I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, namely, that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, come before the House in order that we might have the opportunity to impress upon her the need to revisit a number of measures contained in yesterday's budget. As Minister O'Brien indicated-----

The Senator has promoted Senator Darragh O'Brien to Minister.

-----the Minister for Social Protection has not been in a position to listen to her party's backbenchers. We had an opportunity to discuss some matters relating to the budget last evening. As one of my colleagues stated in the Dáil yesterday, the budget is anti-women and anti-children. It is particularly anti-children in the context of the €10 cut in child benefit for the first two children. That cut is simply inhuman, as is the taxing of maternity benefit and the reduction in the back to school allowance. Fine Gael and Labour Party Senators could not have had an input into the budget because I have worked with them all and I am aware that the measures to which I refer have not been thought out. I remind Members that Fianna Fáil's pre-budget submission contained the same €3.5 billion-----

Is the Senator referring to the fancy pre-budget submission that was not costed? The only ones who costed it were those in Fianna Fáil.

The Senator should relax.

Our budget submission was costed and it recommends how €3.5 billion-----

No, it was not costed.

It was certainly not costed by those who made the calculations for the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, in respect of the €370 million overrun relating to the health service. It was also not costed by the person who made the calculations for the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, in respect of her Department's €600 million overrun.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader?

Our pre-budget submission contained recommendations on how to achieve the €3.5 billion in savings contained in the budget and produce a higher tax yield. Under those recommendations, child benefit, maternity benefit and the back to school allowance would have been protected. Colleagues will refer to the propaganda engaged in by the Labour Party prior to the general election. I have previously described the Labour Party's behaviour at that time as the biggest single act of political delinquency in the history of the State.

It was a Fianna Fáil Government which introduced the bank guarantee and led us into the troika programme.

I ask that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs come before the House in order that we might ask her to consider the implications of the budget for the mothers and children of Ireland. The cuts to which I refer can and should be reversed.

They will be reversed.

In our costed pre-budget submission, we showed how a 3% increase in the universal social charge would yield €200 million. If our recommendation in this regard were accepted, the Government would not be obliged to destroy families throughout the country.