Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for tabling this motion. I read in a newspaper this morning, as I am sure the Minister did, that some of her colleagues are anxious to get rid of the image of Fine Gael as being the nasty party and she has the opportunity to do so here. The cut to the PUP, coming as it did at a time when advisers were being appointed to Government and some Deputies, although not me or my colleagues in Sinn Féin and others, are accepting a pay increase was appalling. I do not know if the Government is just tone deaf to what is happening. Is it just going to push on regardless? Is it not aware of what is going on? My colleague outlined the mental health impacts and I commend her on conducting the aforementioned survey and reaching out to people. It is hard to say no to one's children when one cannot afford something. It is really hard to make a choice between paying for electricity, which is increasing in price and the Government did nothing about that, or car insurance. All of these things are happening. Real life is continuing for people and all the while they are having the only income support available cut from under them. The cut involved is enormous. As Teachta Kerrane has pointed out, the average cut for some is more than €200 per week.

The Minister mentioned the role of the temporary wage subsidy and employment wage subsidy schemes and I want to reference the plight of Aer Lingus workers. She and I have spoken about this previously but it may come as a shock to her to learn that the issue has not gone away. These people are still experiencing difficulties dealing with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, getting their forms stamped by the company and dealing with issues at Intreo offices. The net effect is that some are being left with only €75 per week. As the Minister knows, due to the failure of the Tánaiste to stand up to the banks, mortgage breaks are now coming to an end. Mortgage payments are falling due and in some instances, through no fault of their own, people will end up in default because €75 per week is just not going to cut it. I ask her to consider appointing a person in her Department to liaise directly with Aer Lingus workers and the staff in Intreo offices. The approach is a bit hit-and-miss, which is not doing anyone any favours at the moment. These people are absolutely desperate.

The Minister talked about how effective the PUP and other supports have been. She extolled the virtues of the various schemes and that is fair enough but when they were put in place, people might have had a small amount of savings and might have been able to access a payment break on their mortgage. They did not have to prepare their children to go back to school. All of those debts have now fallen due, along with an increase in the cost of electricity. Their costs are going up as the Government is cutting the supports available. Nobody is suggesting that our resources are infinite but politics is about making choices. The Government made a choice to cut supports to a group of people who have had their work taken from them through no fault of their own. They were working hard in viable businesses. They are available for work but there is no work available. People in the entertainment industry, for example, are available for work but they cannot work. It is not the case that they will not work; they cannot work at the moment and they need support to get them through. Their jobs were viable before they were shut down and the hope is that those jobs will come back again. We know that 1 million people are worried about the tsunami of domestic debt that is coming at them. It is the job of the Government to look after their mental health and their financial well-being. The Government must give them the small amount of support that they will need to be able to get through the next few months. They want to be back at work.

The Minister mentioned the plight of carers, who have been long-neglected by this and the previous Government. I sincerely hope that she is not trying to pit carers, people with disabilities and those in receipt of the old age pension against those workers who have just lost their jobs because that would be an awful thing to do.

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