David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Were the Minister and her party in opposition, they would undoubtedly be opposing the Bill. I have no doubt about this because this again is an Fine Gael budget that is being supported by the Labour Party. As the Labour Party spokesperson for finance in 2010 and in response to the budget then introduced by Fianna Fáil, the Minister accused that party of introducing measures that provided nothing but pain for the poor, money for the rich and the rolling back of the State. Nevertheless, in recent years she and her party have supported budgets that also have incurred pain for the poor and which have given money to the rich. Not a cent extra in income tax has been levied on higher earners in this budget, yet there have been cuts in social welfare payments and there certainly has been a rolling back of the State. Moreover, young people, older people, the sick and the vulnerable have been targeted.

I will begin with new mothers and the cuts to maternity benefit, which come on the back of the reduced maternity benefits that came into effect from July 2013, when they were subjected to a Labour Party-imposed tax. The majority of maternity benefit recipients will have their weekly payment cut by €32, which amounts to a cut of €832 over the course of their six-month leave. For those mothers who are fortunate enough to have their maternity benefit supplemented by their employers, the cumulative impact of this cut could entail a shrinkage of their benefits by up to €126 down to a payment of €135.70, which constitutes a potential loss of more than €3,000 per annum. The charitable organisation Barnardos has described the cuts to maternity benefit as being anti-parenting, callous and unsupportive and a number of other charities also have been critical of the Minister's budget. They point out that Ireland lags behind many EU countries in offering only six months maternity leave and as yet still has no paid paternal or paternity leave.

If one considers child benefit, the cuts in respect of the fourth and subsequent children formally announced by the Government last year will take effect from January 2014. Despite the Minister's assertion that child benefit has not been cut this year, as those cuts will come into effect this year this cut comes within this budget. It is clear that larger families are being targeted again and by their very nature, they are likely either to have less income because one parent is at home with the children or, if both parents are at work, incur higher child care costs.

I will now turn to young people, jobseeker's allowance and the supplementary welfare allowance. Speaking in 2010 as Labour Party spokesperson, in response to what she and I both rightly perceived to be a vicious Fianna Fáil budget, the Minister, as her party's spokesperson, stated, "the principle of the Labour Party is that we are a one-Ireland society and those who have most should contribute most". When the Minister spoke of those who have most, was she talking about young people under 25? Do they have the most? Were older people who are in receipt of the telephone allowance those to whom she was referring as having the most? Was she referring to people who now face having their medical cards taken away from them? Are they those who have the most? I do not believe they were the people about whom the Minister was speaking when she was in opposition, which brings me back to the point I made earlier. Were the Minister standing where I stand today, I have no doubt but that were the same budget introduced by Fianna Fáil, she would be on her feet opposing it because it is unfair and because it is not those who contribute the most who have been asked to pay extra.

An individual who earns in the range of €150,000 to €300,000 or more per year is not being asked to pay a single extra cent in income tax. It is the young, the old and the sick who are being asked to pay the price in this budget. Is the Minister suggesting that young people can take this hit as they in her words "have the most." This cut is particularly disgraceful. Focus Ireland, the Simon Community, the Peter McVerry Trust and a number of other NGOs that work with homeless people have said the cut could push vulnerable young people to the margins and increase the risk of them becoming homeless and ending up on the streets. The National Youth Council of Ireland estimates the cuts will impact on 20,852 young jobseekers in 2014 and the numbers will grow year on year. The Minister paints a picture that the cut in the social welfare rate for the under 25 year old will benefit them, in fact she is doing them a favour. She is pretending the job placement schemes, the labour activation measures and jobs are available in the numbers that are necessary. Is this a return to the lifestyle choice that the Minister spoke about a number of years ago? She obviously does not get the fact that there are insufficient labour activation measures and jobs out there, and that this will impact in particular on the young people who live in disadvantaged communities. They will find it very difficult to get a job or a place on a labour activation measure and are the very people who will be deeply affected by the cuts.

These are "Tory" cuts, cuts one expects from the Fine Gael Party. As somebody who gave the Labour Party a second and third preference vote in the last general election, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought the Labour Party would be voting for budgets like this. It is absolutely appalling that the many people who trusted the Labour Party and voted for them because they would do the correct thing for vulnerable people, feel badly let down.

I have many other concerns which I will raise on Committee Stage. I will not be supporting the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill.