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

I wish I could be light-hearted about this Bill but unfortunately I cannot. This is disturbing evidence of the deceit and dishonesty that is starting to characterise this Government within a very short time of entering office. One of the first deceits is that the note that was provided on this Bill made absolutely no reference to the fact that the Government was changing the goalposts on the pandemic unemployment payment, as far as eligibility was concerned. Let us remind ourselves that this is a payment that was given to people who lost their jobs and incomes through no fault of their own. Public health measures initiated by the Government meant that they lost their jobs. The vast majority of people who continue to receive the payment are not at work because they cannot return to work due to Government health measures. Now the Government wants to punish them. Those necessary measures, which were correctly taken to protect society, led to people losing their jobs and income. They are the reason people cannot return to work. The Government now wants to punish, scapegoat and treat these people with utter contempt, to the point of humiliating them when they go on holiday in line with the advice on non-essential travel provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That is what is happening.

I know the answer to this and have been trying to blow the whistle on it since the weekend. Most people did not even get it because it is the intersection of the Minister's statutory instrument and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade travel advice. The Minister's statutory instrument says that getting the pandemic unemployment payment is conditional on following the travel advice but what the travel advice says is that non-essential travel to 13 countries is allowed. I would bet however that the Department is taking the payment off people who are travelling to those 13 countries. If they were to appeal, they would probably win and get the payment back because there is no legal basis whatever for taking it from them. Of course, prior to the introduction of the statutory instrument, in April and June, the Department was also doing this. There was not even a statutory instrument in place at that point. I have received emails from people who were stopped at the airport at that time. In one case, a man whose partner was going on holiday had her pandemic unemployment payment and child benefit cut. It is absolutely unbelievable what is going on. The Department had no legal basis for doing that at the time.

What is behind this is naked class prejudice and racial profiling. That is what is going on because it is okay for the rich or those who have been lucky enough to be able to return to employment to go to the green list countries. I want to make clear, by the way, that as far as I am concerned we should all be following the NPHET advice of no non-essential travel. It is the Government that is departing from that advice. It is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that is departing from that advice. Even today, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, said it was actually safer to travel to the 13 countries than it is to stay here. This begs the question of whether we should perhaps all go to Greece, Italy or Cyprus because it would be safer, except it would not be safe for the Greeks, Italians and Cypriots because we would be taking the virus with us.

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