Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Martin Ferris, who spoke just before Deputy Nolan, is a merchant of misery. Sinn Féin Members think they have the monopoly on caring. If they really cared about the families they talk about, they need to face up to the people and decide to go into government to make life better for the people they feel they have a monopoly interest in. Who does Deputy Ferris think he is? I live in a family in a community in a village in a county where unemployment was at the highest rate of any region in the country when we came into government in 2011. I am very proud that from May of last year to May this year, the number of people on the live register dropped by 10%. Sinn Féin Members need not start to shout at me about JobBridge, which accounts for about 170 people, most of whom are not exploited. There are difficulties with the scheme but I have met many young people who have gone on to full-time employment because of those job-activation measures.

As a Government Member I am interested in ensuring that people get access to good quality employment. For the first time in a long time this budget rewards working families, which is very important. It also looks after people who have difficulties through no fault of their own because of illness or disability or because of life circumstances. We have been able to increase child benefit, which is a universal payment that looks after our children and our families. We have also been able to take away some of the barriers preventing people from working., including the difficulty that PRSI kicked in very quickly as soon as they took on more hours.

The Labour Party is the party of work and I am very proud of that. This budget rewards working families, which is what the recovery has to be about. Deputy Martin Ferris suggested that the recovery is not taking hold outside of Dublin, which is not true. It is not happening in the same accelerated way as it is happening in the capital, but it is starting to take hold.

The meanest cut of all those imposed by the Fianna Fáil-led Government was to take €1 off the minimum wage. This affected the people who were getting up in the morning and going out to do work that is often not held in high regard - perhaps in the catering industry or in retail - and that Government wanted to take €1 an hour off them. It claimed it was of national importance and was imperative that it happen. However, as bad as the economic situation was, this Government in our first budget restored that minimum wage cut. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, on increasing the national minimum wage because I have first-hand experience of working as well as having family members working in a sector of the economy that is badly paid.

That will bring about an improvement in people's lives. Family income supplement is another social transfer that helps and supports people who want to get out and work. It is hugely significant that in the budget family income supplement has been increased to support families in that regard.

The social impact assessment carried out by the Department very clearly indicates that the average household will be better off by in or around €14 a week. However, the cumulative effect over a year is that there will be an extra week’s wages. That is very significant for families who are trying to meet mortgage repayments and get their children back to school or perhaps it will mean that children will be able to engage in additional activities that might have been beyond their reach in recent years.

Nobody in this House is more acutely aware of the situation than I am. I will not take any lecture from Deputy Martin Ferris or any member of Sinn Féin about how difficult recent years have been. No Deputy on the Government side came into the House in recent years and voted with glee for what had been introduced in the budget. We are acutely aware of what happened, not in terms of votes in the House but the impact measures had on people’s lives. Now that the recovery is starting to take hold, it is the focus of the Labour Party – the party leader, the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has spoken about it on a number of occasions – to ensure that as the economy grows, we will have a social recovery because that is what we believe in. We believe in the redistribution of social transfers generated by economic activity to invest in public services and social payments and to make work pay. It is imperative that we do this for families, in particular where there are small children.

A landmark feature of the budget is that for the first time on a statutory basis there will be two weeks paid paternity leave. That is a significant step forward not only for husbands, partners and wives but also for children. The overall policy direction of the Government is to try to ensure that when young children are born into a new family, whatever its make-up, they will be able to stay at home with the main carer for the first year of life. We have a bit to travel on that road, but it is a significant and very welcome measure. It is something on which the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys; the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, worked and campaigned for. That is the difference between sitting on the Government side of the House as opposed to the Opposition side. That is the reason I will not take any lecture from Deputy Martin Ferris or Sinn Féin, as they do not have the courage of their convictions to sit on this side of the House and improve the lot of those who want to get up every morning to go to work, make sure their children go to a school that will now enjoy a reduced pupil-teacher ratio and access to a second free preschool year and, if they are in a low-paid job or only work part time, family income supplement will give them a leg up to ensure they can move on to better things. What any family want is to ensure their children get every opportunity. The other changes introduced in budget 2016, in addition to the Social Welfare Bill, will ensure that will happen. I accept it is not happening at the accelerated rate we would like to see, but that is the reality of being in government. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and be against everything, stand for nothing and not take one’s seat on this side of the House.

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