Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Government to reverse this measure.

The Government is in the process of gutting the household benefits package and failing to recognise its social and economic value. Every pensioner over 70 years relies on the free telephone allowance, and the Government is hitting every person on the carer's allowance, everyone between 66 and 70 years in receipt of the State contributory or non-contributory pension and everyone in receipt of the widow's and widower's pension.

In addition to doing that to elderly people, the Government has singled out people with disabilities for this cut. The Government is also targeting people on disability allowance. Everyone in receipt of disability allowance will be affected by this €26 cut, since it was started last year. It amounts to €6 per week and the Government will say it does not hit the weekly rates but it hits the monthly allowance. It amounts to a €6 per week cut for people who relied on the telephone allowance a few short months ago. It will be abolished entirely.

Apart from the elderly, the Government is hitting everyone in receipt of disability allowance and every person on the invalidity pension, the blind pension and disablement benefit. Why is the Government attacking the old and the disabled? They are not the people who caused the problem. We can throw the blame around but I know it was not our parents, our grandparents or people on disability allowance, invalidity pension, the blind pension and the disablement payment who caused the problem They are not responsible for the cuts and they should not be asked to bear the brunt of them. The cumulative impact of these measures on recipients is to undermine their ability to live dignified, independent lives. It goes against every instinct of Irish people, who have always valued the principle of social solidarity and intergenerational support. These decisions are shameful and unfair.

Electricity prices increased by 20% since the Government came to power and gas prices have increased by more than 30%. Further increases will be directly felt by the 410,000 currently in receipt of the telephone allowance. This is hitting the same people. On the one hand, the Government praises the valuable work of carers but it is hitting everyone in receipt of the carers allowance through today's change. When the Minister for Social Protection is asked about it, she glibly says they can go to the community welfare officers. It is terrible to say that to elderly people. Vulnerable, elderly or sick people and those on disability do not have the wherewithal to fill out a form for the community welfare officer. It is a glib response from a Minister who is out of touch.

The cumulative impact of the cuts to the household benefits package represent an unprecedented attack on older people, carers and people with disabilities. Age Action Ireland correctly highlighted the hugely stressful psychological impact of the cuts and highlighted the widespread anxiety about further cuts and the uncertainty it causes for older people. It is important to note that many of those affected are included in the 35,000 or 40,000 people from whom the Government is taking the medical card if they are over 70 years. It is a double whammy.

My colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, mentioned the abolition of the bereavement grant. There is no way to describe this other than to say it is simply lousy. This is a PRSI payment for which people paid and now the Government is asking hard pressed families to go to the community welfare officer for an exceptional needs payment to cover the cost of burying a relative. It runs counter to every instinct and tradition in the Irish people. I cannot believe a Labour Minister would stoop so low. Some 20,000 families will lose the grant next year. I am shocked the Labour Party would do that.

Many cuts will be introduced by the Labour Party and by the Minister for Social Protection that are not included in today's announcement. Changes to one-parent family payments will be introduced from 1 January. For families with more than three children, there will be another cut to child benefit with the rate for the fourth and subsequent child reduced by €10. It will occur on 1 January even though it was not mentioned today. There is no mention of this in what the Minister called a family friendly budget.

Parents had been promised by Deputy Burton that changes to the one-parent family payment would occur only once a Scandinavian-type child care system was in place. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, scoffed and said recently that we do not need such a model but in the meantime the changes are going ahead. In a few weeks, the Government will make changes, on top of the changes announced last July, to the age of the youngest child at which the one-parent family payment ceases and the ability of lone parents to earn money in part-time work. The changes will save €112 million in a full year but will come at major cost to the families. Lone parents experience a rate of poverty twice that of the national average. They have been failed by a Minister who will introduce these cuts on 1 January.

At present, lone parents are entitled to work and stay in receipt of the full one-parent family payment if their income does not exceed €130 per week. It is to encourage persons in households with a greater incidence of poverty to go out to work. Income above that figure results in a deduction from the allowance. This was done to encourage them to work. Yet again, in 2014, the Government will drastically reduce the amount they can earn while retaining the lone parent payment. For many, this means it will not be worth their while to go out to work. It is a classic lose-lose for the recipient and the taxpayer.

The change to the mortgage interest supplement is one of the worst measures in the budget announcements. I am at a loss to understand the logic of deciding to effectively abolish mortgage interest supplement. More than 97,400 mortgages are in arrears for more than three months. Deputy Michael McGrath said tackling the mortgage crisis is central to the well-being of Ireland as a society and an economy. In the two and a half years since the Government came into office, the number in mortgage arrears has more than doubled. Against this background, I am deeply concerned by the decision to effectively end the mortgage interest supplement scheme. It is the only direct cash contribution by the Government to people in mortgage arrears. Can the Minister blame the banks if they send letters to people telling them to vacate their houses? The banks will say the Minister is abolishing the mortgage interest supplement. The Government is leading the attack, followed up by its friends in the banks, on people in mortgage arrears. The Government is saying to the banks that it will not give any more mortgage supplement and that the banks can do their business. I refer to a letter in my office from a lady who is in mortgage arrears with the State-owned Permanent TSB and the total amount of arrears is €106.

She was not even a month in arrears. The Minister's bank, the State-owned bank, wrote to that lady telling her to dispose of the mortgaged property and get out of her house because she was €106 in arrears. How can one blame a bank for sending that letter when the Minister stands up here today stating the Government will not support that person either and will abolish the mortgage interest supplement? A few short years ago, when the Minister came to power, the cost of mortgage interest supplement was €60 million per annum. The Minister, Deputy Burton, has told me she dislikes it because she thinks it is money for the banks.

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