan warned that the ultimate shame will be on Labour Party and Fine Gael Deputies if they refuse to change tack and continue to impose unfair and regressive measures on the lowest-income people in this country. That is the reality of this budget; it is those on low and middle incomes who will suffer the most because of the choice the Government has made.

Order, please. I have called the Tánaiste.

I admire the Tánaiste's commitment to democracy.

Deputy Martin is suffering from withdrawal. Why would he not be, after 14 years in government during which his party squandered the boom and put the country into hock?

I guarantee the Tánaiste's party will not be in government for 14 years.

Will Members opposite listen to my answer? If Deputy Martin asks a question, he will get an answer. This is a difficult budget and was always going to be a difficult budget. Nobody has claimed otherwise.

The Labour Party had choices. It could have chosen to increase the universal social charge for higher earners. It could have chosen not to increase PRSI for low-paid workers.

The choice we made was to protect those on low and middle incomes, even in difficult times.

Fianna Fáil in government reduced the minimum wage.

Order, please.

Even in difficult times this Government has protected the basic rates of social welfare, something Deputy Martin did not do when he was in government.

This is more deception from the Tánaiste. He is deceiving people with meaningless soundbites.

The Tánaiste must be allowed to conclude.

I am quite happy to answer Deputy Martin's questions, but he and his colleagues keep interrupting me. In this budget we protected the basic rate of social welfare. That rate has not been touched. We have protected education, including by preserving class sizes.

What about cuts to VEC funding?

We have restored €150 million to the education budget. We have introduced something that will be unfamiliar to Deputy Martin and Fianna Fáil, namely, the largest ever package of taxes on wealth in this country, which will raise more than €500 million. Deputy Martin cannot take the fact that even in difficult times, the Government has introduced a budget that is fair, balanced and reasonable and will be effective.

Order, please. I have called Deputy Mary Lou McDonald.