Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps a more accurate description of divide and rule tactics is the false claim the Taoiseach tried to make in order to boost his political ambitions by decrying the welfare cheats who cheat us all, rather than the bankers and property speculators who truly did cheat us all.

Maybe the Taoiseach will address another group who are about to face an injustice at his hands and, indeed, have faced police harassment in recent days. I refer to the Debenhams workers who are currently standing outside Leinster House and have done so every week for several weeks. They were unceremoniously dumped on the scrap heap by a cynical company that is using the Covid-19 crisis as a cover for its sheer greed.

These are workers who are fighting for decent redundancy terms and who want to be at work but, and this is critical, many of them are women part-time workers who are now on the Covid-19 payment. Of course, when we ask who are the working poor in this country, they are women part-time workers in the main. Are they now going to be the victims of the Taoiseach's plan to taper, cut and reduce the €350 pandemic payment? Rather than cut and attack the working poor again, why does he not address the employer - Debenhams - that treated these workers in such a cynical way?

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