Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will not spend a lot of time making the argument this is discriminatory because its discriminatory character is blatant and obvious and the point does not need to be laboured. It does not apply to a business person travelling abroad. It does not apply to a worker travelling abroad. It does apply to unemployed people travelling abroad. It is discriminatory and it is blatant.

I want to make my first real point on the degree of the discrimination and the penalty for ordinary people who are unemployed through no fault of their own and what it will mean for them. The Business Postreported at the weekend that unemployed people on the pandemic unemployment payment who go abroad, even to one of the 15 countries, will have their payments docked not just for the two weeks they are away but for two more weeks when they come back and have to go into quarantine and isolation. The sum of €350 multiplied by two multiplied by two means a cut of €1,400 for the people who are at the bottom of the pile in society at present. People on jobseeker's payments will lose €203 multiplied by four, which is more than €800 for people trying to survive on the bare minimum finance in this society.

Now, we discover it is actually more than this because the Department has issued a statement stating people will lose the two weeks' payments when they go abroad and two weeks' payments when they quarantine and they will have to reapply for the payment. If a person returns to Ireland it is open to them, how nice, to reapply for the pandemic unemployment payment. What will the delay be there? Will everyone who applies get their payment back? Will other people be left without the payment? Will other people be downgraded to jobseeker's payments? This is really vicious stuff against the poor and unemployed. It is typical Fine Gael stuff and Fianna Fáil is joining in the chorus and the Green Party is doing this also. What a disgrace that is.

I want to read an email I received from a constituent today. It is a powerful and strong email that raises interesting points that perhaps have not surfaced so far in this debate. It states:

Hello Mr. Barry,

I'm writing as one of your constituents in Cork City, to ask for your help. It's recently come up that those of us on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment cannot travel abroad, even to a Green list country, without incurring a harsh financial penalty.

I was laid off like so many back in March. Before then, I had bought airplane tickets to see family overseas and I paid with my own money while working a full-time job. Now me, and many like me, are being penalised for something beyond our control. I cannot go abroad to see family without losing several weeks of payments, nor can I get a refund from the airline because the government has not guaranteed refunds or shut down travel.

If it is the safety of the country that is the government's concern, then shut down all travel for everyone who is not an essential worker overseas. It is unfair and frankly immoral to discriminate against people who are only even on social welfare because of a global pandemic. There should be more COVID testing in airports, than social welfare officers.

I'm asking for your help in either challenging this restriction or in applying it fairly across the board. A wealthy person can still go abroad without issue, while the poor are once again shunned in this country. I have paid my taxes for years in Cork, worked long and hard hours on night shifts, only for me to be told by my country that I'm now suddenly less than and utterly undeserving of what the rest may freely have. We need a more fair Ireland, where all citizens are treated equally under the law and none are discriminated against.

I appreciate you reading this and hope you understand my ire.

I will leave the name of the woman who sent me this email out of the equation as I do not have her permission to read it. The Minister should be ashamed of herself, as should other Ministers and Government Deputies, to listen to the words of this woman. By the way, I read a report today that the change with regard to the holidays did not even come before the Government before it was announced. What a shambles.

I have some points on the proposal to cut the pandemic unemployment payment later this year. At present, the payment is €350 per week and it is being cut to a maximum of €300 from 17 September and for people whose incomes were between €200 and €300 at the time the payment was introduced it is being reduced to €250 on 17 September. The numbers on the pandemic unemployment payment are decreasing week by week but there will still be a lot of people on the payment come 17 September. For them it is what puts food on the table, keeps a roof over their heads and keeps the wolf from the door. Each and every one of them now faces having the payment cut by a minimum of €50 and up to €100 per week. These are workers who through no fault of their own are unemployed in the course of this pandemic. This is just reason and just cause for those people to band together and raise their voices and organise protests against this vicious cutback. It is also something the trade union movement in this country should oppose and strongly speak out against. If protests are organised it should back them and if they are not organised it should organise them.

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