Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is somewhat of a challenge to know exactly where to start. A former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, said once in a different context that it was the little things that tripped one up. When one looks at any of the individual provisions and measures contained in this Bill, the Minister has quite cogently argued a justification for all of them. Cumulatively, however, one can see that a pattern emerges whereby two sections of society are being singled out and targeted in this regard, namely, the young and the not so young.

For example, last year the Government cut over 1 million home care hours for the elderly, shut down the mobility allowance, cut the respite care grant by 20%, and reduced the fuel allowance from 32 to 26 weeks. All that impacted directly on the most vulnerable, including older people.

Other changes that have directly affected the elderly include the abolition of the telephone allowance, increased tax on solid fuel as a result of the extension of the carbon levy, rising costs of medical insurance driven by Government policy, a 500% increase in prescription charges, changes to the income threshold for medical cards, and the ubiquitous property tax that is currently a cause of great debate.

It is interesting that the discussions seems to be centred around administration. I wonder what the debate will be like when people have to stick their hand in their pocket and pay out double in the coming months what they paid this year. That is when the real test of this Government will come about. As I have stated over the past 12 months, people have had enough. They have been tipped over the balance in terms of what they can give. I do not believe they can give any more.

This budget and particularly the measures in the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill will tip people over into more poverty.

As the Minister has outlined, the main provisions are the reduction in jobseeker's supplementary welfare allowance for those aged under 26, the abolition of the bereavement grant, the reduction in maternity benefit and adoption benefit, and the abolition of the mortgage interest supplement. The Minister put her own spin on the reduction in the numbers on the live register. While we on this side of the House would welcome the numbers on the live register continuing to reduce, the savings the Minister is making are quite substantial. As she has said, every 10,000 fewer people on the live register results in a €95 million saving. Given that trend has been continuing for 16 months, the Minister might have fought a bit harder to ensure her budget was not attacked as much as it has been. As part of the Government spin, we had the kite-flying exercise indicating that it would be in excess of €400 million and it is now approximately €280 million. It is still a significant sum of money that targets two specific categories.

We oppose the Bill, which consolidates the Government's deeply unfair budgetary policies which have been independently verified as regressive by the ESRI and the European Commission in 2011 and 2012. It targets older people and young people who are out of work. It is anti-elderly and anti-youth. It fails the basic test of fairness. The legislation will result in the second cut to core social welfare rates since the Government took office with the reduction in jobseeker's allowance, child benefit having been reduced last year. It will also see the abolition of schemes which support the most vulnerable.

We condemn the Government's latest insult to young people, that being its slashing of jobseeker's allowance. The cut in the core rate of income support along with the Government's failure to implement effective labour activation measures will push more young people towards emigration. The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed has stated that the Government has abandoned those up to 26 years of age on the basis that it will provide them with all sorts of training schemes, education, back to work schemes, etc. which have not worked to an appreciable extent. In families where money has been sucked out, how will 18 year olds live with the reduction in jobseeker's allowance? How will they be able to manage the necessities of life that everybody has, especially those reaching 18 years of age who, for a variety of reasons, may not be able to proceed to third level education?

These changes will result in a cut in payment to those engaged in the JobBridge internship programme as interns only receive an allowance of €50 per week on top of their existing social welfare entitlement. The Labour Party's commitment to secure core rates of welfare is in tatters given the budget 2013 cut of €10 to child benefit and the budget 2014 cuts to jobseeker's allowance.

Brid O'Brien from the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed has stated:

It is extraordinary that people can vote at 18, but in our social welfare system you're not seen as a fully adult until you're 25, and if this measure comes through you won't be seen as a full adult until you're 26. I think it will send out a very negative message to young people in this country, many of whom feel they don't have a future here.

That is a sad commentary. While I do not necessarily appreciate negative sentiments coming from any source, particularly when it relates to emigration, it seems to be the sad reality faced by young people aged from 18 to 26.

Live register figures show that during 2012, 41,000 people under 25 were without work for four months or more. In September 2013, 66,183 young people under the age of 25 were on the live register. When all these numbers are added up, including the thousands affected by the various schemes the Government has withdrawn, those affected by the withdrawal of the mortgage interest supplement and those impacted by the withdrawal of the bereavement grant, it adds up to quite a few electoral quotas in the next general election.

We are opposed to the cruel cut to the bereavement grant that will hit mourning families at their most vulnerable time. The bereavement grant of €850 is paid out to an average of 22,000 families per annum who are eligible under a minimum of PRSI payments to help deal with funeral expenses.

I was astonished to learn that funeral costs in Ireland vary from anywhere between €3,000 to over €10,000, depending on where one is living. I was genuinely gobsmacked when I saw those figures because it had never occurred to me that funerals could cost so much money depending on what part of the country one lived in. Perhaps there is a question to be raised about how these costs are arrived at, rather than simply criticising the Government for the withdrawal of the grant. This raises fundamental questions about the marketplace, why it costs this much and why there is such a variance in the cost. The variance can range from €3,000 in one part of the country - this probably applies to where I live, in the north west - while for those in Dublin it can cost up to €10,000. Why should it cost more in Dublin? In many cases, there are shorter distances in terms of the facilities and the services being provided.

Anyway, I reiterate that the removal of the bereavement grant hits the elderly in particular. It compounds the hike in prescription charges, the reduction in medical cards and the abolition of the telephone allowance. All of these changes will leave pensioners struggling to make ends meet and there are a fair number of electoral quotas contained in that particular age cohort. The Minister should note that they are the people who go out and vote. We believe workers who pay PRSI contributions deserve financial support at the extremely expensive and stressful time of the often-unexpected death of a loved one.

The maternity benefit standardisation will hit women and their families at a time when they are already struggling with reduced income and increased costs. A reduction of maternity benefit will force many women to go back to work earlier than they would have wished. That is the statement but the question in reality is whether they will have work to go back to. While jobs are being created, perhaps, in the country, they seem to be in one particular category, the high-technology area. If a person happens to be computer literate or moving up the scale in that particular category, then there are probably jobs available for him or her, but for the broad mass of the population, especially those who live outside Dublin, there are few job opportunities. The cut means a de facto reduction of €32 per week for the majority of women who would have received the maximum weekly rate of €262 in maternity benefit. This change will affect approximately 45,000 women and the figures keep going up.

The Government's decision to abolish the mortgage interest supplement will jeopardise thousands of home owners throughout the country. A total of 13,000 families are currently in receipt of mortgage interest supplement, while throughout Ireland over 143,000 families are in mortgage arrears. The mortgage interest supplement is provided for people who are unable to repay the interest owed on their home loans. We have had this debate previously and we have discussed how to some degree the banks have been getting off scot free with the payment. They Minister quoted the figure of €300 million with nothing coming back from the banks. However, I add the following caveat. Under the recent legislation, ultimately, the veto rests with the banks in terms of how they are going to restructure or reschedule mortgages and that issue needs to be examined. I am unsure what the evidence suggests thus far because it is too early to say, but it seems that if the banks continue to hold a veto, then those who are struggling in particular, especially in the light of the ending of the interest supplement, will be totally at the mercy of the banks and may be unable to agree to the new scheduling of loans.

The number of waiting days for entitlement to illness benefit has been increased from three to six days. The Minister says this will save €22 million. However, the Free Legal Advice Centres organisation has already pointed out that those who will be caught in this category will have no money at all. They will be obliged to stretch their money now and in some cases they will be unable to look after basic essentials. There really is a downside to the increase from three days to six days in illness benefit.

The Government cut over 1 million home care hours for the elderly and shut down the mobility allowance. Earlier, I mentioned that the Government has also cut the respite care grant by €20 and reduced the fuel allowance from 32 to 26 weeks. I stated at the outset and I repeat now that all of these measures directly impact on older people and the most vulnerable.