Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It amuses me the frequency with which certain elements in government keep going on about our welfare system and about the need to remove disincentives to work when we know that the vast majority of people on welfare would be better off if they could get a job, even on minimum wages, and all of the evidence supports that. Those elements in government who keep going on about this issue either do not understand how the system works, refuse to accept the evidence or else are pursuing a particular agenda which is about targeting people on very low incomes. Certainly, what is being proposed in regard to those under the age of 26 would bear that out, namely, that there is a deliberate policy of making life so difficult and impoverishing people on welfare so much that they will just give up and leave the country. Those in government should examine the evidence that is there. There is not an issue about welfare being too high except in the case of rent supplement. That has been a glaring problem for a number of years and, thankfully, the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is in the process of addressing that, and not before time.

I would like to pick up on the indications from this budget that the left hand has not a clue what the right hand is doing. Ministers, especially those like the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, are very fond of saying that we need to incentivise people to go back to work. One of the incentives that was in the system was that the people who were on low incomes, especially families who had a medical card, were allowed to retain that medical card for three years after returning to work. This applied if they were long-term unemployed. I do not know if the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, realises that this measure has been removed from this budget.

Does the Minister of State realise that is the case? If he had the manners to listen to the debate, Deputies could perhaps elicit a response from him.

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