Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is very difficult for people to go through this draft document that was leaked, rather than see what is being proposed in reality for this new arrangement with Deputy Kenny proposed as Taoiseach. One thing is for sure: there is no new politics going on here. In fact, it is the same old failed policies of the previous Government. However, what is interesting about the arrangement is that for the first time in the history of the State we see the two biggest parties helping each other to put forward an image that, on the one hand, Fine Gael can govern and on the other hand, Fianna Fáil can prop it up and at the same time be the leader in opposition to it. This is amazingly choreographed, even down to the phrase that they will have an open approach to avoid policy surprises. What does that mean? It is a polite way of saying that they will choreograph Dáil debates between them so that they can keep up the pretence that one crowd rules and the other crowd is in opposition. It is a very interesting arrangement we will see played out. The devil will be in the detail of the policies that will be put before us by the so-called new programme for government.

I tried my best to look through the leaked document, not the completed one and some of the things that spring out at me are very serious indeed. Leaving aside what has been said about social housing, one simple issue is how this programme will deal with children. My secretary was for much of her life a lone parent. She now has a job. She led an organisation called Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids, SPARK. She is utterly ashamed of, and disgusted with, Fianna Fáil today because it pretended to support SPARK when it was in opposition and is now backing up a situation which, according to the document, will reform the monitoring of child benefit payment by amalgamating the two existing school attendance monetary systems run by the Department of Education and Skills and the National Education Welfare Board to address poor attendances with some families. This sounds like linking child benefit payment to school attendance. My only answer to that is: Donald Trump, move over. That is outrageously right wing. If those who are sitting to my left, pretending to support lone parents when they suffered severe cuts under those over there, are seriously propping that up then we know where we are headed. There is very little difference between the policies of these two parties and they have consistently failed during the past ten weeks to illustrate what the differences are between them. Under previous regimes Fianna Fáil cut child benefit by €16 per month, Fine Gael cut it by €19 per month. That is a €3 difference between them.

Fianna Fáil cut social welfare payments for people under 20 years of age to €100 per week and Fine Gael cut social welfare payments for people under 24 years of age to €100 per week. Both parties voted for the bank guarantee, which has cost the State €65 billion so far. Both of them cut discretionary medical cards, Fianna Fáil for pensioners and Fine Gael for everybody else. There is so little difference between them it would make one weep. Both supported a 14-year jail sentence for women who procure abortion pills.

We must start by asking ourselves what we face. I will outline a number of the issues. The document refers to public sector workers. The workers who work in this House and elsewhere in the Civil Service and the public sector should take note that it talks about the gradual reform of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest, FEMPI, Acts. Trade union conferences due to be held in the next few weeks will propose the abolition of the FEMPI legislation, which was introduced as a major tactic to help bail out the banks, cut the pay of low-paid public sector workers and introduce the pension-related deduction. The parties talk about phasing that out up to 2020. In the meantime, they expect workers who are living on extraordinarily low pay despite a high cost of living, particularly in the cities where rents are soaring and where it is nearly impossible to buy a home on such wages, to say they will stand back and not play any role in the future. In addition, they are offering to increase the minimum wage from €9.15 to €10.50 per hour by 2020. In other words, they will give the most impoverished workers in the country an extra 27 cent per hour on which to live.

This will not happen in a vacuum; it will happen during very exciting times in this House. It will also happen with the focus on the people who have almost won in respect of water charges and on the great unwashed who are out protesting and standing up to the Government. They will do the same, given their increasing confidence, and fight the Government on housing, health and so forth. The darkest hour is often before the dawn. With the combined right wing shape of the House we are seeing a resurgence in the confidence of ordinary people. When that resurgence meets with the draconian measures and lack of real change under this programme, we will be in for very interesting times. We will put ourselves firmly and squarely on the side of those who fight for real change rather than the same old policies which are choreographed by two groups of people who could be looking into a mirror given that there is so little difference between them.

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