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

As our representative on the Business Committee, I asked for this debate a number of weeks ago. It is telling about the coup d'étatthe new Government implemented to silence the smaller parties that having asked for the debate, we had to wait for three or four Government speakers who spoke during three different slots before some of us got to respond to the Government's position. It is an insult that the senior Minister is nowhere to be seen. The fact that the senior Minister has disappeared long before most of the political groups in the House have responded to the Government's position is not just an insult to us - that is less important - because it is also an insult to democracy and to the people outside. It is shameful.

The reason I particularly requested this debate was because I knew we would hear all the narrative from the Government about stimulus, how we have to protect people in the face of Covid and how we have to invest in the new normal. We would have to listen to all this narrative, belied by the fact that today the Government is going to cut the incomes of tens of thousands of working people who have lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of the Government's public health measures. These are measures which the majority of the public support and without whose support we would be in a worse situation with Covid-19. Rather than thanking them, however, with solidarity and upholding the principle that we are all in it together, it seems that some people are more in it together than others. It is a tale of two pandemics.

If any member of the Cabinet turned out to be Covid positive and had to quarantine for two weeks, would they be put on a reduced pandemic unemployment payment? No. They would continue to enjoy their extraordinary salaries - the full 100% payout - while taxi drivers, who were on the streets the other day, are having their payments cut today. It is kicking them while they are down when they have lost large amounts of income and livelihoods with debts accumulating. The Government today has stuck the knife into the events and music workers whose livelihoods and ability to earn income have been slaughtered by the pandemic. With rising infection rates, they have no prospect or roadmap back to possible viability. They have their rents, mortgages and bills accumulating but they are being knifed in the back. One can include in the list tour operators, bar workers in the wet pubs and cleaners and caterers in many of the office complexes which are not functioning. These are the people whose sacrifices we need and who the Government is calling on to deal with the threat of Covid-19. They have been knifed in the back today with pandemic unemployment payment cuts, however. There is no other way to characterise it. It is a betrayal of the principle that we are all in it together. That lie is exposed with this sickening cut.

The Government even now should pull back on that cut. Only a few million euro would be required for the 35,000 people in the live entertainment industry and the 25,000 taxi drivers. It would be buttons. For other people, however, the Government just signs the cheques. The cheques get signed for the large profitable companies.

As our speaking time is so limited now, there are many issues we cannot bring up. However, I want to raise one issue which was brought to my attention the other day. While all the musicians, live events people and actual performers have had their payments cut, others, like film producers, get handed massive money. The EU requires each government to print out the details of the state aid that goes to film producers. The Committee of Public Accounts should look at this. The crowd making "The Last Duel" in Ardmore Studios also made "Vikings" before. Over the last five or six years, they received tax credits for "Vikings" that were listed as being between €10 million and €30 million. Is it €10 million, €15 million, €20 million or €30 million? We do not know. There is no accountability when one hands the cheques over to wealthy film producers. However, the taxi drivers, the tour operators, the arts workers and the people on the ground are knifed in the back. It seems we are not all in this together.

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