Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this latest Social Welfare Bill. The Government through this Bill continues to attack the families of Ireland. The very people who were left untouched by the Celtic tiger era are now being hit by the savage cuts in social welfare contained in the Bill.

I look forward to voting against the Bill for the following reasons. As a Member of the Oireachtas, I find it very difficult to support the non-payment of the Christmas bonus, which was raised by the Labour Party earlier. The sheer meanness of this measure is incredible as this money means much to families during the festive season.

The Government is asking citizens to take pain on behalf of the country in order to ensure a proper future for the next generation. What is it that the Government is actually doing? What did it do it today, for example? Seven junior ministers were removed from Government with a reported golden parachute of €53,000 each. Government backbenchers use phrases such as "Let them try to take it off me" in regard to the long-service payments. We have the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance using words, phrases and semantics in trying to wriggle their way out of a stated intention in regard to the double payments to Oireachtas Members. How can a Government such as this have any credibility when its members steadfastly refused to lead by example? It is another classic example of the Government following the philosophy of "do as I say but not as I do". It is very interesting to compare this scenario with the position of a person who is looking forward to getting a Christmas bonus that will not arrive this year. It is a damning indictment of the Government and all the Deputies who comprise it.

The plan to reduce rent to landlords under the rent supplement scheme is a proper and sensible move. However, the implementation of this policy shows just how detached the Government and the Minister for Social and Family Affairs are. To quote the Minister, the "expectation" on landlords to automatically reduce rents is totally unrealistic. It is not happening. It has been my experience in County Clare in recent months that in terms of both business and private rented accommodation, landlords are happy to sit on the property. They are not willing to budge and are charging the same rents to businesses and individual tenants.

The responsibility for renegotiating rents should not be placed on tenants and should be provided for by community welfare officers or staff of the Department itself. The State must take on the responsibility in that area. For years, the only requirement was to hand out money, which is what has got us into the situation we have today. Much of the responsibility rests with the State and its agents to ensure that what they spend represents proper value for money but this is not incorporated in the Bill. If the community welfare officers or someone from the Department was made responsible for delivering better value for money, this would work better.

The squeeze on middle income earners is an issue the Government will eventually rue. We have passed the psychological barrier of 50% of income returning to the Government, and a family may now have to contribute 51% to the Exchequer. Some 41% will go in income tax, 4% in PRSI, 4% on the health levy and 2% on the income levy, which serves to disincentivise people in employment. The Government cannot continue to squeeze this sector and not expect a fall-off in economic productivity and activity. The possibility of this being further compounded by additional taxes on property and the reintroduction of third level fees next year would indicate that people will not be able to tolerate this approach any longer.

The equation is very simple. There were two aspects to this budget, namely, to increase the Government's income and to deliver value for money in how public services are provided. The Government chooses to ignore the second part of that equation. This is ultimately unsustainable and will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

The scrapping of the early child care supplement and the hasty introduction of the 38-week free preschool support bears all the hallmarks of the Minister for Transport's proposed introduction of five penalty points for not having an NCT certificate for one's car in that it is badly conceived and not properly planned. It remains to be seen if the places are available or will become available but I do not believe they will.

The Department is to a large extent depending on the voluntary sector in regard to child care provision. The vast majority of the funding under the national child care investment programme, NCIP, has been used by the voluntary sector. This sector once again steps up to the plate in order to provide a service that has been ignored by the Government. These are the very same people who also feel the new pressures from the Government in regard to their jobs, mortgages and careers yet they are now expected to take up the slack. I suspect this 38 week free preschool is just a sop. The Government should look more closely at its subvention programme for child care facilities. This scheme is cumbersome and unwieldy, and needs reform. 9 o'clock

At this point the Government should not tinker with the back to education allowance and the back to work enterprise allowance. In their current form these schemes are restrictive and the Bill's proposals do little to facilitate people who want to avail of them. Both schemes offer the opportunity for motivated people to improve their circumstances yet the Government chooses to place many obstacles in the way of potential participants. These schemes should be more responsive. There is an obvious benefit that could accrue to the individual and the State if the schemes could be operated in a more responsive manner.

It is critical that Government policy seeks to minimise the duration for which people are unemployed. Long-term inactivity diminishes work skill and makes re-employment more difficult. It is vital, therefore, that access to education, training and employment programmes is enhanced so that barriers to employment are removed. In County Clare, for example, unemployment has soared to almost 10,000 people. Dole queues have increased fivefold. Unemployment in Ennis has increased by 81% in the past 12 months alone. The potential for the economic cancer of long-term unemployment taking hold in Ireland is becoming more of a reality. The Bill does nothing to tackle this issue and will only add further to our drastic unemployment problem.

The Bill will have a devastating impact on middle income families and represents a savage attack on low income families. The ordinary people are waiting in the long grass for the Government. I do not know what doors Deputy O'Rourke is knocking on, but I am knocking on completely different doors. The people are waiting in the long grass to run the Government out of office. This is a shocking Bill and the Minister will pay the price for it.

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