Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last night I outlined relevant statistics that indicate clearly that what the Government states in the spring statement is unlikely to happen. Sinn Féin would argue that it cannot happen under our current system. Ours is a high cost and low pay society and when the purchasing power of Irish workers is accounted for, Ireland falls 13% below the EU15 average while almost 350,000 of the workforce suffer multiple deprivation.

Linked to this issue is the issue of collective bargaining. Ireland is one of only two countries in the European Union that does not recognise collective bargaining and successive governments have failed to introduce statutory collective bargaining. It is baffling that this is the case. This failure means that organised labour, particularly in the low-paid sector, does not have an adequate means to push for better pay and conditions. Sinn Féin believes it is the role of the Government to take action to make the lives of people in this country better and that the obvious way to do that is to introduce collective bargaining on behalf of workers.

Even if the forecasts made in the spring statement were achieved, we would still have 160,000 people unemployed in 2020, without any consideration of those who may be added to the unemployment register in the meantime. If there is one thing we should have learned from the 1980s, it is the danger and long-lasting implication of long-term unemployment. It is a major failure of policy that we keep entering a cycle of long-term unemployment and never quite solve the issue.

Things may have been improved marginally for a while but we never got to grips with the endemic crisis that is long-term unemployment.

Yesterday, when I was making notes for this speech, I heard the story of a woman who is in receipt of an invalidity pension. The poor lady is terminally ill with cancer. Apparently, she was overpaid social welfare in 2005, and €95 is now being stopped from her €103 weekly pension. I know the legalities involved and that if somebody is overpaid, he or she must repay the money. I know certain rates must be taken. Nevertheless, have we reached the stage where we are plundering €95 from the €103 pension being paid every week to a woman with a terminal illness? That is not an Ireland of which I am proud. The issue should be immediately addressed as the Government has its priorities mixed up.

I will do something I normally would not. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste do it every week, so if it is good enough for the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, it is good enough for Colreavy.

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