Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brady for sharing time and for the opportunity to speak on the Bill. Sinn Féin regards social welfare payments as something of an equaliser in society and a mechanism by means of which the Government can redistribute payments, particularly to those most in need. There are those on the right of the political spectrum, including the Taoiseach and some in the media, who might seek to foster division in the masses and propound a distinction between strivers and those who take responsibility for their own lives and a minority of outsiders who seek to live by different rules. As some of us know, that is very far from the truth. Ordinary people know it is not true and that is why there was widespread anger and a level of disgust at the "Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All" campaign.

The Taoiseach and other members of Government have attacked members of Sinn Féin when we seek to represent ordinary people. They say we seek to exploit the misfortune of ordinary people, a claim that is utterly without foundation. That statement has been made on several occasions and should probably be corrected. It is the Government that seeks to create greater social divisions and erode cohesive social institutions. Trying to erode those institutions is vintage Fine Gael. It is its past, its present and will, unfortunately, be its future. Fine Gael seeks to exploit society, to divide and to moralise about social welfare payments and those whose who are less fortunate. The Taoiseach in particular, and the Government in general, have sought to moralise that social inequalities are attributable to individual effort rather than, as is so very often the case, an accident of birth. Such behaviour facilitates a politics of division and makes more difficult the task of designing an approach to social welfare that actively seeks to confront and eradicate those divisions. On these benches we seek to defend society and those who are less fortunate against those attacks. We will not take lectures nor sit by while broadsides are aimed at us by the most socially and economically conservative party in the State, headed by an individual who is the product of absolute privilege.

As regards the Bill, glaringly obvious in particular is the absence of any provisions to address the more than 42,000 older people in receipt of reduced State pensions due to the 2012 changes to the pensions bands and rates. Fianna Fáil, of course, did its usual: it talked an awful lot about it but, in the end, did nothing. It did not push for this, even after its pension motion passed only a few weeks ago. It was all talk and no action, which is the hallmark of this cosy little arrangement known colloquially by Fianna Fáil as the confidence and supply agreement. My colleague, Deputy Brady, will table amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage to rectify some of these glaring issues, and we sincerely hope those amendments will be accepted.

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