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

Despite all the talk of us all being in this together, I put it to the Taoiseach that the Government is progressively abandoning many of the workers and sectors that have been most harshly hit by the public health measures it has put in place.

By definition, the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, is given to people who have lost employment because of measures the Government has taken. They have done nothing wrong but they are being victimised with across the board cuts to their income. In the same week, the halt on mortgage repayments that could be used by those people is being lifted and they can now face further harassment from the banks at a time when their employment position may be deteriorating because of renewed restrictions.

Despite repeated calls that I have made for months on behalf of taxi drivers to respond to their requests for assistance, their industry has been absolutely decimated and is being decimated again. They are going to be taking to their cars for a protest on 9 October out of desperation because of their situation but we have had no commitments or assurances. The arts, music and entertainment sector is worth €3.5 billion, with 35,000 people whose livelihood had been decimated, and there is no clear commitment or assurance of financial supports to sustain them through this period. The Debenhams workers, whose employer used Covid-19 as a cynical excuse to execute a tactical liquidation, have now been on the picket lines for more than 170 days and the Government has completely abandoned them. It is absolutely outrageous.

I put it to the Taoiseach that the Government must support all these people. Money is being given out hand over fist to sections of big business in this country which have not lost anything close to the amount of income that these sectors have lost. The Government has no problem giving the money to them. People involved in arts and music, the taxi drivers and the Debenhams workers have meanwhile been just abandoned. I ask the Taoiseach - and, more important, these people ask him - to do something for them. They are in trouble through no fault of their own.

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