Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

I reject this motion and the Bill out of hand. It is difficult to stand here and listen to a Minister introduce this Bill and this series of cutbacks and attacks on people who are very poor. A little more than 12 months ago this Minister would have been on the Opposition benches and would have been hopping mad and dancing a jig in opposition to these amendments and proposals. It is equally difficult to sit here and listen to the Minister and her party claim some common cause with James Connolly, the great Irish socialist. There is no doubt in my mind that if James Connolly were to read this Bill, he would turn in his grave. He would certainly have nothing in common with the Labour Party of today.

We went through an election a little over 12 months ago and we were told by all the parties contesting it, the Labour Party in particular, that the vulnerable would be protected. We have seen what that promise meant over the past 14 months. We have seen a series of attacks and cuts on the lowest paid, on social welfare recipients and on workers generally. The suggestion and statement that headline rates would be protected was just a shameful and scandalous smokescreen to ensure the dismantling of social welfare benefits hard won by generations of Irish workers and their unions. That is what is happening in this Bill and what the Government is about. It is dismantling the supports and social benefits for people in poverty, people who have lost their jobs, lone parents, carers, the disabled and a series of people under severe pressure due to the policies of this and previous Governments. This Bill provides for reductions in jobseeker's benefit and allowances, with jobseeker's allowance reduced to 12 months and illness benefit reduced to two years. The change from a six-day to five-day week is a direct attack on low paid part-time workers, the majority of whom are women, who are being forced into the workplace and they are now being subjected to further reductions in their weekly income.

The significant increase in the number of contributions required for State pensions is an attack on women workers in particular who have been out of the workforce of necessity and who may have recently re-entered the workforce. This is an attack on very vulnerable people who had been out of the workforce.

The criteria being applied for domiciliary care allowance, disability allowance and invalidity pension are now much more severe with the result that the number of refusals have increased on application or on review. I refer to the proposed new age limits at which the State pension will be paid and which will result in significant losses in income. Persons retiring from employment at 65 years will be subject to applying for jobseeker's allowance which will be means-tested and their employment pension will be means-tested against the allowance which means that for possibly two years they will have no support from the social welfare services. I reject this motion and the Bill.

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