Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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102. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will report on the implementation of the €100 allowance for Irish Water bills through the household benefits package. [41680/14]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Will the Tánaiste agree that the €100 benefit against water charges is an utterly inadequate response to the uprising of ordinary people against this latest austerity tax?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of Social Protection will spend €230 million this year on the household benefits package for almost 415,000 customers. The fuel allowance is paid for 26 weeks from October to April to almost 415,000 households, at an estimated cost of €208 million in 2014.

That means well over €430 million will be spent between the two schemes in 2014.

I announced in budget 2015 that recipients of the household benefits package or the fuel allowance would also get an annual water support payment of €100. This measure will benefit 650,000 households at an annual cost in the region of €66 million. The combination of household benefit and fuel allowance as qualifying payments for water support will ensure that the payment is made to those most likely to be impacted by the charges. It is in addition to payments to be made directly via tax credits as announced by the Minister for Finance. Work is under way on the system developments required to implement the payments in 2015. These are in addition to the payment that will be made in December restoring 25% of the annual Christmas bonus, which was, unfortunately, discontinued by the previous Government in 2009. The Christmas bonus will go to some 1.1 million people in the first half of December. In addition, in the first week of January, families who receive child benefit will receive an increase in the monthly payment of €5 per child.

I am happy that budget 2015 is the first in a number of years in which we have been able to have a modest but significant social welfare package to improve the situation, as well as a tax reduction package which takes 80,000 people out of the USC and reduces the rate of USC for those on the first two lower rates.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The Tánaiste was not asked about fuel allowances, Christmas bonuses or anything else; she was asked about the crushing new burden her Government has imposed on ordinary people, including poor people. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the chief executive of Irish Water made some shape of an apology in the last few days to the Irish people for the calamity that is the attempted introduction of water charges. Will the Tánaiste take this opportunity to make her own apology for her culpability in water charges and will she agree that her €100 allowance against water bills represents a panicked response to an uprising of ordinary people nationally against her latest crucifying austerity taxes on them? Will she take the opportunity, which she has not done to date, to apologise for the cynical deception she engaged in during the last general election when she promised to save people from Fine Gael's €238 water tax? Does she agree that her €100 in no way makes up for the Labour Party's treachery in this regard, and will she apologise to the 5,000 residents of the Dublin West constituency she is supposed to represent who turned out on Saturday in Blanchardstown in a determined opposition to water charges and to demand their abolition? Despite how out of touch the Tánaiste and her Government are with ordinary people with regard to this issue, will she recognise that last-minute panicked responses will not save their political hides, and just abolish the water charges?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It probably escaped Deputy Joe Higgins's notice - perhaps he was away at the time - that I announced the water support payment as far back as July. Not only that, it is written into the document that myself and the Taoiseach agreed on in the first week of July. It has been a matter of public record for some time. While it might have escaped the Deputy's notice, it was fully and publicly announced and mentioned in almost all media. Obviously, the Deputy did not spot it. However, he did spot it in more recent times. It was announced that far back, as it was my concern to ensure that households dependent on social welfare payments would get additional support for water charges.

What is essential is that all of the people in this country, including those I have the honour to represent in Dublin West, have a clean supply of high-quality, drinkable water. It is also essential that the people of Ireland, including those in my constituency in Dublin West, have opportunities to find employment in tourism, agriculture, industry and other fields of business which are heavily dependent on good, clean water supplies.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Tánaiste.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The difficulty that the Deputy does not recognise-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I will come back to the Tánaiste.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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-----is that it will require a huge level of State investment over the next ten years in order to fix all those issues which mean that people do not have proper drinkable water. This time last year, the entire Dublin region was threatened with the closure of pubs and hotels due to inadequate water supplies.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The difficulty is that the Tánaiste has reversed everything she said for ten years when she was in opposition, pretending to be the champion of working-class people. Once she got into power, she decided that she would lash another austerity tax on them in the form of water charges and not even look at the millionaires and billionaires who could afford a few hundred million to pay for the investment that is needed. She saddled people with these charges. Let us forget the nonsense that there is no clarity and no communication. There is communication, and people understand that a family of four, including an 18 and a 19 year old and two adults, will pay just under €500. Similarly, a family of five will pay under €600, and when metering comes in that will rise inexorably.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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That is right.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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People are not stupid and the Tánaiste should not treat them as such. There is an uprising of working-class people out there that the Tánaiste does not seem to recognise, although, admittedly, her Government is dazed, pummelled, punch-drunk and panic-stricken, and so it should be. The Tánaiste is staggering from one crutch to another to extricate herself from the situation. Labour Party backbenchers have the demeanour of the politically condemned, and so they should have, as they will be wiped out in the next election if the Tánaiste persists with this.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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A question, please.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The court of Marie Antoinette could not be more out of touch with the suffering and realities of life for ordinary working people than the Labour Party and this Government. The Tánaiste should get real, forget her €100, and abolish the water charges forthwith.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My answer to the suggestions and scaremongering the Deputy has just now undertaken in relation to the level of charges-----

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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What scaremongering?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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-----is that I am happy to say it is my view that the charge for the type of household the Deputy described will be below €200.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Does the Tánaiste take the people for fools?

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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This comes out every day. One-word woman.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The water support payment of €100 will help to defray the cost faced by households of single individuals and those in which there are two or more people. The Deputy was very wide of the mark in the figures he announced.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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They are the figures from the Commission for Energy Regulation.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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No, Deputy.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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For the figures involved, people will get what the country needs. The Deputy talked about my responsibility. My responsibility in relation to the country and Dublin West is to help to get people back to work in order that they can become financially independent.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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The Tánaiste is a disgrace.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Please, Deputy.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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We do not need what Deputy Joe Higgins seems to want, which is for everybody to be on social welfare.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Get real. Get off the stage.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Actually, we need people to be at work. I am perfectly happy that the level of water charges will be modest and will result in the provision of a supply of clean water for this country.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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The Tánaiste should be ashamed.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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It is amazing what marches can do.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Stop, Deputies. That concludes Question Time.