This morning the latest survey from the Irish League of Credit Unions revealed that 1.6 million people are left with €50 or less to spend at the end of each month after they meet their household bills. The survey reflects that since October last an additional 230,000 people have fallen into this bracket. This is a direct result of the Government's austerity policies and its most recent austerity budget. That is before the dreaded family home tax is imposed.

The family home tax is the brainchild of Fianna Fáil and it will have serious implications for households that are already teetering on the brink. It will especially punish those on low and middle incomes. It will punish social welfare recipients and even those with disabilities. It takes no account of ability to pay, people's mortgages, the amounts people have paid in stamp duty or whether a household is in negative equity. The Government is almost two years in office and its response to those struggling with significant mortgages is to lump more taxes on them, but this is a tax too far.

Where does the Minister, Deputy Howlin, propose that these 1.6 million people should get the money to pay the family home tax? The Minister should bear in mind that these are not only families dependent on social welfare payments. Many of them are working families and families in which two people are out at work, but they simply cannot afford this family home tax. Where are they to get the money? How many more citizens will be pushed over the brink by this family home tax?

The notion that we can have a debate as if we are in a vacuum and not in an economic crisis that every household in the country knows about never ceases to amaze me. I am acutely aware, as is the Government, of the pressure on citizens throughout the State because of the economic catastrophe that the country met due to bad political and economic decisions made in recent times.

The Deputy is referring to a survey done by the Irish League of Credit Unions. It is interesting to note that the Central Statistics Office publication of 14 January contains some interesting facts on savings. This is factual and not based on surveys or opinions; these are factual issues. The gross savings ratio increased in the last quarter of last year. Savings were at an unprecedented level of 14.5% and increased in the last quarter of last year to 16%. The normal level of savings in a functioning economy is of the order of 7%.

The rich are saving.

One thing we need to do is to get people to spend money in the economy rather than save it. The strategy of the Government from the beginning has been focused on restoring the economy and getting the economic infrastructure right to create jobs. In the three years before the Government came to power a staggering 250,000 private sector jobs were lost. It is almost mind-numbing. Naturally, this has had an impact on households throughout the country and their capacity to pay bills, but we have begun the process of reversing that. In the past 12 months 12,000 net new jobs in the private sector have been created. We have several labour market activation measures in place. We will have a Cabinet meeting on the jobs crisis this afternoon. From the very beginning our focus has been on getting our economy repaired and getting people back to work in order to lift them out of the pressures that the Opposition has referred to.

The notion that when faced with a vast deficit we can continue to fund services to the level that we had without increasing taxes is fanciful and the Deputies opposite know that.

That is what the Government promised.

We have a clearly defined strategy to repair the economy and work towards a balanced budget. We have stimulus and job creation measures that are working demonstrably, including the jobs initiative, which we established within 100 days of coming to office and which has resulted, instead of decline, in-----

The Government has no jobs initiative in Kerry; there is none.

Sorry; we are over time.

There are discordant voices talking about individual sectors. Let us take tourism, which is important to such counties as Kerry. Fáilte Ireland has reported that there are 5,000 net additional jobs in the sector since we set up the jobs initiative within 100 days of coming into office. These are measures to address the issues of poverty and joblessness, and our efforts are working demonstrably.

I hope the Minister is not questioning the validity of the survey carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions, although it sounded remarkably like it. The Minister certainly lives in a vacuum or bubble if he is unaware of the extent to which households are struggling, and the Irish League of Credit Unions is truthfully and accurately reflecting that reality. The Government cannot expect people to spend in the domestic economy if they do not have the money to spend.

I would have appreciated an answer to my question. Perhaps when he takes to his feet for a second time the Minister will do me that courtesy. I want to know where these 1.6 million individuals and their families will find the additional resources to pay the Government's family home tax. I suspect the Minister has not given me a straight answer because he knows full well that those individuals have no prospect whatsoever of finding that additional resource. This will not mean additional savings for those people and their families.

It will mean additional hardship and debt. The Minister rushed through the House the proposal for the family home tax which he borrowed from Fianna Fáil. Perhaps those on the Government benches had not thought through fully the implications of that tax. Today's credit union survey asks them to do just that. With €50 per month disposable income, which is €12.50 per week, individuals and their families cannot pay a family home tax. I ask the Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, to tell me where those individuals and families identified in the survey will find the €300 to €500 per annum he demands from them.

As I said in my initial reply, the Government is acutely aware of the pressures on individuals but Deputy Mary Lou McDonald does not listen.

I listened very carefully.

The Minister thinks we are all saving our money.

The Government is acutely aware of the pressure on families and the impact on them of additional taxation.

That makes it worse.

The job of the Government is to maintain basic services which we are doing by borrowing over €1 billion per month, notwithstanding the additional burden in taxation which has been placed on people.

Answer my question. Where will they find the money?

The objective of broadening the tax base is to be in tandem with every other progressive country with a social democratic view of how taxation should be levied. We want to avoid levying taxes exclusively on labour and work.

Where is the €4 billion coming from?

There was a time when the Deputies opposite saw assets as something which should be taxed.

The family home is not an asset.

It is the biggest debt people have.

The biggest asset most people have is their own house and that is taxed in most jurisdictions.

You took €10 from children.

I do not cast any doubts on the survey which I am sure is genuine and clear. However, the facts on savings are as stated. Savings increased in the last quarter of last year by over €1 billion.

You are not answering my question.

Tax savings more.

The Government's ambition is very clear. We need to work over time towards a balanced budget, which we are doing. That means squeezing expenditure as best we can while maintaining public services.

"Squeeze" is the word.

We need to broaden the tax base in accordance with the agreed programme for Government. We need a stimulus plan for jobs to create an environment in which people who are under pressure and unemployed can find work.

Tell families where they are to find the additional money. You cannot.

We need a banking debt solution which we are working on as well. The economic strategy of the Government is bearing fruit.

It is in tatters.

We understand the pressures people are under but are offering a solution rather than decrying the calamitous circumstances the Government inherited from its predecessors.