Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the recent announcement of the reopening of the pandemic unemployment payment. I will be blunt that if by reopening the Minister means anything less than restoring the payment to €350, which was accepted as the level people needed to survive, and leaving it open to anyone who loses his or her job as a consequence of pandemic restrictions, that will simply not be acceptable. Nor will it be acceptable if there is any small print, anything that states it will be kept at €250 or only those in restaurants will be able to apply for it. It is scandalous that the Government, over months, has driven the PUP down to its current point of €250 or €203, which are levels at which it is extremely difficult for people to live. This is despite all the evidence. The Government proudly and correctly states how many people it had on the PUP at the start of the pandemic and how dramatically the numbers have come down. Absolutely, but that indicates that when people can go back to jobs, they do so. They are not lounging around delighted to be on the PUP, for well over a year at this stage. They are happy to, and want to, go back to work where possible.

The Government, in its horrendous and repeated mishandling of the pandemic, has brought us back to the point where restrictions are already having an impact. The restrictions announced tonight will have even more of an impact and, therefore, people are losing their jobs as a consequence through no fault of their own whatsoever. They must be able to apply for the PUP at the €350 rate, whether they are a DJ in a nightclub, working in a restaurant or a taxi driver.

My point on fuel allowance was, in a certain sense, half dealt with on budget night. The Minister might know where I am going with this. Energy prices have continued to rise. We predicted a month and a half or two months ago that fuel costs would be approximately €500 to €1,000 more for families this winter, which is definitely coming to pass. The consequence of that will probably be more than the 1,500 to 2,000 excess winter deaths, which are usual on a yearly basis and are tragic and completely unnecessary. It is likely that more people will die as a consequence of those increases. We know the numbers of people who have to make the decision not to fully eat in order to be able to heat their homes or vice versa. We know 19% of people cut back on heating and electricity due to cost. We also know that 42% of those with an illness or disability, 36% of lone parent families and 1 in 6 households were in energy poverty in 2019.

What does the Government do for these people? It put forward a counter-motion to our motion in the Dáil, the bottom line point of which was that we have to rely on the market. Do not interfere with the market. It refused to implement price controls, scrap the carbon tax and extend the number of weeks. The only two things it did was to bring in a minimal increase of €5 in the fuel allowance and a minimal increase to the means test. Some €5 a week is not enough; one can do the maths. People are faced with an extra €15 a week in fuel costs. It was introduced on budget night but was far too little and far too late. I have raised the incredible decision not to have the means test increase happen at the same time the rate was increasing a number of times, and have so far received two letters from the Minister about it, for which I thank her.

It was clearly so shocking that the Taoiseach did not know about it. The Taoiseach misled the Dáil about six weeks ago by saying that it was due to happen on budget night. Since then, I have repeatedly said to him that he should bring the facts in line with his statement in the Dáil. Unfortunately, that has not happened. It is-----

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