Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire, ba mhaith liom a leagaint amach go bhfuil Sinn Féin go huile agus go hiomlán i gcoinne an Bille Leasa Shóisialaigh seo. Ba mhaith liom an deis seo a ghlacadh comhghairdeachas a ghabháil dóibh siúd ar fad a bhí lasmuigh den Teach seo, the Carers Association, lucht cúraim agus iad siúd atá éagumasach, a sheas amuigh ansin uair nó dhá uair a chloig inniu chun agóid a dhéanamh agus chun impí ar Theachtaí an Rialtais tarraingt siar ón gcinneadh a dhéantar sa Bhille seo maidir le faoiseamh an respite care grant. Mo náire é an Rialtas seo gur chuir sé iachall ar na daoine seo seasamh sa bhfuacht ar lá mar seo agus go mb'éigean dóibh siúd atá ag déanamh tréan oibre nach bhfuil an Stát sásta a dhéanamh ar phinginí beaga teacht amach agus agóid a dhéanamh i gcoinne cinneadh atá á dhéanamh ag an Rialtas.

I do not know where to start, but I will try to go through some of the points concerning the Social Welfare Bill. I have already described this as one of the meanest and most despicable social welfare Bills since I have been elected, but the fact it comes from a Labour Party Minister is even more appalling. Though this does not surprise me, it is a surprise for many of my constituents who voted two Labour Deputies into office from the constituency. The same happened across the country. Many people who cast a vote for the Labour Party are appalled at the Minister and by the decisions she and the Government are taking in this Bill.

I will remind the Minister of what she said about child benefit just a short three years ago. She said this at a time when Fianna Fáil was preparing to cut child benefit. I will not let Fianna Fáil off the hook either, but having listened to the two previous contributions here, I welcome its conversion to the commitment to defend and protect the low-paid, the vulnerable and those dependent on social welfare. However, I remain suspicious of their motives, given what they did in their austerity budgets. The Minister said in December 2009:

The Irish tax code is a funny thing. It can recognise, and has recognised, Pino Harris and his yacht, Christina O. It recognises stallions at stud. It also recognises high-achieving sportsmen, heritage properties, writers and artists. However, it does not recognise children, the cost of raising a child and the burden that places on the incomes of parents who are taxpayers. ... A person or couple who work and have a child pay the same amount of tax as an individual or couple with no dependent children.


Child benefit is keeping many families afloat. ... Child benefit is keeping bread on the table. It is paying the food bills of a significant number of families who have had a massive reduction in their income. ... Child benefit is, has been and will continue for a long time to be mainly an issue for mná na hÉireann and their children. That is why it is so vulnerable.

These are laudable words. I wish the Minister would live up to those words at this stage. Fast forward from then and what has the Minister done since she came into Government. She has taken advantage of that vulnerability, sure it is only the women and children, only mná na hÉireann.

The Minister has cut child benefit two years running, with the backing of her party. If this measure is passed, she is withholding the life raft child benefit is for many families with children. She is taking bread off the tables of those families and out of the mouths of children. The Labour Party made pre-election promises to protect child benefit and low family incomes. It bought the election with those promises. Those promises and the promises made in the programme for Government to protect the vulnerable have been broken time without number.

The Labour Party is not alone in this. I remember two years ago when the right wing blueshirts with whom the Labour Party is in government also spoke out in favour of carers. I refer to Deputy Michael Ring, who is now a Minister of State in the current Government. Speaking about carers in 2010, at a time when the then Fianna Fáil Government was cutting financial support for carers, he said:

It is outrageous that the Government has targeted the carers in this budget. The carers are those who work for their social welfare payment and I am disappointed that the Minister and the Government could not have excluded the carers as these people need help more than anybody. Fine Gael believes we should support carers. It makes sense that carers are supported in the work they do because they save the taxpayer money in the long run. If carers are not supported they will experience physical, financial and emotional hardship and eventual burnout. The result of this is that the cared-for person will end up in expensive hospital or nursing homes and the State will have to pick up that tab.

Fast forward and what is Fine Gael doing, along with the Minister? It is cutting support for these same carers by cutting the respite care grant. Do the Minister or any of her colleagues in government not see the difference between what they have said and what they are doing? It is hypocritical in the extreme to say one thing and just a few short weeks later change in the way they have.

What the hell. Look at the attitude of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte. They are only election promises; they are there to be broken. Why bother about them at all? Why are people getting heated about them? They are only election promises. I am sorry, but they were more than election promises, because they were included in the programme for Government. The Minister gave the commitment in the programme for Government and in this House that she would not cut the vulnerable and that she would not cut core social welfare rates. Every social welfare payment is a core payment for those who receive it.

It is not just the Labour Party that has failed to live up to its commitments. One need only look at the comments made by a Fine Gael Minister of State, Deputy Shane McEntee, not two or three years ago, but this week. How out of touch he and other members of Fine Gael are with the reality of life for those dependent on social welfare, particularly carers who must scrape by on little to look after a loved one 24/7. What he had to say was: “You could stay in a top hotel for €700 a week. People just have to get on with it." Carers cannot get on with it. They have a duty to their loved ones. They are, as the Minister said in the past, our unsung heroes. What a way to treat heroes, kick them while they are struggling. It seems that in the opinion of the Government, carers have been living it up for years at the expense of the State.

It is time the Government got real. It is time it got in touch with some of the people who were outside the gates of the Oireachtas today or with people across constituencies who have been ringing Labour Party and Fine Gael backbenchers, and perhaps Labour Party and Fine Gael Ministers.

They have been explaining the full effects not only of the cut to the respite grant but also all of the other social welfare cuts and changes that will affect their lives by reducing the little amount of money on which they have to survive on a daily basis. Many people, especially in rural Ireland, use the grant to keep their cars on the road so that they continue to have the ability to bring the people for whom they are caring to and from hospital or the doctor.

Some Labour Party backbenchers have tried to suggest in the newspapers and in this House that all of this is the fault of the Minister, Deputy Noonan. They want us to believe that the Minister, Deputy Burton, has been fighting the good fight. I suggest she has been well knocked out at this stage. If she was in a boxing ring, the fight would be over in the first round. She has failed miserably to do the only task she was given, which was to protect the vulnerable people in our society who depend on the State because they have fallen on bad times or by virtue of their disabilities. She should have protected their social welfare rates and thereby ensured they could continue to have some dignity in their lives. I believe some Labour Party backbenchers, in particular, have some type of a backbone. We will see later on. I appeal to them to examine their consciences. If they have any integrity left, they should vote against these measures. That is the challenge.

I did not expect a great deal from the Minister, Deputy Noonan. I remember his treatment of Brigid McCole. When she was in distress, he approached her with extreme callousness and inhumanity. The public expected more from the Minister, Deputy Burton, and her party in light of what she has said in the past about the value of social welfare to families and the wider economy. The knock-on effects of these cuts will destroy local economies because any remaining spending power will be gone. Some towns have a 25% unemployment rate. Many people in those communities are pensioners who also depend on social welfare. The sleveen little cuts that are being made here, there and everywhere will affect their lives. The increase in the prescription charge, for example, will take money from the pockets of pensioners and medical card holders. Those who used to benefit from the drug repayment scheme will lose out because the Minister has bounced that up again. It is another example of money being taken from the pockets of people who depend on the State to ensure they do not have to pay too much for medicine. They are not getting any such thing. If the Government concentrated more on addressing the availability of generic drugs, perhaps these issues would not have to be considered at all.

I am calling on Labour Party backbenchers, in particular, to live up to their promises by voting against this measure tomorrow and on Thursday. I am sick and tired of listening to some of them bleating on about their consciences while continuing to endorse the Government by voting with it. It is not good enough for them to bleat on about how unfair this budget is while voting for it in order to stay within the Parliamentary Labour Party and the party itself. One of the Minister's former colleagues, Deputy Shortall - the Government managed to do the dirt on her - has said this budget is an "assault on families" and is as unfair as any we have seen in recent years. She has argued that the budget protects the wealthy and thereby proves that ordinary people will suffer as long as Fine Gael's ideology dominates the Government. The chairman of the Labour Party has referred to the "cumulative effect on working families" of the child benefit cut and the PRSI changes and called aspects of the budget "regressive". He said that in certain areas, the Government did not make the correct choices in the budget. If he chooses to vote against this budget, he will send the Government back to the drawing board. It should have started from a different platform altogether by protecting and enhancing the dignity of those who are unfortunate enough to have to depend on the State, rather than by imposing cuts on them.

When my constituency colleague, Deputy Eric Byrne, was trying the other night to worm his way out of his responsibility for whatever position he is adopting - I assume he will support this Government as he has always done - he said it is not over until the fat lady sings. I am sorry to say that offers no hope to carers. The only way he can live up to that comment is by voting against this budget. I do not believe the Minister is going to sing in this instance. Along with her colleagues, she has been shouting the odds and saying "No, No, No" in a manner that is worse than Margaret Thatcher, who was mentioned by a previous speaker. When will the Minister get a heart? If she does not listen soon to the people who elected her, it will be too late for her and at the next election her party will suffer the consequences of its decision to slaughter the livelihoods of many people who depend on it.

I would like to read from some of the many e-mails I have received from people whose despair is captured in their comments. I assume the Minister has received ten times more correspondence from people who are absolutely distressed as a result of last week's budget. One woman's e-mail states:

I am devastated here after listening to the budget. I have twins in pre-school. I still only have 10 hrs a week as a home help so if you do the maths over half my wages goes on child care, not including how expensive it is to clothe two at one time. I also have a son in primary school and I dread next September with 3 uniforms, tracksuits, shoes and books to fork out for. I don't know how to cut my cloth any more. Please help women like me keep our heads above water.

Another one of the e-mails I received reads:

The little people are screwed yet again. Totally disillusioned with this country. I'm a mother of 2 sets of twins. Never looked for anything from this country. Very hard to envisage us staying here. It's impossible as time goes on. It's just hit after hit. So disappointed.

I could read from many other e-mails in the same vein. This budget, like the last budget and the one before that, will force many families to emigrate. Since this Government came into power, it has forced many families out of this country. Another e-mail states:

I am fully aware that as a country we have an awful mess that we have to clean up, but I am totally honest when I say that most families that I know use child benefit to pay essential bills each month. Why does the government not go after the wealthy in this country as they seem to not be struggling as much as us ordinary people? In fact I can never remember a time during the boom when I or anyone I know had money to throw around. It may have been a boom, but I honestly think this was only for a small few.

Another mother e-mailed me to say:

Today is a grim day for us mothers. All that shower of thieving gets are short of doing is either dropping poor or middle class families off at the major ports in Ireland and sending us away on coffin ships. It's a disgrace.

Another e-mail captures some of what I have already said and much more:

As a disabled person, I don't know if I will be able to keep up my regular medication because of the increases. How can I get to the doctor when I can't afford road tax as it is? Cuts in the household benefits package will cripple me. I'm already seeking help from SVP, what do I do now?

A final e-mail reads:

I don't think the current powers realise the amount of people in their 30s that are taking their lives because they can't survive in this country. I hit rock bottom myself in September and driving my car into a wall was the only way out I could think of. Thankfully I thought about my children and the fact that they would be left parentless if I was gone, but what can I offer them? In a country that is anti-mothers and anti-children, the only option is to leave.

They are not the only cases where there was depression and despair and where I had to comment that they needed help other than a few words from myself.

I will deal with the many specifics of the Bill on Committee Stage, although the time allocated to Committee Stage is also quite restricted. I call on all Members to pause and reflect on those quotes I gave, and not just bin them because they are opposed to the Government. Members should read them and think. These are ordinary working class and even middle class men and women who are struggling badly.

Despite contrary promises, the Bill cuts core social welfare payments and rates. It cuts the respite care grant, child benefit and jobseeker's benefit, which are all core social welfare rates. It increases PRSI contributions for the low paid and for self-employed people with very low incomes. I have tabled amendments aimed at removing all of these cuts from the Bill. I have also tabled progressive amendments to show where the Minister can find some of the money she has sought to rob from those like the carers, the disabled and those dependent on social protection. I have shown how it is possible to raise €55 million through the social welfare (amnesty) Bill and further moneys through changes to the PRSI regime, as well as through control savings and a third rate of employer's PRSI, where it is possible to raise €91 million without drastically affecting employment or employers. In addition to those savings, which are internal to the Minister's departmental budget, I have, with my party, produced a detailed budget, costed by the Department of Finance in reply to parliamentary questions, which clearly shows that every cut to social welfare contained in this budget could have been avoided and is detrimental to local economies.

As I said, I listened here to the Fianna Fáil Members, who have been trying to put out the message of their opposition to these cuts. We need to look at their record also, and I know the Minister's backbenchers will probably have a go at them. However, there is a world of difference between Fianna Fáil’s pre-budget submissions and our own. In terms of social welfare, the only proposal Fianna Fáil costed amounts to a fresh cut. Despite the growing evidence that the last round of rent supplement cuts are causing homelessness, Fianna Fáil proposed to save €25 million by cutting the scheme further and hiking the individual contribution yet again.

Speaking of that, only last week in this Chamber, the Minister showed how much she was in denial of reality when she said she was not aware of the wide-scale and widespread practice of under-the-counter payments to landlords. I do not know what planet she is living on as that has been a practice for years, but it has increased because of her changes to rent supplement last year. There has been a growth in homelessness caused by the fact people cannot afford the under-the-counter payment or the difference between what they receive in rent supplement and what the Department has been giving them.

I want to examine the combined record of the Fianna Fáil Government and this Government over recent years.

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