Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a pity the Minister for Social Protection is not here, but having read the newspaper extracts from Deputy Eamon Gilmore's book, I suppose she did not want to be in that position in the first place. The social welfare cuts the Government has imposed have had a devastating impact on citizens and families across the State. We welcome the small increases in social welfare payments in the budget, with a general election looming, but such tiny money transfers will not tackle the root problem of inequality and disadvantage in our society.

A recent economic survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, has shown that Ireland has the highest level of income inequality among OECD members. Every budget the Government has brought forward has been regressive and disproportionately impacted on the poorest in society. Until we have affordable, high quality and easy access to fundamental public services, the country will continue to be blighted by inequality and disadvantage. One of the cruellest cuts was the cut to the respite care grant. I still cannot understand how any Government, Government member or Deputy could justify or have the heart to implement this inhumane cut, but hurray, there is a general election looming and I welcome its reinstatement. The grant has been described as the difference between sanity and insanity for carers, between carrying on and being burnt out.

There is nothing in the budget for young jobseekers. In our alternative budget we called on the Government to invest €72 million to commence the restoration of equality for young jobseekeers and to reverse cuts for those under 26 years of age, which would entail a weekly increase of €40. The Government decided to do nothing. Young people need careers, not unpaid internships disguised as job activation schemes. I have met many young people participating in the JobBridge and Gateway schemes in my constituency who have been exploited. They have received no training and there is no progression, no chance of securing a real job. Several of the workers on the Gateway scheme who were talking about going on strike said there had not even been a medical check before they commenced training.

That one in six Irish-born people now live abroad should not come as any surprise. If the recovery of which the Government speaks is to be meaningful, it needs to address the issues of inequality and the prevalence of in-work poverty which is the result of low-paid employment.

Family income supplement should not be a prop with which employers exploit workers.

We are coming into what is likely to be a very cold winter and the amount of people now living in fuel poverty in Ireland is unacceptable. People are going to be faced with choosing between putting food on the table and heating their homes. I am sure the Minister has heard that in her own clinics. There is the real possibility that our elderly citizens living on State pensions will be unable to heat their homes and could die of the cold. The meagre couple of euro with which the Government is trying to buy them off in this Bill will not make much of a difference. I spoke to a number of pensioners who asked that the money be transferred instead to fix our hospitals. Many to whom I spoke said they were afraid of entering a hospital. A 91 year old Parkinson's disease sufferer was left on a trolley for 29 hours in Tallaght Hospital. It is a disgrace. This morning, the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, tried to blame the staff for not giving the patient a bed. Does he think the staff are hiding beds? The CEO of Tallaght Hospital warned the Government in 2013 that if the Government continued with its cuts there would be a catastrophe within the hospital. In one week this summer, a 101 year old was on a trolley for 29 hours in Limerick Hospital and a 102 year old woman was on a trolley for 26 hours in Tallaght Hospital. The call from the CEO of Tallaght Hospital does not suit the Government's narrative. We are in supposedly in the middle of a recovery, a recovery that the Government says means more money in people’s pockets. In reality, it means more people on trolleys. More people than ever are homeless and more people than ever are in debt. Budget 2016 is yet another missed opportunity.

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