Dáil debates

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Financial Resolution No. 8: General (Resumed)

 

12:50 pm

Photo of John HalliganJohn Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share my time with Deputies Ross and Higgins.

Last night somebody joked to me that instead of cutting the dole for the under-25s it might have been cheaper for the Government to give young people a one-way plane ticket out of the country and be done with them. With the air travel tax scrapped, perhaps the Government could get a good deal from its friend Michael O'Leary. A lot of window-dressing measures and spin have been applied to this budget. When one peels back this embellishment one quickly sees how out of touch the Government is with the people. This budget takes no account of current circumstances, of the day-to-day reality of already marginalised groups such as the young, the old and the sick.

Like many other Deputies, last night and this morning I was contacted by a number of people of all demographics who were genuinely in despair over some of the proposals. They posed some questions to me which I was at a loss to explain. Perhaps the Taoiseach can do so. What would he say, for example, to a mother caring for three sick children twenty-four-seven, 365 days a year, who can claim carer's allowance for only two of them? She wants to know why she only qualifies to have two disabled people in her home, and she cannot cope with the thought of another review of her medical card - we all agree such reviews are happening. What would he say to the single father who, despite losing his single father tax credit, will continue to make a 300 km round trip every weekend to see his son, costing him nearly €50 per week on top of his maintenance payments? What would he say to the father who works ten-hour days to support his family and pay for his negative-equity home, bought at the height of the boom, which is now too small for his family? He only sees his youngest child at the weekend despite living under the same roof, and he cannot understand why nothing has been done to help struggling mortgage holders, 16% of whom are in arrears.

This morning I spoke to an 86-year-old woman living on my road whose personal alarm system is connected to her phone. Both of her neighbours have been burgled in the past year and she is terrified that she will be next. That telephone allowance is her lifeline. Energy prices have risen as much as 34% since the last income gain for pensioners in 2008 and the Government's targeting of them is going to cause serious hardship. This woman, who is from a generation that believed in owing nobody a penny, has the added anxiety of worrying about the scrapping of the bereavement grant, a nasty cut.

Reductions in the medical card threshold for those aged over 70 must surely discriminate against elderly couples. So too has the five-fold increase in prescription charges over the last two years disproportionately hit elderly people. Do we realise that 57% of older people suffer from chronic illness and one third have a disability, meaning the health changes will have a major impact on them? Last night I spoke to a GP friend who said he had no doubt elderly people would end up having to be hospitalised because they would not be able to afford the medicines they needed after yesterday's budget. This false economy will ultimately result in higher health-care costs for the State.

Swingeing cuts in social welfare payments to young unemployed people are cruel and ignorant and, once again, sorely display the Government's lack of understanding of the reality in Ireland today, such as the fact that so many young people, for various reasons, are not residing in their family homes. Did we take that into consideration? Comments to the media that young people are caught in a "welfare trap" where work is unattractive are appallingly insensitive to more than 177,000 young people who have emigrated since 2008. Youth unemployment today is at almost 29%, compared to just over 13% in 2008, while Ireland also has the fourth highest rate of young people not in education, employment or training in the EU.

I agree with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, that young people should be in education and training, but it is an insult to a young qualified teacher, a graduate who has already spent at least €30,000 on his or her education, to be told that he or she needs further education or training. What these people need is a proper job. If the Government had any faith in its job creation programme, it would not be targeting young graduates. I would like somebody from the Government to explain to me what this budget says to the hundreds of unemployed young teachers in Ireland who are under 25 years of age. Is it saying they do not want to work, so it will cut their dole to make them work or make them continue in education? This is an appallingly insensitive and ignorant approach.

There is a distinct lack of job activation measures in the budget. The majority of young unemployed people I know are desperately anxious to get work. The issue is a lack of jobs, not a refusal to take up employment. It is shameful of the Government to hide behind recent decreases in the live register. Let me present some facts. The live register statistics show that less than half of the 407,000 people who left the live register in the past year did so because they had found employment. Just one third of the people who left the register had found work. These are Government statistics. Almost 36% of those who left the register were placed on another welfare scheme, while a huge proportion left the country to seek work elsewhere. These facts undermine the statements made regarding the budget proposals and the attack on the young and the demonisation of young people whom the Government says do not want to work.

There is little to help struggling working families in the budget. It is incorrect to say that child benefit will not be cut, as cuts to the payment for the fourth child in a family announced last year are due to come into effect this January. The Government failed to mention this in the literature it sent out to everyone. That cut, combined with the attack on maternity benefit, will deter many young couples from increasing their families, but perhaps that is the intention of the Government.

Some 80,000 patients - many of whom are people with cancer or children with severe disabilities - had discretionary medical cards in 2011. That figure has now dropped to 54,000. Despite earning a wage, many of those who lost their medical cards have huge outgoings. The Taoiseach has claimed that the reason for the reduction is that individuals who were previously recorded as qualifying for a discretionary card now get one because they meet the income eligibility requirements. I would not boast about this, because the Government has impoverished those people to such an extent that they now get medical cards as of right. However, the medical card review will bring further worry to their doors.

The Government's patent and continuing attack on communities through the targeting of youth funding, family support, intervention programmes and sports organisations is a clear indication that it has no interest in investing in the country's future. Youth work services that support 380,000 young people have already been cut by 30%, from €73.1 million in 2008 to €51.4 million in 2013. The €2 million reduction in this area will force youth organisations working on the ground to reduce services and supports available to young people from disadvantaged areas further, at a time when the need for these services has greatly increased. Funding for sport has also been rolled back to 2006 levels, which will have a crippling impact on grassroots clubs.

I would like to have more time to discuss these issues, but my time is up. The figures I have cited today are the Government's figures. Once again, the budget is an attack on those in society who are less well off, from middle income groups down. The Government cannot possibly say this budget is for the betterment of society or will help increase a sustainable economy. All this budget will do is to deplete the country's resources. Inevitably, we will have to put more funding into health and social welfare to help those in greatest need in the years to come. This is a reactionary budget, reactionary against those who can ill afford to pay and against the many groups who do not have trade unions or big parties standing by them. That is the reason it is the most vulnerable sections of society that are being attacked.

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