The election is fast approaching. Once again, the Labour Party is throwing around election promises like snuff at a wake. Does the Tánaiste really believe that people have such short memories-----

Order, please.

That would be a Sinn Féin wedding.

Deputy McDonald has the floor. Order please.

Some five years ago, the Labour Party made a litany of promises in order to get into government. It promised to protect low and middle-income families from Fine Gael. Does the Tánaiste remember the slogan "Fine Gael: Every Little Hurts"?

We should. There are plenty of examples of it.

We remember it. The Labour Party said it would oppose water charges. It broke its word.

It said it would oppose a property tax. It broke its word. It said it would protect child benefit. It broke its word. It said it would not raise taxes and yet a litany of taxes and charges increased. It said it would not cut social welfare but it cut rates and made payments harder to get. It promised that it would stand up to the European Central Bank, ECB, and burn bondholders, but then it buckled under pressure. It made working families pay the price for the economic crisis caused by Fianna Fáil and its banker and developer friends. It voted through five deeply unfair budgets that hit working families hardest. It failed to stand up to Frankfurt, and it failed to stand up to Fine Gael. It let Enda Kenny set the agenda. It broke its promises. It did not keep its word. It disappointed the nation and because of the Labour Party, people throughout the country are suffering yet.

As the Tánaiste and her colleagues once again promise to protect working families and the vulnerable-----

This is the last page.

-----how on earth does she expect anybody to believe them?

What the people believe is that there are 135,000 more people at work now. After the disastrous bank guarantee, a small footnote in history is that the Deputies opposite ran down the steps in this Chamber to vote for it, and they voted for it in the Seanad. That is only a footnote in history, and we know they have parted from that.

What was the Labour Party's alternative?

I think Deputy Finian McGrath voted for it as well.

This is Leaders' Questions, please. The Tánaiste has the floor.

It is all waffle.

What voters are aware of now is that Ireland is in a dynamic recovery mode. What really counts, and what voters have to decide on, is whether we can seize the moment to build on the recovery so far in order that it extends out to every family, individual and community throughout the country.

What about all the houses being repossessed?

It starts with people going back to work. Already, of the 330,000 jobs lost-----

What about the sheriffs?

-----after the disastrous bank guarantee that Sinn Féin voted for-----

The Labour Party extended it.

Deputies, please.

-----we have restored Ireland's reputation-----

The banking inquiry was chaired by the Labour Party and it-----

-----so that we are now the fastest growing economy in Europe.

What about the health service and the housing problem?

That means we have 135,000 more people at work.

What about the repossessions?

There are too many interruptions. Order.

Not only that but we now have the capacity, in terms of our economic strength, to build-----

Economic strength is no good to a family being evicted.

-----not just an economic recovery but a social recovery as well. Hence, in this year's budget, I was very happy to be able to restore the Christmas bonus that Fianna Fáil abolished in 2009.

Hear, hear.

I was very happy, for the first time in about eight or nine years, to be able to increase the pension and other payments for people over 66. It was a modest increase but, nonetheless, the first increase.

Three euro.

The Christmas bonus for a pensioner-----

It is an insult.

-----was worth €170 and for a pensioner couple it was worth €320.

The Tánaiste will meet them all at the doors very soon.

People have been able to spend a little bit more-----

What about their water charges bill?

-----coming up to Christmas on things that are important to them.

Property tax.

Also, from 1 January the fuel allowance increased by €2.50 a week.

The carbon tax went up.

I would be the first to acknowledge that these increases, which are the first increases after we increased both the Christmas bonus and the living alone allowance in last year's budget, are modest, but it is important that we prioritise people like pensioners.

In this year's budget, in last year's budget and in every budget we have provided an extra €200 million a year in social welfare spending for the extra number of people coming up to pension age and the extra number of people who are receiving, for instance-----

You abandoned them.

-----carer's allowance and the extra number of children in respect of whom families are being paid the domiciliary care allowance. All these increases in the number of people receiving important social welfare benefits in each budget have cost well in excess of €200 million. If Deputy McDonald knew anything about social welfare, she would know that the actual time it takes people to make an application and receive their payment, when it is awarded, has been cut by more than half because we have invested in completely new-----

The Minister removed the community welfare officers.

-----IT platforms and systems to pay people.

The fuel allowance scheme was cut from 32 weeks to 26 weeks. The fuel, rent and clothing and footwear allowances were cut. That was the Tánaiste's message about shopping around to families who were struggling. The age was raised for disability allowance entitlement. Carer's allowance was cut. I could go on and on. That is the Tánaiste's track record. That is what she has presided over and if that were not bad enough, she slapped a water charge into the equation as well, with no regard for ability to pay.

This advertisement I am holding up was the Labour Party's ruse in the previous general election. Does the Tánaiste recognise this advertisement?

The Deputy is not supposed to display-----

This was the Labour Party's Tesco-style "Every Little Hurts" advertisement, and it seems that going into this general election, it will have the brazen neck to try the same scam all over again.

Spare the confetti.

The news is that people have woken up to the Labour Party. They have wised up to the fact that far from protecting working families and low and middle-income workers it is happy to allow Fine Gael set the agenda, happy to run down public services, happy to agree to tax giveaways and bonanzas for the rich, and happy to ignore any promise it might make. That is what its track record reflects.

As for the bank guarantee, the Labour Party's record is that it renewed that numerous times when in government.

The Deputy's party voted for it.

In fact, the record shows that the Labour Party in government raced through the lobbies to extend that banking guarantee-----

-----so the Tánaiste should save us the homily on that.

A question, please, Deputy.

The Tánaiste said that in her view the recovery is dynamic. The recovery has not visited the vast majority of communities and families throughout the country, and she remains blind and indifferent to that.

In this general election will the Tánaiste come clean, put her hands up and accept her party's dismal record in government? I ask her not to insult the intelligence of the electorate and people who deserve a level of certainty and protection in the next Dáil. Please do not insult their intelligence by re-running this kind of scam.

First, this month we will have removed 700,000 low paid workers from the USC net. That is a move that has been widely welcomed by workers and employers throughout the country. Second, on 1 January we increased the minimum wage by 50 cent an hour.

Wow.

That helps about 100,000 low paid workers.

They are the big spenders.

During the Labour Party's time in government, that is the second time the minimum wage has been increased, and somebody on a very low wage has benefited from that increase in the minimum wage over the life of Government to the tune of €3,000 an hour.

Three thousand euro an hour?

Three thousand euro a year. Third, from 1 January civil servants throughout the country have seen the rolling back over a carefully designed three-year period of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation, which saw their Civil Service pay being reduced. That means that many workers have seen increases in their wage packets this month of approximately €10 to €20 a week.

I am the first to acknowledge this is not a vast sum of money, but what is also important for the same workers and their families is this year we will see the first reduction in class sizes since the crash happened. We will see class sizes reduced in all primary and secondary schools-----

The Tánaiste is a class act.

-----by one point throughout the country. This might not matter to the Deputy but it matters an awful lot to families with children.

I have children.

We have also rolled out medical cards to children aged under six-----

A farcical thing, and the Government is squeezing out GPs.

-----and to people aged over 70. If returned to government, we will do this for all children under 18 over a five-year period, and roll it out to older people as resources permit.

On Anglo Irish Bank and the other banking matters, if we took Fianna Fáil's proposal and its agreement with the troika, last year would have seen Ireland pay €11 billion in interest costs. We cancelled the promissory note and replaced it with longer-term loans-----

Wonderwoman.

-----at much lower interest rates, which is, by the way, what I recommended in opposition as the Labour Party spokesperson on finance.

It is a wonder the Tánaiste did not get the public expenditure job so.

The actual interest costs in 2015 were below €7 billion. In other words, what was planned by Fianna Fáil to be a charge of €11 billion-----

Correct.

-----actually came in at below €7 billion.

The Tánaiste is forgetting about the zero interest rates.

In the scheme of things we now have a dynamic recovery in the economy, but Sinn Féin lives in an economic bubble of its own in which inconvenient facts do not matter. It has no jobs plan for getting the country back to work.

We have.

It has no plan for investment in the country-----

We have.

-----and it has no plan for families to get a better deal for taxation.

Yes, we have.

It proposes to raise taxes on ordinary families.

No, we do not.

It proposes to have an economy which stalls and which does not emphasise work and prosperity for businesses and families. Its economic platform is an empty bubble.

Hear, hear.

I will miss the Tánaiste.

The Tánaiste has a US-style tax system.

Desperation.

No more interruptions.