Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Of course I absolutely condemn any attack, anywhere, on any public representative. The fact that people's children and grandchildren were at home when some of these attacks were made, as was the case with the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, is particularly reprehensible. I do not know whether the attacks were political or whether the attackers had other motives - that is for the police to establish - but it is deeply unpleasant, dangerous and potentially deadly in the context of the North, where so much work has been done across the spectrum to bring peace and to resolve political issues by peaceful means and through parliamentary democracy. Like the Taoiseach, I send my sympathy to the families and individuals affected and I absolutely condemn any attack such as that on any elected representative who is taking part in democracy.

Regarding the timing of the legislation to which the Deputy referred, it will be this session, but I do not have an exact timetable. As soon as this is available, it will be published by the Government. On the subject of debt, the Department of Social Protection has very well established mechanisms under legislation to protect people's social welfare payments where they are paying, as many people do on a voluntary basis, using the household budgeting scheme, which we run in conjunction with An Post. This a very popular service and it is of enormous assistance to people in managing bills such as rent and so on if they have a local authority house. We have a long tradition of doing that. It is embedded in legislation and carried out in a very careful and supportive way by thousands of social welfare staff who work very hard to give the best service possible to people who are in difficulty, and in particular, although Deputy McDonald may not agree, to help people who unfortunately have lost their jobs due to the collapse in the economy in returning to work, going back to education or starting their own businesses.

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