Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am astounded by this. If the social policy committee had met more often, the budget would not have been unfair to old people or disproportionately and dramatically unfair to single parents. The hit the latter group will take on tax credits is extraordinary and shows that there was no poverty-proofing by any social policy committee. The savings of €666 million to €1 billion in the health sector were not proofed by the social policy committee. Policy on discretionary medical cards was changed in the budget, meaning that people with multiple conditions, some with motor neuron disease, have to obtain letters from professors in various clinics to get their medical cards back. Even last week, people were still getting letters informing them their medical cards were to be withdrawn. The taxing of maternity benefit would not have happened either if there had been a strong social policy dimension informing and poverty-proofing the budget. Where was the social policy committee of the Cabinet when all of these decisions were being made?

I hold no brief for any other Deputy in the House. However, more honest language would be more appropriate. Taking €44 from young people is not about creating jobs. The majority of young people want to work. However, the Taoiseach said in his earlier replies to Deputies that they really did not want work and that the only way to get them a job was to take €44 from them. In the budget this measure was described as a new rate that would apply to 18 to 21 year olds and it was stated it would now apply to those over 21 years. It is insulting of the Government to tell people that it does not believe they want a job and cut their social welfare rate by €44. What the Government is actually doing is trying to raise revenue. It would be better if the Taoiseach were more honest and admitted that this was what it was about. However, dressing it up as a job activation measure is dishonest.

Will the social policy committee be meeting more often? The one big fact which blows a hole in the Taoiseach’s proposition of the so-called youth guarantee is that there are only about 18,000 places available through it when there are 66,000 young people unemployed. It is very dishonest and insulting to young people to tell them that their welfare payment is being cut by €44 to get them working when there are insufficient job placements or social welfare inspectors to assist them in these placements. It is all a mirage, rhetoric and spin.

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