Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Living Wage Bill is very important. It would be a great Bill if we saw anybody proposing it who was not so hypocritical. A person speaking to this Bill obviously has to look at who is proposing it. One must remember what this same party did when it was in power and had a say. We know what they did to older people. We know the way that they hit and hurt people who were bereaved by doing away with and supporting the abolition of the death grant. We know and saw what they did to women's pensions in particular. We saw the total disregard they had for vulnerable and poorer people. We were very proud in County Kerry of the great Labour Party in the past because we had good people in it and supporting it. The reason that they have completely abandoned that party now is due to the hypocritical Bills like this it is bringing forward, forgetting what the party did to hurt the people that they talk about protecting now.

I accept there is an awful problem in Ireland at present. That problem is being worsened by people in the Labour Party supporting additional taxes upon taxes and penalties on people who are vulnerable and finding it very hard to manage mom's purse. They are completely forgetting it, but I will not let them forget what they did when they had power and when they were Ministers. When they had a say, they did nothing for the people of Ireland and definitely nothing for rural areas.

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