Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not delay the House long because it has been a long day and a long night. I compliment the Minister on the dedication and the single-mindedness with which she set about the task she has had for the past year in the face of the advancing Covid pandemic and on being able to respond to so many people so quickly, turning around applications so quickly. It is a great tribute to her and her staff, all of whom have delivered extraordinarily, and we need to recognise that, particularly at a time when people have been forced to work from home because of Covid. The Minister overcame a huge number of challenges and managed to do the job as if there were no Covid. I thank her for that.

We come to this time every year. The social welfare budget has never been enough. There has always been a need for more, and there are plenty of good causes to which we could divide up the money. However, we do not have that honour or privilege at present for the simple reason that there are challenges still coming. We do not know where we will go next. To have been able to provide supports such as the approximately €8 billion on PUP has been an extraordinary performance, given the circumstances that have presented themselves and the impossibility of determining what will happen next. Having spent some time in the Minister's Department, I fully appreciate the effort that had to go into that to lead us through the time ahead.

We have problems with energy costs. They are going up.

They should not be going up the way they are. If we had made more provision a few years ago in relation to electricity generation, we would not have the same problem. We would have control over it and not be in that position. There is no good talking about that now.

We need to watch carefully the areas where increases are taking place that are not directly related to anything in particular. It is a fashion to pile on increases but if a ship gets stuck in the Suez Canal or somewhere for a few days, that does not necessarily have to be heaped on top of the burdened people threatened by Covid on one hand and interruption of supplies on the other.

We also have to be careful about that terrible thing inflation which will affect everybody, as Deputy Paul Murphy commented, in a short time. It would be great to be able to follow inflation with payments to compensate but we know eventually that becomes part of the inflation and you end up going nowhere. We in this country need to watch carefully what is causing inflation as time moves on. Some economists will say a bit of inflation is good; a bit of everything is good, but not an overdose of it. We need to be cautious of it and the impact it is likely to have on our way of life.

Reference has been made to direct provision. The payment is small and could do with further attention but it is a place to be. When places to be are difficult and scarce, we are right to provide something. It may be modest, but at least we are doing something. Unfortunately, it has attracted the attention of people who believe there should be no provision for refugees and we do not accept that. We all would like to be given a safe haven if we were in that position and we should never forget that we were in that position for many centuries. We need to treat people in need of care, attention and a safe haven as we would like to be treated if we were in that position again.

We all have to deal with people in difficult circumstances. Some might suggest the Government parties do not understand these things and they are alien to us. I hear it all the time. I assure the Ceann Comhairle, and he knows as well as I do, that we spent our time in those trenches and still do. We do not need to be told about it because we lived with and in it. I remember hearing people talk not long ago about people having to fill central heating systems with five gallon drums. We remember that too and did it. It is no surprise to us. When this House's Members were badly paid, that is the way we filled our central heating tanks.

I hope we can survive the challenges ahead. I know we can if we follow the regulations to the best of our ability. I thank the Minister, her staff and all who have made such a huge effort in difficult circumstances to deliver.

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