Rabbitte highlights 'huge bitterness' over banks

ORDINARY PEOPLE “are convinced that no banker will be required to hang his Armani suit on the back of a door in Mountjoy prison”, said Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte.

Highlighting the public’s “huge bitterness” about “what the banks have done to our country”, he also emphasised the damage done to Ireland’s standing with the EU and its ministerial councils “where our networking was professional and effective”.

Speaking during the Dáil debate on the legislation which gives effect to the Budget, Mr Rabbitte said it was “no way to enact a Finance Bill”.

“But then this is no way to govern a country, with half a Cabinet and with a Taoiseach driving through a truncated Finance Bill that has been dictated from Frankfurt, Brussels and Washington.

“This is a Finance Bill to legislate for a Budget that had a majority in the House on Budget night but now the Minister for Finance is bartering with Independents to conclude the process.

“The reckless mismanagement of our country’s affairs has made a severe Budget unavoidable, and this is the most severe Budget of modern times.”

Lucinda Creighton (FG, Dublin South East) welcomed the Bill for addressing the “gaping hole” in the public finances.

However, she criticised the way the universal social charge was being implemented as a “blunt instrument” which would further penalise the self-employed.

“Self-employed people will now reach a marginal rate of tax of 55 per cent at a minimum” and they were “by and large significant contributors to the exchequer,” she added.

Dan Neville (FG, Limerick West) criticised as a “disgrace” the reduction in the mental health services budget from 8 per cent to 3.5 per cent of the total health budget.

“It marginalises those with mental health difficulties and does not give them an opportunity to recover.”

He said the treatment of mental health problems “must become recovery-orientated”.

“We can compare England’s 12 per cent and Scotland’s 18 per cent of the total health budget to our figure of 3.5 per cent.”

He said that up to €200 million a year could be saved if the system was changed.

“People are in psychiatric hospitals who would not be there if they were treated in the community at an early stage.”

He said each bed cost “€1,000 a day for a psychiatric patient in hospital”.