Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We might be able to work on that in terms of asking for more time.

There is a big divide between people who are working and those on social welfare. I do not mean a financial divide but that people are being set against each other. There is animosity between workers and unemployed people and it is sad to see that develop because some of the people who are unemployed now were working last year or the year before. In bad times people turn on each other, and that is very sad to see. Some workers believe unemployed people get everything while they get nothing. We must discourage that mindset but I do not know how we can do that. A person should not be better off unemployed than working but do we cut social welfare payments or increase wages? Increasing wages will be a matter for the employers but in the current economic climate I cannot see them doing that. I would never advocate cutting social welfare payments. I would fight tooth and nail to keep the current rates and have done with the Minister but in some cases double payments were given, and that drove working people mad. If people who are working see someone on a social welfare benefit or on a community employment scheme getting a double payment, which amounted to half a week's work, they were aggravated about that. People are turning on each other and we should not allow that to happen. How can the witnesses close that divide between workers and the unemployed?

Reference was made to the Social Insurance Fund. This committee had a long session on that issue and we have given suggestions on it, for example, if we bring the self-employed into the system they should be allowed to pay the same rate as a PAYE worker. That would generate more funds into the system and give them their benefits when times are hard for them or when they are ill.

Another idea I suggested on which I would like the witnesses' feedback is that in many instances people are signing for credited contributions with no income from it; they are doing it to protect their pension. A small charge of, say, €1 per week, is a cheap pension policy for somebody signing for credits for pension purposes. We could speak about carers and so on and spend the day talking about each sector individually but I would like the witnesses' feedback on some of those issues.