John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the most bizarre announcements arising from the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael budget yesterday was the €1 billion to be set aside annually from 2018 for a so-called rainy day fund, as if we need to wait around to see a rainy day arrive. For the people sleeping on the streets outside this very building this evening and every other evening, the rainy day is here. For the elderly who sit in libraries from one end of the day to the other to keep warm because they cannot afford to turn on their heating, the rainy day is certainly here. For young jobseekers who have been living on €100 per week for six years now, the rainy day is certainly here. For the lone parents who cannot afford to feed their children without assistance from a charity organisation, their rainy day is here. The reality is that for those living in the real world, the rainy day has long arrived. How frustrating it must be for these people to see that the Government has made the decision to put money aside rather than tackle poverty, tackle fuel poverty, tackle inequalities and help to bring about a level of fairness. How can we afford to put money aside when we have a crisis in nearly every single sector of Irish society?

Nelson Mandela once said, "A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones." Yet the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, strutted in here yesterday thinking he was Santa Claus, throwing around a few fivers like they were going out of fashion, stating his social protection measures were fair, socially just and benefited everyone. That is fundamentally untrue. Older people have received a tokenistic €5 increase in the State pension. With the cost of inflation, the increase will realistically leave older people with little more than €1.30 extra per week. This increase comes at the same time as that same Minister and the Minister with us in the Chamber this evening, Deputy Shane Ross, will receive pay increases of €11,735, which equates to €32.15 per day. Meanwhile, the most vulnerable of older people, those living alone, will see no increase in the living alone allowance. These are the older people who, in many cases, have only one source of income in the State pension. There is absolutely nothing in the budget for them because they live alone.

The fuel allowance also saw no increase whatsoever at a time when fuel poverty affects 28% of households across the State. We have all heard the real-life stories of older people having to wear their winter coats indoors, rationing coal week to week and going to bed just to try to stay warm. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's response to growing fuel poverty is to not address it at all and pretend there is none.

The transitional pension remains completely abolished. This continues the absolute farce of those aged 65 years who are obliged to retire being forced onto jobseekers' payments for the year. We know from CSO figures in April this year that there are more 65 year olds on jobseekers' payments than any other age group in the State. There are currently more than 5,075 65 year olds signing on for jobseekers' payments. These are people who, in many cases, have worked their whole lives and paid into their pension schemes. They have been locked out of that very pension for an entire year and absolutely nothing is being done to address the issue.

If the measures introduced for older people are tokenistic, the measures for the young unemployed are an absolute disgrace. Yesterday, the Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, talked about the social impact assessment of his budget measures and how positive they were. I would love to see the social impact assessment of the discriminatory cuts for young people. I bet they would be far from positive and would reflect the reality on the ground. While the Minister threw fivers around as if he were throwing around snuff at a wake, across the board the Government has quietly singled out young jobseekers. In fact, they are the group that receives less than everybody else. A jobseeker aged between 18 and 24 years will see his or her payment increase from €100 to a measly €102.70. A jobseeker aged 25 years will see his or her payment increase from €144 to €147.80, that is, by an additional €3.80. I raised this issue with the Minister last week and again ask the question as to why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael feel the need to continue the discrimination against young people who are unemployed. Fianna Fáil continues to take credit for the positives in budget 2017. It may also take credit for this €2.70 increase for 18 to 24 year olds, considering it was the party that began the discriminatory cuts for young people. The message from the Government to young people remains the same as it was in 2009 - leave the country.

While, on the one hand, the Government tries to mask this tiny increase as an incentive for young people to take up education and training opportunities, on the other, it has just handed back €30 million to the European Union in European Structural Funds that had been earmarked for youth employment initiatives.

What does that tell us about its concern for training opportunities for young people? That incentive to sign up to avail of training opportunities comes with reduced funding for the very same training and job activation schemes. Despite the most serious concerns recently highlighted by Department auditors about JobBridge, the slave labour scheme continues with no replacement in sight. As of today, exploitative positions are still being advertised on the JobBridge slave labour activation website. The replacement was to have been announced last month and we need a real replacement; JobBridge 2.0 will not cut it.

There have been reductions in funding for community employment schemes - down by 6%; JobsPlus - down by 25% and Gateway - down by 78%. If the Minister is phasing out Gateway, I welcome it. However, the people engaged in work in local authorities across the State cannot be consigned back to the live register. They need to become full local authority employees drawing down a full local authority wage.

The budget leaves lone parents even further behind. Despite the Government spin and its pretence at a new-found concern for lone parents, the budget manages to leave them worse off than before. They will now be better off transferring from in-work benefits to a jobseeker's payment. Lone parents who were forced off the one-parent family payment and onto family income supplement will now be financially better off on a jobseeker's payment.

The Government has managed to contradict itself again when it comes to lone parents. First, it cut the one-parent family payment qualifying age to seven to encourage employment with a non-existent Scandinavian-type child-care system. Lone parents have been left unable to take up employment as they cannot afford child care. The Government has now ensured lone parents are better off on jobseeker's allowance and not in employment.

With all the talk of increased back-to-school costs, an issue I have raised on numerous occasions in this Chamber and at committee meetings, there is no increase in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. Therefore, the burden on the so-called free education system continues.

As it turns out, it was more like the Grinch who walked in here, as opposed to Santa Claus, for many people across the State. This budget, like successive previous budgets favours the well-off. It expects older people to be grateful for a fiver; it discriminates against young people because of their age and it further marginalises lone parents. Budget 2017 is far from fair, far from socially just and further away than ever from benefiting everyone in society.

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