Labour backbenchers voice unease over Budget
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has moved to calm nervous Labour backbenchers, who are worried that taxes on wealth have not featured enough in the Budget.
As the Dáil last night passed the budget measures needed to be put through by midnight there were uncomfortable scenes among Labour rebels and their party colleagues.
Former Minister Roisin Shortall led the charge about the high pensions.
"Given the regressive and anti-family nature of this entire Budget, it's not surprising that you flunked this issue as well," she said.
Labour Party Chairman Colm Keavney tweeted that a campaign to stop "problematic" parts of the Budget is now underway.
Tonight's vote touches on little that is problematic in #Budget13 That's for next week and the effort to stop them begins this evening.
— Colm Keaveney T.D (@Colm_Keaveney) December 5, 2012
He is not the only unhappy backbencher and Labour rebels Tommy Broughan and Patrick Nulty set out to provoke them into action.
"The day that the Labour Party cut €10 from child benefit, that's a day of shane, a day of infamy," said Deputy Tommy Broughan.
Deputy Nulty said: "Part of our tradition in the Labour movement is to dissent - and now is the time to dissent, and speak out and styand up for working people."
The Tánaiste sensed the unease, and declared that this was a Budget of taxing the wealthy.
"Fourteen separate tax measureswhich are included in this Budget which adress the issue of wealth - those 14 measures between them will raise in the order of ��646m," he said.
The Coalition now faces the difficult prospect of passing a social welfare bill delivering the cuts.
This morning, the Campaign Against the Household and Water Taxes will outline its opposition to the property tax.
We tracked all of the Budget 2013 announcements in our live blog here.
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