Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Not for the first time in this Dáil term Sinn Féin has won the broader debate on a fundamental policy issue. The parties of Government continue to shift position as they attempt to copy Sinn Féin policy. For a long time Sinn Féin has been calling for social welfare payments to be linked to wages. Ireland is unusual in the European Union in not having pay-related supports. The current system is called pay-related social insurance, but the link only refers to when you pay in and not when you are taking out. It is welcome that will change. The current system contrasts poorly with many European countries, where it is common to provide for pay-related social insurance payments. That states simply that the benefits are related to pay, designed to secure a worker's normal living standards during periods of unemployment, sickness, maternity and family leave. The loss of a job is incredibly stressful without the addition of social welfare payments, which will not be enough to cover ongoing basic weekly costs, in particular in a situation with a sudden loss of a job. The cliff edge can be quite stark and shocking. For an ordinary worker earning an average wage, a drop to €220 per week represents a steep financial cliff edge. When we consider individuals who earn a higher wage, the deficiency becomes starker. The Government recognised this during the Covid crisis when it introduced the pandemic unemployment payment and set that rate of €350 per week. The poverty line for an individual in this State is €298 per week, so the Government knew it had to set the PUP well above that. The pay-related jobseeker's straw man proposals to introduce a tiered system is welcome. There are those who criticise the idea of pay-related social benefits by saying it will not encourage people to seek work. It is shocking people say that, but they still do. I reiterate what my colleague, Adrian Kane of SIPTU, said earlier this week. He said we need to move beyond the outdated Victorian values that suggest you cannot trust working people, and that you must starve them back to work. Like SIPTU and others, Sinn Féin believes that a top-up payment of only three months is inadequate and will not prevent the cliff edge for workers when they lose their jobs.

Sinn Féin has long been calling for reform to the system of social welfare in this State. These calls are bolstered by the extensive research and case studies from organisations working to prevent and eliminate poverty, and support a decent standard of living. It is for this reason we have long supported and argued for the pay-related system. However, it is not just in this area that Sinn Féin wants reform of the social protection system. For decades we have stated that our levels of social insurance contributions are too low, with the level of social insurance contributions made by employers standing at approximately half the European average. As employees continue to grapple with a cost-of-living crisis we believe there is a fairer way to do this. That is why our 2020 manifesto proposed beginning this pathway by increasing the rate of employer PRSI for the portion of incomes above €100,000, by up to 15.75%. In our most recent alternative budget we proposed increasing the rate of employer PRSI for the portions of incomes above €100,000 to 13.05% in 2024, which would raise €169 million next year. Sinn Féin was the first party to put the issue of sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund and the levels of social insurance contributions on the agenda. It is only through stabilising the Social Insurance Fund that necessary progressive changes in our social welfare system can be achieved. Delivering a pension for workers at 65 is a core part of what we want to see. Our proposal to increase employer PRSI on the portion of pay above €100,000 would immediately cover the cost of introducing a right to retire on a pension at 65 years of age. If you have been working on your feet all day, be it in construction, hairdressing, retail or catering, you deserve to have the choice to retire on your State pension rate at 65 years of age. Voters sent that message loud and clear back in 2020. The Government parties called off their previously legislated for increase to the pension age. This was done reluctantly, especially by Fine Gael, which had intended to raise the State pension age to 68. It was not exclusively them, as it was the policy of many parties. The various options developed and data gathered by the Pensions Commission makes clear that it is possible to put the Social Insurance Fund on a sustainable footing and afford people the right to retire on their State pension at the age of 65. Workers approaching retirement need to have that certainty. I believe that if you are working in a job that is tough on your body, by the time you get to 65 you have done your shift and deserve the right to either retire, if that is what you want, or to work on if you can and if you so choose. I do not think there is fundamental disagreement there.

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