Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It would not take any more time to write the legislation differently. It would take the same time. The measure is designed to exclude as many workers as possible. Many will not qualify for the payment at all or will not get the full rate. A maximum payment of €450 a week is the least a Government with a €65 billion surplus thought it could get away with. ICTU has said it is glad that the principle of pay-related unemployment benefit, the norm across Europe for generations, is being adopted. It is, however, very unhappy with the stingy level of benefit which is nowhere near replacement level. The maximum level is only €450 a week but many workers will not even get that. Only workers who earn €750 a week and above will get the €450. The rest will get 60% of their wages. A full-time worker on the minimum wage of €508 a week will only get €304.80 in this new benefit. It seems the Government thinks that low-paid workers need less income when they lose their job than high-paid workers. Is €304.80 a week enough for workers who lose their jobs to continue to pay rent or a mortgage, groceries, energy bills and transport costs without going into debt? Could the Minister or other Ministers manage all their bills on €304.80 a week, less even than the pandemic unemployment payment that was given before the inflation we have seen in recent years?

The new pay-related jobseeker's benefit is also only to last for three months at the full rate. After that, it is cut to a maximum of €375 a week for the next three months and, after that, to €300 a month for the following three months. Workers who cannot find a job will be pushed deeper and deeper into grinding poverty. On top of all that, the new pay-related benefit is to be taxed, so workers will not even be getting the full amount into their pocket. Big business in this country gets tax break after tax break, writing off billions in profits through various loopholes every year, but workers will have to pay tax on their dole.

This Bill unfortunately also continues Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael’s policy of systematic discrimination against young workers. Not satisfied with paying young people, those under 25, €90 less jobseeker's allowance a week than older workers, they are also now excluding the vast majority of them from the new pay-related jobseeker's benefit. They will have to pay the extra tax if they are in work but most of them will not qualify. To qualify for the maximum rate of €450, or 60% of your wages, you have to have paid five full years of PRSI. Even to qualify for the reduced rate at a maximum of €300, you have to have paid two full years of PRSI. Two workers working the same job with the same pay who are laid off on the same day and go down to the same social welfare office will come out with differing levels of support. The older worker will get €450 a week and the young worker will get €141.70. Could the Minister give young people a stronger signal to continue to emigrate if she tried?

I am sure the Department has run the numbers on what age workers will, on average, qualify for the full rate of pay-related jobseeker's benefit. I presume that is factored into how much the Minister thinks it is going to cost. I would be interested in hearing those figures today. What is the average age that people will qualify for the full rate of pay-related jobseeker's benefit? I suspect it is a lot older than 25, which is the cut-off point for the disgraceful age-based discrimination for jobseeker's allowance. I also want to know if young people will get any credit for years spent working abroad because they cannot afford to live in this country due to the housing and cost-of-living crises, or will they be starting from scratch when they finally return here after spending their 20s working abroad in countries that they find less hostile to young people?

It seems it is not enough for this Government that young people are stuck living at home with their parents into their 20s and 30s. Now, the discrimination against them in terms of social welfare is going to go on and on as well.

For those reasons, while we again welcome the principle and the introduction of pay-related jobseeker's benefit, we are going to oppose the Bill on this Stage.

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