Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The economist, Michael Taft, recently wrote a blog that should be required reading for the Government, particularly those deluded souls who believe that our unemployment crisis has been caused by indolence. He examined the track record of our young people's ability and desire to work. He examined how Irish people had worked when jobs were available. He wrote that, for young people aged between 20 and 24 years between 2004 and 2006, the Irish employment rate was the fourth highest in the EU 15, considerably above the average of other EU 15 countries. There would be a high level of people in that age group still in education, but nearly 70% of Irish youth were working.

Michael Taft also examined the category of people aged between 25 and 29 years, when people have by and large left full-time education. He found that this group's employment rate was the second highest in the EU 15, way above the average. It fell to fourth lowest in 2012, just above other peripheral countries. The work is not there. There are 32 people unemployed for every vacancy. No amount of moralising to young people will change that.

The Government has given up on helping or supporting our young people. A generation has been deemed expendable. I resent this deeply and hope that it comes back to haunt the Government.

It is far from the young alone who have been hit by this appalling Bill. The sick, elderly and those struggling with mortgages are all taking a big hit. In section 4, the waiting time for illness benefit has been doubled from three to six days, effectively bringing it in to a second week. This could do one of two things - either cause a sick person to go without at a time when they should not have to or the employer will carry the can, thus placing further pressure on small businesses.

There are cuts to maternity benefit, putting expectant mothers under severe pressure financially, and cuts to the adoption grant. I am particularly disgusted at the ending of the bereavement grant.

This Bill will cause genuine suffering and hardship. I hope government Deputies will reflect on the suffering their constituents will endure when they troop through the lobbies.

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