Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There was no homelessness crisis when the Government came to power but there is one as it is leaving power. This issue will be visited heavily, and rightly so, on the Labour Party. While Fine Gael Members might not like me saying it, the Fine Gael way is not to worry about such people. However, it should be the Labour Party's way - not Frankfurt's way but the Labour Party's way. The Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, has presided over a cut in rent supplement over recent years. Moreover, the Minister with responsibility for housing stated this time last year that this issue would be his legacy. He will be leaving a legacy, albeit not the legacy he promised shortly after he came to office as Minister. He is leaving a legacy of homelessness and the leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party are the two Ministers who could have done something about it. All Members are aware of the position.

The Simon Community recently conducted a survey in respect of rental property nationwide and only a tiny percentage of properties available for rent were within rental amounts to which the supplementary welfare allowance could be applied. In County Laois, not a single property was available for rent on some of the websites that were within the rental amounts of which one could avail if one sought a rental supplement. This has happened and while I concur that the Minister certainly is leaving a legacy, it is not a legacy of which the Labour Party should be proud.

I also considered many other events that have taken place over the years and I am aware the Minister of State will suggest the Government did not cut basic rates. However, I refer to the situation of 18 year old people who are on jobseeker's allowance of €100 per week, people up to the age of 24 who are in receipt of €140 per week and people aged 25 who are in receipt of €144 until reaching the age of 26. These amounts essentially tell such people to head off to Canberra or elsewhere in Australia or to New Zealand, London, Canada or wherever. This essentially is a one-way ticket for young people. As for those who are on the live register operated by the Department of Social Protection, those figures ignore the number of people who have emigrated in recent years.

The reason young people are emigrating is because they are being told once they have been educated they are to be given the paltry sum of €100 per week to live on. Nobody can provide for themselves on €100 per week. It is no wonder they are emigrating.

I would like to comment on the employment schemes that have been put in place to reduce the number of people on the live register. The Minister, Deputy Burton, is very good at massaging the unemployment figures. The Minister has reduced the length of time a person can participate in community employment following which he or she then becomes eligible for jobseeker's benefit but is deemed not to be a long-term jobseeker, which gives the impression that there are fewer people long-term unemployed. However, this is just a recycling of posts which allows the figures to be massaged. Young people and others in community employment know the difference in that regard.

While an increase in payment for those participating in community employment is provided for in this Bill it is only of the scale of that offered to people in receipt of the State pension. This Government had €7.3 billion to spend. Perhaps the Labour Party will explain to people where this €7.3 billion is being spent because it is not evident in terms of what has been announced. It appears to have been disappeared or scurrilously spent on God knows what because there is no visible signs of it for most people. That issue will have to be addressed.

This is the final throw of the dice for this Government in terms of social protection. The Second Stage debate on the Finance Bill 2015 was guillotined and this debate is also being guillotined. It is no wonder the Government wants it guillotined: it does not want to hear people speak in this House of the full facts in terms of its record over the last four years. I was listed to speak this afternoon on the Finance Bill 2015 that has been guillotined. This Government gave a commitment that it would not guillotine debate on legislation. What is being done here today is not political reform as the people understand it.

Much of my contribution has been focused on young people who had to emigrate and on elderly people. Prior to this Government coming into office there was a 50 cent charge in place in respect of prescriptions, which the parties in government promised to abolish. Many accepted that promise in good faith. However, that 50 cent charge then increased to €1 and later to €1.50 and is now €2.50 or €25 per month. If the Government thinks that is fair to people on medical cards or those people who are being given a €3 per week increase in their old age pension, I do not share that view and neither do most people.

Many other allowances have been cut by this Government. These are the cuts that will be remembered at election time, including the abolition of the telephone allowance and the change in eligibility criteria for the State pension, in terms of the average yearly contributions required to attain the maximum benefit. These are the issues that are now coming home to roost. A person who a few years ago would have been eligible for 90% of the State pension will not now get anything near that amount. The change to the eligibility criteria for the full State pension was not fair on people who worked most of their lives. There have also been cuts down through the years to the back-to-school and clothing and footwear allowance. This Government introduced a series of 42 cuts during its time in office. I wish it luck when it comes to explaining to the people how it did not make any cuts to core payments. Regardless of the Department of Social Protection's internal definition in terms of whether a cut is a headline cut or an actual cut, a cut is a cut as far as people are concerned.

This Social Welfare Bill will be remembered in the context of this Government, despite having had €7.3 billion to spend, giving an increase of only €3 per week to recipients of the State pension.

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