There are people watching proceedings in this Chamber this morning who do not know how they will manage their week-to-week domestic budgets because of the cuts the Government is introducing. The Tánaiste has accused others of having a hard neck. I suggest that his is a hard neck of the bright, brassy variety. It is clear that "fair" is a four-letter word in the minds of Fine Gael and the Labour Party. I do not know how he can credibly say what he has said to the very people he promised to protect, including children and their parents, carers and people with long-term sickness and disability. I do not know how any Member opposite will look these people in the eye and utter the word "fair". The Government is rushing through social welfare legislation today to introduce cuts which in real terms and in real time will cause real hardship to real families, real children and real women. Here is the real clanger - these are the very sections of society to which the Government promised protection. So much for that. I do not know whether the Tánaiste deliberately set out to make liars of his Ministers, Deputies and Senators and to make a liar of himself, but he has done that comprehensively. So brass iron is his own neck that he will stand up in this Chamber and waffle on about fairness. I do not know how he does it.

I suggest to Government Members, especially those in the Labour Party, that perhaps the die is not yet cast. Amendments will be brought forward today to see off the worst excesses of these cuts, particularly in respect of the respite care grant and child benefit. The latter is the matter about which the Tánaiste was so passionate and so right not so long ago. The die may not already be cast. Despite Labour Deputies' brass-necked leader, who has made liars of them, perhaps they will step up to the plate and actually defend those people to whom they made solemn promises.

I advise the Deputy that the word "lie" is not appropriate in any circumstances.

Withdraw it.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle should tell that to the Tánaiste.

We do not need any advice from Sinn Féin.

I ask Deputy McDonald to withdraw that word.

I will not withdraw it.

The word "lie" is not appropriate in any circumstances.

I cannot hear what the Chair is saying.

I am asking the Deputy to withdraw the word "liar".

Withdraw it.

Members opposite are constantly diverting this conversation. I am sick of it.

I ask the Deputy to withdraw the word "liar".

I will not withdraw that word or any other word I have used in this Chamber today. A lie is a lie and a liar is a liar. The people at home viewing these proceedings know that full well.

There are other words that can be used.

"Untruth", perhaps.

Yes.

Then I shall withdraw the offensive term "lie" and instead use the word "untruth", "porky pie" or "Pinocchio". Are those words allowable?

I call the Tánaiste.

It takes some brass neck for Sinn Féin to complain about basic rates of social welfare in this State. Can it be true that the basic rate of social welfare payment in the part of the island in which Sinn Féin is in government is €87 per week? Is that true? Sinn Féin Members are complaining because this Government has protected the basic rates of social welfare in this country.

Order, please.

This Government does not accept that somebody should be asked to live on less than €188 per week.

However, the Deputy's party is content to have people living on €87 a week. That is to have brass neck. The budget is a difficult one because it aims to restore the country's finances and get us out of the economic mess we inherited. It protects basic rates of social welfare and children in the classroom - there are no cuts to basic education services. It protects health services and introduces the biggest package of taxes on wealth ever been seen in a budget, certainly in my time in the House, which will raise more than €500 million. The approach the Government is taking to what is a difficult budget is to protect those on low and middle incomes and ask those with the broadest shoulders to bear the most.

That is not true. The Government is not doing that.

Using that logic, on planet Gilmore, the Labour Party and Fine Gael, the ones with the broadest shoulders are children. Is that right? The ones with the broadest shoulders are carers who rely on a very meagre respite care grant? Is that the case?

Listen to what was said.

The Tánaiste referred to the North. I wish he would do his homework properly when he investigates matters north of the Border.

That would look bad for Sinn Féin.

In comparing the system here and the one in place in the North he is comparing apples and oranges.

Oranges and rotten apples.

There are many things people pay for here that we do not pay for in the North. That is a fact.

Can we have order for the person who is speaking, please?

Today the social welfare measures the Tánaiste promised to avoid will be rushed through the Dáil. Yet again, the Labour Party and Fine Gael will be seen as brazenly targeting children, carers and mothers and making absolutely no apology for it. They had their chance to have a change of heart. Do they know something? They would have had the full backing of the general public if they had had the courage of their convictions. I have said this to the Tánaiste before. It is not merely the case that the people cannot trust the Labour Party in government. The Labour Party cannot trust itself. It jumps at the whim of Fine Gael. Let it address itself to carers, in particular, mothers and children and explain to them why its masterplan for economic recovery relies on causing them hardship.

The Government's economic plan is about restoring the country's economic sovereignty and getting us out of the economic mess in which we find ourselves. Everybody in the country understands this and that this is difficult and will not happen overnight. Sinn Féin has a fairy tale that we have to make a €3.5 billion budget adjustment, but it also claims that it can produce fairy tale solutions to the problem. The Deputy mentioned homework. She did not do much on her party's proposals. She did not even have them costed by the Department of Finance.

That is a lie.

Of course, there is a reason for that. It is not just laziness; it is being clever. Sinn Féin knows very well that its proposals are an absolute fairy tale.

They have been published.

Then its Deputies comes into the Chamber and give the impression that carers and people on disability and invalidity pensions have had their money cut. That is not the case.

The respite care grant has been cut.

None of the basic rates of social welfare payments for carers, people on invalidity pension, pensioners, widows and widowers, those on jobseeker's benefit has been cut. All such payments have been protected by the Government, even in the most difficult of times.

That is sleight of hand. Pensioners' payments are down.

As for people on low incomes, this is the Government that has restored the minimum wage, introduced legislation to restore joint labour committees for those on low pay and removed more than 300,000 from the USC net. Most important, it is committed to ensuring we generate employment and economic recovery.

There are 20,000 fewer jobs.

The best way to tackle poverty and disadvantage is to maximise the number at work and have a successful economy.

Why does the Government not do it then?

It is determined to do it. We will clear up the mess left by our predecessors who brought the IMF into the country.

The Government is worse.

We are sending it home, with the troika, and restoring the country's economic sovereignty. We are getting people back to work and restoring the country's economic fortunes. Sinn Féin's only answer is the fairytale it calls its economic policy.

The Government is doing a great job. Ask carers.

Fabulous.

That is some answer. Fair play to the Tánaiste. Who has the broadest shoulders?

Can I have order for Deputy Shane Ross, please?

Deputy Aodhan Ó Ríordáin should go down to Sherriff Street.