Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt this is a time of great uncertainty for all of us and a time of great financial stress for those who have been laid off and for employers who have had to close their premises. All this brings hardship for thousands or hundreds of thousands of workers and families throughout the State. The Government must act fast to mitigate the damage caused by the public health emergency. It must do whatever it takes to support incomes and workers. It must ensure there is relief for business so that we are in a position to respond in the best way possible on the other side of this crisis.

The health emergency will be temporary. Effective Government policy must now ensure that the economic damage is not long-lasting. It will come at a great cost; there is no doubt about that. However, the cost of failing to act will be even greater. It is our view that this challenge, which is a European challenge, must be responded to at a European level. We submitted proposals to the Minister earlier in the week - we announced them at the weekend - on how the European institutions can respond through the issuing of joint bonds through the European Stability Mechanism without the conditionality that would previously have been attached. We welcome the fact that the Government is pursuing this course of action.

Others have their part to play too. I am keen to focus on several key areas. In my previous contribution I mentioned the banks. The Minister made a major public announcement last week. The banks came out with great fanfare and said a moratorium or three-month break would take place. The reality is that these banks will profit on the back of the pandemic and that is not acceptable. Let us consider Bank of Ireland. Its website shows this clearly. Someone with a 30-year mortgage of €200,000 will pay €1,804 extra to the bank because of this three-month break. That is how much extra the bank will take from such a customer. That is not acceptable. A vulture fund - let us name it - Pepper, is telling customers that it will give them the three-month break but it will increase the repayment from €1,500 to €1,600 each month until the amount of money the customer should have paid, including the interest, is paid off. The fund is not extending it over the full duration of the loan. Not only are the banks not waiving interest, they are charging interest on the interest they are rolling up. It is absolutely scandalous and the Minister needs to call them to task.

There is no surprise that those in the insurance industry are trying to wriggle out of the commitments they have made to policyholders. Policyholders have paid an arm and a leg in premiums throughout the years. I have before me an email from FBD to a policyholder.

It states, "As outlined our VFI DPU policy which your policy will be written under is covering coronavirus and it is the amount specified on the policy. The pub must be forcibly shut down and cannot be voluntary". It is covered, but because the pub did the right thing for themselves, their customers and wider society - not under law because there was no requirement to do so - FBD, which says its policy covers coronavirus, has decided not to pay out. Multiple other insurance companies are doing the same. The Central Bank is writing to them, but we have seen what it has done in the past in regard to tracker mortgages. Banks had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing. We do not have time; we do not have four or five or years to get this right. The Minister needs to call the insurers in and talk to them in an upfront manner about the need to settle legitimate claims for which money should be paid out.

On the Bill, I have made the point that the pandemic unemployment payment is too low. I welcome that it has been increased from €203 to €350. However, the appropriate response is to make sure that the families of those workers who have been laid off at this time are not building up massive debts or are unable to pay their mortgages, bills or rent. We must guarantee a payment of up to €525, 100% of their income. We also have concerns about the subsidy scheme, whereby employers are not required to pay the remaining 30%. I have been inundated with messages from workers who have been laid off and have been told they must go back to work, but whose employers have told them they will not be paid more than 70% of their wages which works out at about €350. That is exploitation and it should not be allowed. We need to address that in the amendments to the Bill.

We also need to put in place safeguards to ensure that employers do not continue to employ staff while ramping up production during this period. Orders may have fallen by 25% and, therefore, businesses would be allowed to avail of this scheme. We cannot allow them to ramp up production while having their wage bills subsidised by the State by 70%, and then when the crisis is over and demand for products increases laying off workers for a period of time. They cannot be allowed to exploit the scheme and act in bad faith. We want to bring forward a number of amendments in respect of these issues. I know time is limited and we are under immense pressure. We will work with the Government and welcome the briefing we will get. Our amendments are about strengthening the supports, making sure the scheme is not abused and ensuring that families and workers are protected in the way we believe should be done.

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