Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the Bill and I thank the Technical Group for that opportunity.

One must welcome the individual efforts, however meagre, made in the budget by the Minister. I welcome the increase in child benefit, although it is from €130 to 135 a month, in the living alone allowance and the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus. Those measures are welcome but there are many other areas across the Social Welfare Bill where little or no effort has been made to look after the less well-off, the elderly, widows, carers, and a tranche of individuals and low-income families. Many in such families are unemployed, while others are working in low-income jobs and getting support from the family income supplement. With the never-ending stream of increases in the cost of living that have taken place, both through the Government's direct action and indirectly by forcing up the cost of commodities, every issue bears down on a family.

I have stated in the House on many occasions that it must pay a person to go out to work. We will never end the jobless situation, even though we had considerable work here, without making it viable for a man or woman to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, and we must try to get the unemployed out of the poverty trap. While reports have been mentioned, we do not need any of them. We use clinics and walk down towns.

Some of the legislation that has been introduced in recent years has made it more difficult and expensive to create employment, and there must be a radical root-and-branch review of the social welfare legislation, many other areas of legislation and proposed legislation. As an employer, I understand the delicacies and pressures in providing employment for small and medium-sized business trying to compete. The multinationals, while they are welcome to come here, may get grants but the small employer is not looked after. There are many areas in the Social Welfare Bill where that could have been addressed, and for the past seven years while I have been a Member, it has not been addressed. It becomes more cumbersome, difficult and expensive, and there is less of an incentive for employers to take on the unemployed to bring down the numbers on the dole queue. As I stated, there must be an incentive for a person to go to work. It cannot be the position that one is better off at home, which is not healthy or good. One must allow those who want to go to work to do so.

On the jobseeker's allowance, the cut introduced last year for young people is too penal. In the case of the vast majority of young people, it is not true what the then Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, stated at the time about them watching flat screen television. The vast majority of young people who go through education are educated and interested in finding gainful and meaningful employment but cannot do so. On the 70,000 jobs we heard of during the local elections, those jobs were in Australia or Canada.

There must be a situation where the unemployed feel empowered and allowed to work. JobBridge was mentioned on several occasions. While JobBridge is being abused, speaking from the point of view of the community, it has been very successful in communities with which I am familiar where community initiatives and community groups got the unemployed on internships and JobBridge. However, it is being abused where one sees unscrupulous employers using it to hire the unemployed as petrol pump attendants and for other jobs of which we all have plenty of evidence. That needs to be worked on as well.

As I stated at the outset of the monster that is Uisce Éireann being conceived, born and delivered, it is still a nasty baby, kicking and squealing and throwing toys out of the pram. The Government provided water allowances in the budget. They are taking away from a positive budget in ways, and going towards paying for fat cats in jobs in a super quango that was set up. It is interfering with the social welfare system to try to devise ways to pay back some of the moneys to be paid to the company when the basic problem is that the price of the water per cubic litre to be paid to this monstrosity, or as I called it, wild beast that has to be tamed, is too expensive because it must pay for consultants and big business.

The Social Welfare Bill is being used to try to deal with the monstrosity that has been created, instead of dealing meaningfully with pending employment legislation to make it more attractive for employers to create more work and to be the creators of wealth by getting people to work. People are always happier when they are working. Most people I know want to have a job, play their part and pay their taxes, but also to be able to provide for a family and to educate them. It is a pity to see the Government stuttering and stammering. The Taoiseach said today that the water will flow, but at what price, and what pressure will be put on the social welfare system? Such money should be earmarked to be spent elsewhere in the system to support families, not to try to sweeten the pill that is Irish Water. The pill is bitter and will leave a toxic taste forever.

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