John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2019 represents yet another budget in which the most vulnerable are failed to deliver for those who need it least. The clear priorities in this budget are landlords, vulture funds and banks. The rest, including our most vulnerable citizens, get the scraps from the table. The Minister for Finance referred to this as a "caring budget". For whom is it caring? From March next year, young jobseekers aged between 18 and 24 will live on €112.70 per week, €90 less than those a few years older than them. This is despite the fact that young jobseekers, numbering almost 8,000, are among the largest cohort of our population who are long-term unemployed and this is despite the fact that Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government figures for August of this year show 875 young people aged between 18 and 24 are homeless. Where is the caring in this budget for them? Instead, the Government continues to discriminate against young jobseekers based on their age. There is no rationale for this. It is cruel and leading to mass homelessness and poverty. The Government has committed to lifting 100,000 children out of consistent poverty by 2020. Budget 2019 represents the clearest signal yet from the Government that it will not even meet its own targets. This is because the Government made a choice to direct money towards landlords, banks and vulture funds instead of those who need it. This is despite the fact that thousands of children live in poverty every day in this State. Where is the caring in this budget for them? They lived in poverty before budget 2019 and will continue to live in poverty after it. Shame on the Government. Clearly its intentions are not focused on those who need money the most.

The increase in the qualified child payment is welcome. That the Government has finally acknowledged the increased cost involved in raising children over the age of 12 and its targeting of this age category are welcome. The payment needs to be built upon in every budget from now on.

The maintenance disregard for lone parents is also welcome but major issues still arise regarding the child maintenance process. This measure will not rectify this. Child maintenance should not be included as household income when it comes to means-tested payments, including rent supplement. Child maintenance should be recognised by the Government as income for the child, not as anything else.

There must be an end to lone parents being forced into the courts system to seek child maintenance from an ex-partner. I again call on the Government to examine Sinn Féin’s proposal for the establishment of a child maintenance service such as the one in place in the North. Child maintenance, when paid, plays a role in lifting children out of poverty. We should not ignore that simple reality.

I ask the Government to consider not only our proposals regarding child maintenance but also a Bill I introduced in the House last week. It provides for the establishment of a social welfare commission, which would use evidence and input from stakeholders to set the income required by different household types that are in receipt of social welfare to ensure that these households are protected from poverty. The commission would report annually, ahead of the budget, on any increases needed for social welfare payments. Rather than fivers for everyone, we need targeted and specific measures to start delivering for the most vulnerable people in society, not for the banks, vulture funds and landlords who need them the least.

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