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

The Government has choices in what policies it follows. As the country has some very wealthy people in income and asset terms, there is certainly room for a wealth tax to accrue much needed income for the Exchequer. If there was ever any doubt about the high level of wealth in Ireland, it was dispelled last week when the Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, informed the House that Ireland was the seventh richest country in the world. In light of this, there is considerable scope for ensuring that the very wealthy pay their fair share and contribute properly to our recovery. It must be remembered that many of them were involved in creating the recession, not the middle and lower income families who had no hand, act or part in it.

The Central Statistics Office, CSO, has published information showing that, while 90% of the population have lost approximately 18% of their incomes in recent years, the upper 10% have increased theirs. They have also increased their assets in the teeth of this recession, yet they are not being asked to pay their fair share.

The most noticeable effect of the austerity programme, including cuts to social welfare and so on, is poverty. I am referring to consistent and relative poverty as well as to child poverty, all of which have increased substantially in recent years. The programme has also had a direct effect on the domestic economy. Low-income recipients of social welfare payments and the working poor spend all of their money in the economy, particularly their local economies. If one walks down the main street of any town or city, the significant amount of money that has been taken out of the economy through cuts is evident. Shops and long-standing businesses have closed, resulting in considerable levels of unemployment. Taking money out of the economy, be it through social welfare reductions or changes to eligibility criteria, will undoubtedly create further job losses.

Recently, the Nevin Economic Research Institute showed that the Croke Park II proposals would only save €250 million of the €1 billion cited and would lead to approximately 10,000 people becoming unemployed, half of whom would be from the private sector.

The proposal on the one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transition payment should be withdrawn from the Bill. I do not agree that the age of seven should be the cut-off point. The Minister has accepted that proper, affordable child care is not available.

The Bill should include statutory time limits for social welfare applications. Currently, decisions on most applications are taking in the region of eight months. Reviews take approximately three to six months and appeals take approximately 12 months. We need statutory maximum limits to ensure applications are dealt with in a timely fashion.

The Minister should take the opportunity to withdraw the cuts she has imposed since coming to power, in particular cuts to child benefit and those affecting the elderly such as carer’s allowance, fuel allowance and electricity allowance.

In terms of pensions, the Bill does not deal with the crucial issue of defined-benefit pension schemes and the benefits to workers where their employment has ceased or a business has gone bust. That should have been addressed long before now, as far back as 2007 when there was a similar case in Britain. The Bill's provisions do not deal either with the exorbitant fees charged on pension funds. It has been accepted in recent times that they are significant and should be reduced.

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