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

Deputy Doherty is giving way.

First, I hope the Minister knows that I do not do personal and my comments were not in any way personalised.

I know the Minister has good taste in music and that he understands the plight of musicians. The reason I used the word "betray", however, is because there are a number of groups who really bought in, as did the vast majority of society, to the notion of "We are all in it together". In doing that, they protected our society from Covid-19 overrunning our health services and saved lives. The stakes were high and everybody, and I include the Government and the Opposition in that, bought into that "We are all in it together" principle. To some extent, differences were set aside and the hardship and mental stress of the lockdown was accepted along with the income loss suffered by many, because people really felt that we were all in this together.

What is happening now is that particular groups who made as much effort as anybody else are being left behind. That is what I meant by being betrayed. They are being forgotten about. If I sound a bit desperate to the Minister, it is because I and others have been raising those particular groups for weeks, it is now two days before the Dáil goes into recess and they do not know what they are going to do. Some people have certainty about what they are going to do over the summer. They know what their income is going to be and what the roadmap for the months ahead is going to be. They have some degree of certainty, although none of us have total certainty because in many ways, the virus is controlling our future at the moment. Nevertheless there is some form of roadmap. The Government, however, has not responded to people from these sectors despite them asking the Government again and again. This included making their case to the Special Committee on the Covid-19 Response, before which I fought to have them appear. I know the Minister understands but in his reply, he did not respond to the specific requests they have made. In my speech, I said that the wage subsidy scheme was a good one insofar as it sought to maintain the relationship between employer and employee. As such, the Minister was wrong to say I did not acknowledge this. I said it and I accept it. What I do not accept is why the Minister will not use this Bill to extend the income subsidy scheme or something similar to these particular groups of people, who cannot return to work through no fault of their own and whose employment and income has been decimated as a result of the Government-imposed public health measures, which they support for the most part. That is the question.

I was speaking to Mary Coughlan on the phone before the debate and she said something which sums up the dilemma for people in these sectors. I would really like the Minister to address the specifics here because I am talking about substance and not politics here. As I told the Minister, Mary Coughlan was earning €20,000 before Covid, which is a very modest income. She was then on the €350 per week payment because all 35 of her gigs were gone. She has now been cut down to the €203 per week rate. She has recently been offered a few gigs in reduced venues including, for example, the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray. There will only be room for 70 people in a room that used to take 300. Does the Minister know what the dilemma is for her? It is that if she takes that gig, which will not nearly recover her income, she will lose her payment. Is she actively seeking work if she refuses the gig? That is the question that needs to be answered. If she says no to it, the Minister could, under the current situation, accuse her of not actively seeking work. If she takes the gig she loses her payment. I say to the Minister this is not right. It is the same for the taxi driver, who should perhaps be cocooning and who is afraid to go out and work. Such drivers have now had their payment cut, however.

7 o’clock

They are going out working in the taxis. There are no proper guidelines from the NTA on safety in taxis. After weeks of pleading, they are still excluded from all of the grants.

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