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

I have. I will return to the example I gave earlier as it underlines the point we made on Committee Stage on the CRSS. It is that various Covid-related income supports have been made available but very significant groups have been left out. I acknowledge that many of these are important interventions to support the incomes of people who have been significantly affected in that they are either not able to work at all or earn a viable income.

Taxi drivers have been left out, which is not fair. Their premises are, in effect, their cars. Like a premises, they must pay insurance on a car, maintain it and pay for fuel when driving around looking for work. These are costs of work for a taxi driver. For certain sizes of businesses that happen to have premises, the Government has indicated it will contribute to covering those costs because it knows that people either cannot work now due to restrictions or their ability to generate income is significantly affected by restrictions. It is helping to cover those ongoing costs but the Government is still excluding a cohort of people who have those costs but do not have a premises.

This is not fair and I do not know how anybody could say with a straight face that it is. The percentage of income being lost by taxi drivers is considerably more than that of many of the recipients of this scheme. Many taxi drivers are simply not going back on the ranks because the work is not there. They know if they all went back to work, a driver would be lucky to get one job per week. That may improve a little over the next few weeks but on a rank at St. Stephen's Green or anywhere else over the past six or seven weeks, we could see them sitting in their taxis. It is depressing to look at them waiting for hours on a fare. When they finish with a fare, they might be back at the rank for another two hours. They may literally jump for joy if they get one fare but often the cost of going to work on the day would be greater than the amount of income earned. In every other sense, the taxi drivers tick the boxes for the CRSS but they are excluded because they do not have a premises, which is not fair.

There is also the case of musicians and people whose jobs are related to the industry, including sound and light engineers, etc. These people may not have a premises but they must travel for work and carry costs if doing a recording in a studio, for example. They carry those costs in order to sustain their art but they are also excluded from the scheme. After this there is the insult of applying for an award from the Department dealing with arts which is refusing 87% of applications. Imagine how demoralising and insulting that is for talented people who cannot get the CRSS either. It is just not fair.

We have said this repeatedly to the Minister and I am genuinely appealing to him. I know he thinks about such matters so please think about what we are saying here. There is an unjust exclusion of a number of categories of workers who have been worst hit by the Covid restrictions imposed by the Government. They are being unfairly excluded when others, who in some cases have been less harshly hit, get access to the scheme. People have access who might have more ability to absorb a hit because they may have made more money in the past. Meanwhile, the people in the most difficult position are being excluded. This cannot be justified.

Please do not reply by saying these people get the pandemic unemployment payment, which has been cut and is just not enough to cover costs. These are people who were able to earn a half-decent income and could pay their costs and so on. They have mortgages and car repayments that need to be made and they cannot do it on the PUP. They are clocking up debt all the time because of the pandemic. It is a complete abandonment of the "all in it together" principle at the most basic level not to recognise that these people are in trouble and they need targeted, additional, justified and legitimate support.

I really believe the Minister should consider this. Our amendment only calls for a review, which is minimal action, but I want not just a review but for the Government to acknowledge that it is unfair to leave out these people and do something urgently about it. It is very demoralising for these decent people. They want to work and do not want to depend on the State. They have been put in this position through no fault of their own and they need a hand now. It is the appeal I am making and I really hope the Minister responds to it.

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