Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I find the whole campaign on fraud unsettling and bewildering. This is a family show so I will not use the expletives I would otherwise. I find it nauseating that the Minister would use €200,000 of public funds to humiliate people on social welfare. I ask the Minister if he has ever been on social welfare. He can answer that later. As Deputy Brady asked, is this a solo run or a team effort? If it is a team effort, everyone at the table over there should be ashamed. They are trying to humiliate people who are trying to find work. Bernadette Gorman touched on it on RTE when she said it was a type of class and ideological warfare committed by the Department of Social Protection. In the context of the overall budget, this is a fraction. More important is the other fraud that goes on in this country in terms of white collar and corporate crime and corporate welfare. I do not see anyone being named and shamed there. The idea that the Minister will publish the names of people who have in his eyes defrauded the State by miscalculation or misinterpretation is ideological warfare. What about those who have bankrupted this country? What about putting them on billboards and buses? I take my cue from Bernadette Gorman who was brilliant on RTE the other day. She gave a very good insight into the vindictiveness towards those who are trying to do their best. There is no doubt that there is a small element who are defrauding social welfare, which one cannot condone. However, in the greater context, the Minister ought to be ashamed of what he has tried to do here.