Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not take it back. It was the Government, not the Minister personally. She has not supported artists here. When will she give them support? Is she going to let them beg, tell them to go look for work elsewhere and that they will get jobs elsewhere? How will they? Are we going to diminish and destroy our arts industry - our musicians, bands, dancing schools, art schools and everything else?

Over-66s are being punished by this Government but I am not surprised. It is scandalous. Whether they are publicans, lorry drivers, or taxi drivers, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, they have been discriminated against from the start and they are being further discriminated against in this legislation. The Minister is coming in here offering to be a saviour and a support mechanism.

She expects the schools to go back and I am glad that decision has been made. Many of the over-66s drive school buses part time. It suits them grand and it suits the bus companies as well. Any companies that had school buses contracted to Bus Éireann are getting a 50% payment but individual bus owners not contracted to Bus Éireann did not get a shilling. We expect those to be mobilised on 28 August and in September and to have buses and drivers ready and on the road, DOE'd, insured and with all the checks necessary for public service vehicles. Are they going to do it on the wind? They have not got a penny. Many of them are on their last legs. Some of them had savings. Publicans have been crying on the phone to me. Then there is the stupidity of pubs opening if they provide a €9 meal. Worse than that, they were all told ten days ago that they would be open last Monday week. They were not told until literally hours before it that they would not. They had their stocks opened and paid for the reopening. It was a further kick in the teeth. These publicans have nothing to live on . Any of them who are over 66 are not getting a payment because they have a small pension. All they wanted was to make up the difference between the pension and the Covid-19 payment of €350 at the time.

The Minister then changed and gave the €350 to everybody across the board. Parents contacted me because their kids got it. They may have only worked four or five hours a weekend on a Saturday or Sunday night and they got the full €350 payment. Now the Government is in trouble with its finances. It gave that out to them when it should not have because they did not expect it.

All the Government needed to do was look back at their wages for the previous four weeks and give them what they had got, and they would have been reasonably happy with that. The Government threw money out like confetti at a wedding or snuff at a wake and now it is trying to take it back. However, it is penalising those aged over 66 and our actors. Our actors do not ask anyone for anything. They educate and upskill themselves. They play, adapt and buy the equipment and look after themselves. They give valuable entertainment to the people while so doing. All they want is to be allowed do that, but while the pubs, etc., are closed, they cannot do it. If the Government because of Covid tries-----

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