David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The fact the Minister is waiting until this Bill is passed before introducing a separate Bill raises questions and concerns. Our main concern is affordability. Our concern is not for those people who can afford to pay but who are taking a principled stand and will not pay - like myself - but for those with real affordability issues. I welcome that the Minister has said the Department will be sympathetic, but there are no specifics supplied in that regard. This is a completely vague response and there is no specific proposal in the Bill that sets out what the Minister is going to do to help those people.
There is no point in telling us this will be provided for after the Bill has been passed. People will be sitting in our offices explaining they cannot afford to pay, but all I will be able to say to them is that the Minister said he would be sympathetic. They will go to their community welfare officer, but as we know, community welfare officers are under fierce pressure as their budgets are being cut. In the past, community welfare officers were able to provide support, for example in getting deposits together for people getting rent supplement for private accommodation, but that support has almost dried up now. In other areas where they supplied financial support in the past, they are no longer able to do so because of the lack of resources.
We need more specifics from the Minister on this, because affordability is one of the critical issues in regard to the charges. Some people cannot afford to pay, yet the promise of sympathy is extremely vague and there is no specific measure or proposal in the Bill in regard to how they will be helped to pay the charges. Can the Minister be more specific in regard to how the sympathetic approach will work? How will it translate into action?

In tangible terms, what does that sympathy mean? I certainly do not tell people in Waterford that the Minister has a bag-load of sympathy for them but nothing else. The Minister has not explained it to me. He said people could go to their community welfare officers and there would be sympathy, but he should explain exactly what that will mean in specifics.