Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's changes under the Bill give rise to four, five or six issues relating to, for example, child benefit, the household package, the living alone allowance and the change to the amount invested in JobBridge, etc. People, particularly those affected by cuts in recent years, have given their judgment on the budget.

Sean Moynihan, the chief executive officer of ALONE, commented:

After seven successive years of harsh budgets disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable, we now are in a situation whereby 1 in 5 older people are at risk of poverty or suffering deprivation, despite the National Positive Ageing Strategy. We are questioning whether this budget will do anything to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. Not all older people are the same; those surviving on the state pension alone (which is just above the poverty line) will see a small increase of just €124.60 this year, and that’s before the water [taxes] are taken into account.

The ALONE chief executive officer went on to state:

For the first time since 1996, the Living Alone Allowance has been increased. Nevertheless the increase of €1.30, from €7.70 to €9.00 is not in line with inflation over the past 18 years and will make very little difference to the 20% of older people who are at risk of deprivation or living in poverty.

That was ALONE's judgment on the Social Welfare Bill. A similar response came from the One Family organisation, which stated:

While the child benefit increase of €5 and the partial re-instatement of the Christmas Bonus may be welcomed by some parents, these are not cost-effective measures that will impact on poverty levels in any tangible manner without being tailored to respond to need. 53% of lone parents are in the labour force yet one-parent families remain those statistically most at risk of poverty.

The National Women's Council of Ireland, NWCI, commented in a similar vein by stating it:

... welcomes the €5 increase in child benefit as a partial recognition of the cost of living increases for families, one which NWCI called for in the lead up to Budget 2015. However it is important that we recognise that this measure, worth approximately €70 million, does not offset cuts to the payment which amount to over €400 million since 2009 or the impact of increased property and water taxes on many families and does not address childcare costs, which average €800 - €1000 a month.

That was the judgment of some of those organisations that deal directly with people in society and with those areas and people who have been most affected by the austerity of the past eight years in Ireland.

When one considers how the Government responded to this by giving more into the pockets of those earning more than €70,000 while giving less into the pockets of those earning lower incomes, one can see why this budget has been worked out this way. While the Tánaiste has stated the Government has not cut core payments, it has. It has cut the jobseeker's allowance for those under 25 and under 21. The Government has cut the pension for women who have worked all their lives and because it changed the way in which the allocation of contributions are worked out over the years, it has actually cut their income by substantial amounts of money. The figures I have read state that next year, one could envisage almost 54,000 women being affected by these cuts in the old age pension contribution. The point is that for women who have worked since 1974 but who took time out to rear their families or to care for their mothers or fathers, the contribution now is levelled over the number of years, which means they will have less of an old age pension when they turn 66 years of age. People are outraged about this and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has come out to absolutely lambaste the Government on this change, as has SIPTU and the National Women's Council of Ireland. However, the Tánaiste has had the audacity to state there have been no core cuts in payments. This constitutes a deep core cut in payments for women who need it and who are most vulnerable in their later years of their lives. Moreover, this issue has not gone away. Although there was supposed to be a home tax credit to offset this cut to these women's pensions, it has not happened. It is sitting with the Department of Finance at present, as the issue was transferred from the Department of Social Protection to the Department of Finance to be dealt with. Consequently, it is a damned lie in respect of no cuts in core payments.

The Social Welfare Bill does not go anywhere towards trying to address the inequalities that existed in our society before the crash and which have only become embedded since then. As for the impact of these cuts, I met a group of people from the Canal Communities Partnership last week and these across-the-board cuts in the partnerships and the networks, in the HSE and in the Garda have had a really bad impact on certain parts of society whereby it now is extremely difficult or practically impossible to get Tusla to work with families who are most vulnerable in the child protection area. Whether there have been cuts there as well and it cannot deal with the pressures, this is what is happening now. There have been a number of attempts to meet families to try to deal with child protection but that has not happened since last April. This is the impact it is having in communities right across the board.

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