Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I came into the House a few minutes ago to hear a lot of disingenuous comment from members of the Opposition who fail to recognise, or do not wish to recognise, that the positive decisions that were taken by this Government, tough and all as they were, turned around a country that was on the verge of bankruptcy and of falling off the cliff. It is the hard decisions we took to rescue this country that have resulted, almost miraculously, in the fact that in last year's budget, we were able to at least return 25% of the Christmas bonus.

The social welfare budget is incredibly interesting given the conditions in which the country found itself. The Opposition spokespersons who deride the €3 increase say they would have made it a €10 increase or instead of a €5 increase, they would have made it €15. All of this balderdash comes from people who voted consistently against the measures we were taking in order to rescue this country. Now, they want us to spend the benefits we have achieved according to their formula of Opposition politics.

I am very proud that almost five years after the horrors of the circumstances we inherited in 2011, we are now giving something back, and rightly so. This is happening notwithstanding the fact some economists say we should not be doing it, that this is an expansionary budget and that we should put all of our additional accumulated wealth into paying off debts that were accumulated by previous Governments. The people who made the sacrifices in this country deserve every penny and more, if we have it, to improve their lot, particularly around Christmas time and the winter period, when people get sick and need additional resources to heat their homes. That old age pensioners are getting an increase of €3 might not sound a lot but it goes to show we have reversed the trend that was evident when we inherited a bankrupt country.

I want to applaud Aldi, which has clearly listened to the political debate that has been initiated in this Parliament by the Labour Party, when it raised the issue of a living wage. Not only did Aldi guarantee its workers a living wage but, hopefully, this will act as an incentive to other employers to recognise the Labour Party policy of looking after workers in low income streams fairly. It is also important to record that the Minister of State, Deputy Gerald Nash, having had to confront the unconstitutionality of the JLCs in the past, by the stroke of a pen, was able to give stability to 55,000 additional low paid workers, such as cleaners and security guards.

The return of 75% of the Christmas bonus is a remarkable step in the right direction. There are also other net beneficiaries, which I will not outline because they have already been stated. However, I would like to highlight the fact that, for example, widows on a contributory pension aged 66 and over will see their rate of payment increase from €230.30 to €233.30 per week. It is a good increase, and it might be better next time. I would suggest that what we need is more stability in this country to allow the Government to implement the plans it has set in motion on behalf of the working class and welfare recipients.

Given we have found an extra €2 billion in additional resources, we might look again at an area of concern, which is that we did nothing to reverse the rates for jobseekers aged up to 26 years. In addition, we should try to reverse the penalties that have been applied to people who are very sick, in particular the prescription charges for elderly people and sick people using a multiple of drugs, who find it very difficult to survive. If not in this budget, we should start looking to reverse those charges in the next budget.

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