Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Technical Group for allowing me to use some of its speaking time.

I propose to make a couple of observations and suggestions. The qualifying age for participation in community employment schemes should be reduced to below 25 years to include unskilled younger people. Rather than simply ticking boxes, the Department of Social Protection should match candidates to vacancies. I am aware of cases in which candidates with no spoken English were sent for interview accompanied by interpreters who could not speak English. Additional Government support should be provided to counties such as Kerry, where unemployment is high and no new jobs are being provided. Greater flexibility must be shown in the area of training and upskilling, and a greater variety of courses and training should be offered, as not everybody wants to do a computer course. In addition, more opportunities should be provided to learners to extend the period of a community employment scheme if such an extension would be of genuine benefit to them. The rates paid to participants on community employment schemes should be increased to make them more attractive. For example, an increase of €20 or €40 per week would make a significant difference to participants. Community employment schemes should be judged on the basis of a number of factors, not only progression, because it is difficult to achieve targets when no new jobs are available. More places should also be made available.

I remind the Minister that the rural social scheme is not an activation measure but an income support for farmers and fishermen. Parts of rural Ireland would be depopulated of small farmers were it not for the income provided by the scheme. Farming is an isolated occupation, and the interaction of scheme participants with their workmates and members of the local community has immeasurable benefits in terms of mental well-being. I ask the Minister to increase the number of places available on this exceptionally worthwhile and valuable scheme and thank all those who run the schemes.

Last week, I tabled a number of parliamentary questions on community employment schemes. Having met recently with a number of supervisors in different parts of the country, including County Kerry, I believe the Department is trying to wind down the community employment scheme. Will the Minister assure the House that the measures being introduced are not intended to wind down the schemes? As I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, will appreciate, community employment schemes have delivered valuable and worthwhile work in many communities over the years. I hope they will be expanded in the years ahead. The questions I tabled last week highlighted the reasons for my belief that community employment is being wound down. One can certainly make the case that this is the Government's objective.

One cannot discuss this Bill without highlighting what the Government is proposing to do with the Department's money. We have learned that people who pay water charges will receive a refund of €100. Where is the common sense in that proposal? Why ask people to pay money and subsequently fill out forms to obtain a refund of €100? This is a nonsensical, crazy and ill thought-out proposal, and any Minister who argues that it is prudent or sensible is living in la-la land or away with the fairies.

I compliment Deputy Kelleher for his excellent contribution in which he highlighted the importance of small employers. Many senior Government Ministers have one thing in common, namely, the fact they have never created a job in their lives and do not know what it is like to be a small employer. They do not know what it is like to survive, create jobs for and pay people every week and try to keep a business going. The Government is lacking in people who have common sense with regard to the difficulties employers have. Since it took office it has put more red tape in the way of small operators, which are the backbone of the country and create employment in communities.

I have to mention what the Government has done to community welfare officers. Small villages and towns always had a local community welfare office, staffed by personnel who would discuss the issues, difficulties, payments, rights and entitlements of people living in the community. Such offices have been closed and the services centralised because the Government is one of the most anti-rural Governments since the foundation of the State. It is keeping in line with what it has done from the very start, namely, attacking rural communities. Why would it say that policy was sensible? I recently obtained a list of the offices which have been closed in County Kerry. Their closure has been a tremendous loss to every village. The issue has to be highlighted.

The Labour Party, in particular, has exported our best and brightest over the past number of years, and has done so unashamedly. I do not know how the Labour Party can say what it is doing is right and is being done on behalf of the people. It has sold its souls to be in government, and what it has done is disgraceful. I heard a Government Minister say that young people made a personal decision to leave the country and did not have to go. That shows how out of touch Ministers are in this Government. My phone was inundated with calls when the Minister concerned made that statement. People would have loved to have stayed in the country, but could not because there was no work here for them. They were exported. The Government has sat idly by and let that continue.

Nobody could condone the protests which turned nasty and personal. I would never condone that type of behaviour. The opposite to that is a gathering of 4,000 people at which I and Deputy Ferris spoke in Tralee some weeks ago. They marched through Tralee in a highly organised and respectful manner. There was no hassle and no problems whatsoever. The Garda would tell one there was no litter thrown on the ground. That is what protest is about, namely, people coming out, voicing their opinion and having their say. The event was run excellently, safely and properly. When a very small element of people who have a different agenda become involved, unfortunately they give what I call genuine protestors a bad name. I do not like the manner in which the Government is trying to paint everybody with the same brush, because that is not the case.

If one keeps picking at a dog and tries to pull his tail, eventually he will turn around and bite one back. People are biting back at the Government, and are telling it it made a mess of Irish Water. It knows it has. It should think about what it has done. It has spent millions of euro installing meters and has done 100 U-turns over the past number of weeks. The bigger the protests have become, the more U-turns in which the Government has engaged. It has installed meters, but has now told people it will not turn them on and will not use them at all. It complained about e-voting machines, but this is a much bigger debacle. It is the e-voting machines issue multiplied by hundreds, and probably thousands. The meters have been installed, but the Government is terrified to turn them on because Fine Gael and the Labour Party know they will not be heard of for a long time if they do so. Any rowing back will be seen for what it is, namely, a cynical move to protect their political skins.

Sometimes national newspapers can get things wrong. I remember during the campaign by the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, to be leader of the Labour Party she trusted a certain national newspaper which supported her campaign in a very special way and did everything it could to ensure her election. It even christened her "Wonderwoman". I wonder whether the same newspaper would try to sell itself on the same slogan underneath a picture of the Tánaiste now. I do not think it would wash because people now realise that not only has Wonderwoman let the country down, but so too have the Taoiseach and the former Minister Phil Hogan. He has bolted himself away in Europe and left us with the mess he made.

Night after night we tried to raise this issue and show that what was proposed was wrong. The backbenchers are still in a coma, but are trying to awake from their slumbers because of the results of the local elections. It might be too little, too late. There has been mistake after mistake. Tomorrow and Thursday are about the Government trying to save themselves and explain what is wrong. It could have said it would not create Irish Water, a layer of bureaucracy and jobs and bonuses for the boys, and would not spend hundreds of millions of euro on metering water. It could have instead asked every household to make a modest contribution that would be sent straight to local authorities which would then fix underground pipes. It was as simple as that, but the former Minister, Phil Hogan, could not get it.

Hundreds of millions of euro have been spent, but not one pipe has been repaired. There are thousands of meters under the ground which may never begin running. Who will do it? If the Government will not turn on the water meters, will the next do so? It is an expensive folly for which the taxpayer will have to pay. The Government still cannot admit it got it wrong and Irish Water should be disbanded. It is not fit for purpose and should not be in place. There are people in jobs which should never have been created in the first place because it was a mess from the very start.

Our local authorities had water sections and experienced personnel who knew what needed to be done. All they needed were the finances to do it, and if a modest charge had been imposed on people they would not have minded paying. We could then have started catching the 40% of water we are losing every day and would not have to be as worried about water conservation as we are now. One has to be worried about water conservation when one is losing 40% of it every day, but all we needed to do was to fix the pipes. None of the backbenchers who were silent and in a coma would comment on that. All they did was stay there, with their eyes closed, and vote with the Government. Now many of them are telling us they are sorry, they should not have voted for Irish Water and supported the guillotine, and should have realised what they were doing was wrong. Why are they waking up and taking a U-turn? It is because of the results of the local and European elections last May, and the dread of the next general election. Where were they all along? They were in a coma.

The Government has been drip feeding information to the media. The larger the protests became, the more U-turns it found it had to make. What has happened over the past number of weeks is a disgrace.

I thank the thousands of peaceful protesters who made the Government wake up a little and who tried to wake backbenchers out of the coma they have been in for the past three and a half years.

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