Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Five minutes, 11 minutes and four minutes, respectively.

I thank Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan for her contribution. The wide parameters of the budget were given to the Fiscal Advisory Council prior to the budget but not the detail. It was outlined that €1.5 billion would be spent and that was the given in this regard. The Fiscal Advisory Council plays a good role and provides a balanced commentary when that discussion is held.

Many measures in the budget for 2016 will support people back into work and helping people to get into work and into a decently-paid job is the best way out of poverty for them. I have been listening to the debate throughout the day. I spent a considerable length of time in the Chamber today listening to the debate and have listened closely to it while in my office. I was in the Chamber this morning when Deputy Martin stated this was a Government without a plan. I disagree fundamentally with him because if one considers the position five years ago, Ireland did not have a functioning Government. Deputy Martin was a Minister in a Cabinet whose members were rapidly resigning. That Government had Independent support and a Green Party in the coalition that two months earlier had marked clearly its intention to exit the Administration. There was chaos and crisis. Ireland did not have a Government, it had chaos.

The present Government had a clear plan, which was for a job-led recovery. When the Government stated four years ago that it would bring down the unemployment rate below 10%, it was said it could not be done. The Government was told night after night on various shows that it would head into another bailout. It did not and it has reduced the unemployment rate to 9.4%. My Department runs the JobsIreland.iewebsite and I checked the figures today. Between 28 September and 4 October, 2,353 real jobs, positions and vacancies were on that website for which people could apply and in the year to date, more than 95,000 vacancies have been advertised on the JobsIreland.iewebsite. Consequently, people are returning to work but I agree completely with Deputy O'Sullivan, the Government cannot stop and must keep pushing. Until the half a million jobs that were lost by the last Administration are recovered, we truly will not have a recovery in which all are sharing. We will not succeed in reducing the poverty figures until people get into jobs. Deputy Martin is totally wrong. He appears to throw out these one-liners to the effect there is no plan but there has been a plan, which has been to get people back into work, both for the salary it gives and the dignity it provides. The long-term unemployment rate now has fallen to 5.5%, an amazing figure, over the period in which the Government has been in office.

Deputy Keaveney, a former colleague, told the House about how this is a right-wing Government. He appears to have joined a right-wing party because he forgets it was Fianna Fáil that reduced the hourly minimum wage rate by €1, which somehow was meant to create work or increase competitiveness.

On coming to power, this Government increased the minimum wage by €1. Yesterday, my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Nash, announced a further increase to the minimum wage which will mean that it will have been increased twice during the lifetime of this Administration. Not only has the minimum wage been increased, an independent review mechanism has been put in place to monitor it such that we will no longer be obliged to wait for future Governments to decide whether it should be increased.

Deputy Keaveney's comments come as no surprise. The Deputy is big on rhetoric but small on fact. No other Government in the midst of recession has introduced so much legislation to protect workers. The trade union movement in this country has been calling for decades for the introduction of collective bargaining. Thanks to the Minister of State, Deputy Nash collective bargaining is now in place to support and protect vulnerable workers on low wages. I know that Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, who does a great deal of work in that area, welcomes this measure.

Most people are aware of what is contained in budget 2016. The Department of Social Protection has focused its attention on supporting people in returning to work and on people in employment. I am delighted that we were able to announce a 75% reinstatement of the Christmas bonus, which Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan has also welcomed. Fianna Fáil has forgotten that it abolished the Christmas bonus.

I support the 2016 budgetary measures.

See this speech in context