Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Despite denials, the Government's budget contains cuts in the social welfare rates. We have heard in the past week that core payments and weekly payments have not been cut in the same way as they were not cut in the previous year. No matter how often Ministers say this, the fact is that payments have been cut. The jobseeker's allowance for claimants under 26 has been cut by €44. That is a cut. The welfare rate for 65-year-olds who can no longer work due to a disability has been cut by €36.80. That is a cut no matter which way one presents it. There have been cuts to maternity benefit and illness benefit, invalidity pension and adoption benefit. The mortgage interest supplement is being phased out and the bereavement grant has been slashed completely.

It appears nobody is safe but what is particularly cruel is the attempt by this Government to demonise young people. Deputy Maloney reckons that young people are all sitting at home looking at flat screen televisions all day. I can assure him that many of them are contacting Deputies.

They may not be in touch with him but they are certainly contacting Deputies and businesses to see whether they can find a job anywhere. In regard to the claim by the Minister, Deputy Bruton, that social welfare is a lifestyle choice, I ask him whether he can live on €100 per week.

Since the Government came to power in 2011, the unemployment rate in County Laois increased from 8,396 to 8,857, of whom 1,588 are young people. As attacking young people by cutting their rates will not create employment, the Government would be better off focusing on job creation. Youth unemployment has remained at a staggering 30% for more than four years, with 30 applicants for every available job according to ICTU. Young people want to work and we need to make jobs available for them but the Governments' policies are failing in that regard.

The budget proposals that Sinn Féin put forward outline how we would reduce the tax burden on ordinary families by taking 296,000 workers on the minimum wage or below it out of the tax and USC net and protecting welfare payments. The Government has let young people down. Some 64,700 people under the age of 25 are currently unemployed. Rather than punish young people we want to give them real jobs, education and training for a future in Ireland. We propose a guarantee of employment, training or education, or an apprenticeship within four months of a young person becoming unemployed. According to the National Youth Council, this can be achieved at a cost of €6,600 per person, or a total of €400 million, which could be provided through a combination of Exchequer and matching EU funding. We are committed to ring fencing money raised from a wealth tax to ensure that every young person can avail of a job, education or training. We would link the youth guarantee to our job stimulus. Instead of making comments about lifestyles, the Government would be better to focus its energy on the needs of those who receive welfare and young people in particular. It is disheartening for them. They badly need employment and the Government should not think cutting welfare rates will somehow create new jobs.

If one takes unemployment and emigration as the barometers by which the public can measure Government policy, Government policy has failed. I ask the Government to stop attacking young people. The cuts are a disgrace. Young people want hope and a future in this country. We are trying to present alternatives and we ask the Government to consider them.

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