Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Gino Kenny.

We are debating the Social Welfare Bill. In some media circles the budget became known as the "fiver budget" because of the €5 per week increase for social welfare recipients.

The budget is actually misnamed because social welfare recipients will receive less than a fiver. The increase comes into effect on 10 March and when one averages a €5 increase from that date out through an entire calendar year, it comes to less than €4 per week or €3.95 to be precise. That is some contrast with the proposed increase for Deputies of €104 per week.

Last year TV3 broadcast a programme called "Dáil on the Dole" in which three Members of this House, Deputies John Halligan, Catherine Byrne and Willie O'Dea appeared on our television screens for a number of weeks spending time in the company of constituents who were trying to survive on social welfare payments. If the programme did anything, it showed how difficult it is for people to survive on social welfare payments. I am sure that in the run-in to a general election, that was very useful public relations for the Deputies concerned but it would seem that not only the Deputies themselves but the parties to which they are connected learned little from the experience. The parties to which those Deputies are affiliated are the Independent Alliance, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Rather than transform the lives of people who are trying to survive on social welfare, we have the most meagre of meagre increases. In our opinion, it is an insult to people trying to survive on social welfare payments.

I want to consider the cases of three groups in my contribution this evening, namely lone parents, carers and young unemployed people. The rules were changed for lone parents last year by the Fine Gael, Labour Party Government. Lone parents' allowance was only to be paid to lone parents with children up to the age of seven. Lone parents with children aged between seven and 14 were told that they could qualify for the family income supplement but only if they worked at least 19 hours per week. This has proved very difficult, if not impossible, for many lone parents because of the challenge of getting children off to and collected from school. Given the time of school runs, how does one fit that in with a working week of at least 19 hours? For those lone parents for whom that has simply been impossible, the family income supplement is beyond reach. These already struggling lone parents have been plunged even deeper into poverty.

Over the course of the last year, many lone parents and their representative organisations have made this poverty trap known to Ministers and Government Deputies. They have gone to their clinics and told them their stories, met them on the streets and given them information. They have also phoned into radio programmes and have put their message across in many different ways. What has the Government chosen to do in this budget? It has chosen to effectively ignore the information from lone parents and the pleas they have made. It has kept in place the same unjust system which has pushed so many lone parents even deeper into poverty in the last year. No doubt Government Ministers will say that there is a child care package which can be of assistance. However, 0.2% of GDP in this country is spent on child care which is only one quarter of the OECD average of 0.8%. Someone with two children spends 40% of household income, in many cases, on child care costs which is in sharp contrast to the OECD average of 13%. Indeed, it is the second highest percentage in the OECD. The child care package in the budget falls well short of what is needed for lone parents . The Government then compounds the situation by giving them not a fiver, but €3.95. It is no surprise that the Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids, SPARK, organisation which represents the interest of lone parents and was set up by them has been particularly vocal in lashing this Government and this year's budget. Indeed, it is well within its rights in doing so.

There are 200,000 family carers across the country. They are, in some respects, Ireland's unseen workforce. They contribute more than 6 million unpaid hours of care each week and they save the State approximately €4 billion each year. They too are to receive a fiver or, in reality, €3.95. One particular statistic shows the real approach of this Government to carers. The current average waiting time for new carer's allowance applications to be processed and payments to be made is 40 weeks because of cuts and because they are not being dealt with as a priority. That is a shocking situation. This Government is not taking care of our carers and I would warn that if it does not do so, those carers will take care of the Government at the next election.

I wish to make a number of points about young unemployed people. In some ways the greatest insult in this budget is the one meted out to them. They do not receive €5 per week or €3.95, averaged over the year. They receive €2.70. They are cut out from all the other groups; they are a special group who will receive even less. The Peter McVerry Trust put it well when it said, "this will send a message to young people that Government does not value them". That is very true and truer again when put in the context of other conditions that young people face and other obstacles that the Government has put in their way. One in eight young people in this State under the age of 30 are trying to survive on the minimum wage. In fact, 40% of all persons on the minimum wage in this State are under the age of 30.

The policies of this and the previous Government forced 30,000 people to emigrate last year.

It was due to the policies of the previous Government, but they have been carried on in large measure by the Government. The situation of young teachers who started in their profession between 2011 and 2016 and were forced to accept lower pay rates than their colleagues has not been addressed. Before the Minister of State tells me that there is a 22% increase on offer if the union comes into the Lansdowne Road agreement, the issue has not been addressed. There would still be two-tier rates. One cannot have a little equality.

Of course, we face the same situation with the young unemployed. I have heard the Minister say people do not have to be young to be unemployed and that training and education places will be made available. Does he not realise a large number of unemployed persons have already been through the education and training system, including the third level system, are highly qualified and now face this Hobson's choice? It is particularly damning that in recent weeks one after the other homeless agencies have warned the Government that the low rates of social welfare payments available to young people have been an important factor in the rise in the level of youth homelessness. That is extremely important information. Perhaps the Government overlooked it in the run-up to introducing the budget, but it seems that was not the case because, despite the information being put in front of it and argued cogently by the homeless organisations through the media and in society, it chose to ignore it. Despite the fact that low rates of social welfare payments are such an important contributory factor to the rise in the level of youth homelessness, the Government is carrying on regardless and the real insult is that young people will receive an increase of €2.70, while everyone else will receive a fiver or €3.95.

There has been a lot of talk today about the result of the US presidential election. The rallies organised in football and baseball stadiums earlier this year by a candidate who I think had the potential to defeat Mr. Donald Trump if he had stood as an independent left-wing candidate, Mr. Bernie Sanders, were attended by 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people or more. They listened to his message which was sharply critical of Wall Street and a system run by billionaires. He spoke about the need for ordinary people to fight and challenge that system. It is very striking and interesting that the biggest cohort at the rallies were what were termed "millennials", people under the age of 30 or 35 years. They were the biggest supporters of the Sanders campaign, which is an indication that young people and the newer generations who are being given a vision of society in which they will be worse off and have a lower standard of living than their parents are developing attitudes that are critical of the system and capitalism - you reap what you sow. Policies such as this will politicise young people in this country also. What happened in the United States where young people flocked to hear the Sanders' message can happen in Ireland with people looking to the left for radical change to challenge the system.

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