Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

"Warm bank" is a definition added to the dictionary this year. It refers to buildings such as libraries or churches that provide a space for people struggling to heat their homes due to spiralling energy costs. It is a terrifying summary of where many people find themselves. Previously, we had food banks, another facility that emerged in response to chronic and consistent poverty. They are incredibly important services, often run by volunteers, but they also reveal the cold reality for many families and individuals in our society. They let slip the mask of neoliberal economics and a social protection system that should provide a safety net for all.

People are experiencing one of the hardest winters in living memory. The cost-of-living crisis has left many families terrified. Households that have never had to seek State assistance or turn to local charities are finding themselves in that position now. The Government's budget is a missed opportunity to address the underlying issues. It prioritised universal one-off payments and tax cuts over investment in our public services and supporting ordinary people.

Social Justice Ireland has shown that poverty rates in Ireland have decreased when budgets have given greater attention to improving minimum welfare payments or prioritising welfare dependent households. Conversely, of course, poverty increases when budgets favour tax breaks over social investment. Unfortunately, the budget and this Bill are the types of policy that will make life harder for many families this winter.

First is the issue of core social welfare rates. Hundreds of thousands of pensioners, disabled people, carers, unemployed people and families are dependent on these measures. However, these payments are awarded on the whim of the Government rather than in any benchmarked and reliable manner. Core rates were increased for the first time in three years by €5 in the last budget and now, in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, there is an increase of only €12. In real terms, a significant proportion of the population is worse off under this and previous Governments. In our alternative budgets, the Social Democrats proposed an increase of €15 per week to the core rates which would have begun in October. We also prioritised and targeted those in the most severe fuel poverty by increasing the fuel allowance by €15, totalling €48 per week. We would have extended that eligibility to include recipients of the working family payment.

Second is the issue of one-off payments. While we need measures to address the immediate crisis, universal payments are an imprecise tool. Temporary supports will not help people in the medium to long term. They will not provide sustainable relief to those who can no longer afford the soaring price of food, fuel, energy and rent. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul pointed out that the temporary measures will help people get through this winter, but next year people on low incomes will be pulled even further into poverty. This short-term thinking will particularly impact disabled people. They have received the €12 payment increase and a €500 one-off payment. Once-off payments mean little to people with long-term or permanent conditions. The Department of Social Protection's report established that it costs up to €12,300 more annually to live with a disability in Ireland. We we know that depends on the disability; the figure can be more. That was before the cost-of-living crisis.

Instead of producing a plan to tackle this massive gap, the Government has gone with a one-off payment. My motion in July proposed a package including a cost of disability payment of €20 per week, meaning people would have an increase of €1,040 annually. Instead, the Government is only giving a once-off payment of €500.

Ireland, disgracefully, has one of the highest rates of poverty among disabled people in Europe. Some 24% of people who are not able to work due to illness or disability are living in consistent poverty compared with 6.7% of the rest of the population. Disgracefully, the budget is vastly insufficient to address this systemic discrimination.

Next is the inadequacies of the Bill in supporting lone parent families and combating poverty. One Family has consistently highlighted that lone parent families had the highest deprivation rate in 2021, at 44.9%. The single most prominent factor influencing child poverty is belonging to a lone parent family. There are over 200,000 children at risk of poverty in Ireland and more than 90,000 are in consistent poverty. This means that they do not have guaranteed access to sufficient food, shelter, healthcare and other essentials that so many of us take for granted. These are truly shocking figures.

There is hardly a greater avoidable tragedy in Irish society than that of child poverty. The scarring effects of living in consistent poverty as a child last for life. Eliminating child poverty requires a combination of child and adult income supports and access to quality public services. This budget has failed on all counts.

Bernardos has pointed out that the €2 increase in the qualified child payment is wholly inadequate to cover increased costs for parents. The Social Democrats proposed an increase of €12 per week for a child over 12 and by €7 per week for children under 12. Publicly provided affordable childcare is a key tool to help single parents to access education, training and employment. However, the massive costs currently mean it is not economically viable for them to use childcare. The Government has proposed to cut childcare fees by 25%. That is welcome. We had planned a 60% reduction in the next two years and ring-fenced capital investment of €20 million for the creation of public childcare places. Child poverty is a massive social issue impacting all communities. This budget has utterly failed those families. Incredibly when we know that the single biggest determining factor as to whether you live in consistent poverty is being the child of a single parent, it is incredible that there has never been a real attempt to lift those families out of poverty. This budget is the latest example of that.

The Bill is a disservice to the invaluable work of community employment, CE, schemes and the rural social scheme. These excellent programmes provide people with experience to gain work while also contributing to local communities. Many organisations in towns and villages in west Cork really benefit from these schemes. However, the top-up payment to standard welfare rates has only increased by €5 to a total of €25 per week. This is no way reflects the work and the role of these schemes in people’s lives and their communities. The Social Democrats called for an increase to the top up of €100 per week for participants in the rural social scheme and to reinstate the community employment budget to €500 per annum per participant. While I welcome the measures to extend eligibility for participation in CE schemes to spouses and cohabitants of jobseeker's allowance recipients, this budget could have done more for participants and workers in this scheme.

This Bill symbolises the Government’s attitude to those less well off in society. It is eager to push headline-grabbing one-off payments while ignoring the structural causes of poverty and inequality. Disabled people, one-parent families, carers and many more people living in poverty need sustained, bench-marked payments with additional targeted measures to compensate for decades of failed economic and social policies.

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