Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táimid ag tacú leis an reachtaíocht seo, cé go bhfuil sí gairid. Is reachtaíocht thábhachtach í agus tabharfaimid gach cabhair don Bhille seo dul trí na Tithe, chun cúnamh a thabhairt do theaghlaigh agus leanaí ar fud an Stáit. This Bill is needed to facilitate, and give legislative effect to, the €100 cost-of-living payment that will be paid with the monthly child benefit payment in June. We will support and facilitate this legislation's passage.

Naturally, the Government's decision in late February that a lump sum child benefit payment of €100 would be paid this June was welcome for families and children. In many homes, however, it will only take the edge off bills that are already stacking up. It will go towards bills that have been left unpaid and are in arrears. This will not fix the struggles that families are facing and will continue to face, and it is important to recognise that. Much more is needed, not only from the Department of Social Protection, but across the Government. This child benefit measure will not be a substitute for measures targeted at lower income households, which will continue to struggle over the coming months into the summer and will be faced with ever-increasing back-to-school costs. We need to ensure the State protects such families and that families who are most in need of support for their children get that support.

Child benefit is an important support for all families. I acknowledge the Minister's comments on it being a universal payment, but there is a need across the whole system for balance between universal payments and means-tested ones.

There is an important place for universal payments. Very often, when we speak to constituents, they talk about the taxes they pay and what they get for them. It is very important that middle-income families who are paying into the system get something for it. They need to be part of the welfare system too. It is important for the resilience and the sustainability of the welfare system, politically, financially and in every other way that it is a system that serves all. Obviously, it should serve those most in need most of all but there is also a role for the welfare system in supporting middle-income families, particularly at times of high costs such as when back-to-school costs arise. On the cost of children, with three at home, I know that the costs certainly do add up. Of course, as I have noted, this is not a substitute for measures. It has a place in and of itself. However, we also need measures to support those on low incomes. We need to consider that further across the welfare system as a whole.

One-parent families are at the highest risk of poverty and have the lowest levels of disposable income. Many such families were struggling long before this unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. For many lone-parent families, inflation has meant that stretched low incomes can no longer cover essential costs. As a result, they are having to choose between, and often go without, certain daily necessities such as heat, food and electricity. There is a risk that tens of thousands more families, and particularly lone-parent families, will be pulled into deprivation.

I say all of this because social protection is a very important area and this is my first speech on a social protection Bill, short though it may be, since becoming social protection spokesperson. I will give a brief outline of my views and priorities. I look forward to working with the Minister and other spokespersons in my new role. We in Sinn Féin understand and are vocal on the fact that poverty is one of the greatest challenges we face as a State. We believe this portfolio is key to tackling and ending poverty. That is why we need more than one-off measures such as that included in the Bill. Coming back to the point about lone parents, Sinn Féin has long called for the establishment of a child maintenance agency to ensure that one-parent families are not forced through the courts unnecessarily and can rely upon maintenance. Ní cóir gur gá do dhaoine dul chuig dlíodóirí nuair atá sé de chumas acu teacht ar réiteach leis an tuismitheoir eile chun cúnamh airgid a fháil. Ní ceart go mbeadh dualgas ar thuismitheoirí aonair an méid sin a dhéanamh.

We need to see systemic change and action on matters such as the proposed legislation on child maintenance. We need to see plans to bring forward legislation as per the report of the child maintenance review group, particularly with regard to the treatment and inclusion of child maintenance as household means in the means testing of social welfare supports. The Government has committed to reviewing the means-testing of payments but, as of yet, we have no information as to when that will happen.

We need to reform our social welfare system by ensuring that all social welfare rates are adequate and we need to protect those who rely on such payments to protect themselves from poverty. Despite a growing cost-of-living crisis, the current social welfare rates are not where they should be. Working age payments need to be brought up over time so as to provide for a minimum essential standard of living, to protect people from poverty and to provide rate adequacy across the social welfare system. That is based on long-standing work by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, among others.

Other key priorities for me will be ensuring the adequacy of the social welfare system, addressing the additional cost of disability and improving job activation and employment services. I do not believe that the for-profit model now in place is the correct approach. It does not effectively serve the people who require services. I am also keen to push for the implementation of the commitments in our charter for family carers. It is also vitally important that the Government continues to support and invest in employability services. As a society, we must ensure that those with disabilities get the most assistance with securing employment or getting back to work and with remaining in employment. Tá na seirbhísí sin riachtanach do dhaoine atá faoi mhíchumas. Caithfidh iad a bheith ar fáil do dhaoine laistigh dá gcuid pobal féin.

We need to ensure that we build a society in which our young people believe they can prosper and reach their full potential. Far too many of our young people do not see a future for themselves here. We continually see qualified teachers, doctors, electricians and so on leaving their home and going abroad. Part of the issue is that there are many young people who would love to start a family but who do not do so or delay doing so because they feel they cannot afford it. We must change that too. While this goes beyond simple social welfare policies and while housing, childcare and so on play a role, there is a crucial central role for the Department of Social Protection in this. We need to ensure that there are protections with regard to maternity leave, paternity leave, parent's leave and parental leave and, as I have said before, we need to ensure that childcare is accessible and affordable. Tá sé seo go léir riachtanach chun cinnte a dhéanamh de gur féidir le daoine óga teaghlach a thosú. Tá go leor dóibh atá ag teacht chugam - táim cinnte go bhfuil siad ag teacht chuig an Aire freisin - ag rá gur bhreá leo é seo a dhéanamh ach nach bhfuil sé inacmhainne dóibh. As a result of those factors, it is not the case at the minute that childcare is accessible or affordable or that there are adequate protections. Young people need to see that they have a future in Ireland and that they can raise a family here.

In the here and now, people are under great pressure due to the cost-of-living crisis. It is crucial that those in need of support get the appropriate and necessary assistance required from the Government. Many people, ordinary workers and families, who will be left behind unless appropriate action is taken. It is extremely important that the State provide the support needed. Day in and day out, I am dealing with countless families in Cork who are really struggling under the relentless pressure of food costs, energy costs and rent and mortgage costs. There seems to be no end in sight and no respite for these families. The Government has failed to provide certainty to households with regard to energy bills and has refused to freeze rents for renters or to provide relief to hard-pressed mortgage holders. It continues to sit on its hands as food prices and back-to-school costs soar.

In budget 2023, the Government decided to provide rate increases for social welfare recipients that fall significantly short of the rate of inflation despite proposals brought forward by Sinn Féin and others who recognised the need for greater increases. As a spokesperson on social protection, I and my party will be fighting tooth and nail to ensure that those most in need get the most support in the next budget. The burden the escalating cost of living is placing on workers and families is completely unsustainable. This has been exacerbated by the Government's failure to intervene in the areas I have mentioned. The escalating costs now facing households across the State are completely unsustainable. Something has to give.

Families are really feeling the pressure, including at the supermarket till. The cost of the weekly shop is going up. People are going to the till wondering whether there is enough left on the card to pay for the shopping and trying to decide what they will leave behind if they do not have enough. Will they leave behind the washing powder, the packet of mince or the stuff for the kids' school lunches? These are the basic decisions people have to make, fearful of the horrible feeling when the words "payment declined" come up. Families receive the child benefit payment and go to do the weekly shop. The cost of that shop is going up and parents will be at the shelves wondering what to leave behind. The Government needs to understand the urgency required. It does not seem that it currently does. There seems to be no coherent strategy in place to combat the spiralling costs. The Government needs to face up to this fact and listen to calls from Sinn Féin and others for measures to be brought forward to pull families and children out of poverty. To come back to the point regarding child benefit, while it is not anywhere near enough in and of itself, we welcome and support this legislation and will facilitate its passage through the Houses.

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