I welcome the Minister to the House this evening and I welcome the opportunity to discuss, once again, social protection and the recent budget. In responding to budget 2026 previously in this House, I described it as a punch in the stomach for many working families and unfortunately, I must repeat that here in this debate today. Budget 2026 needed to deliver real and radical policy changes towards a social welfare system that delivers equality and fairness for all those who need it. Instead, the Government gave €1.2 billion in VAT rate cuts for fast-food chains, large ones at that, and tax cuts for big property developers. They put the needs of McDonald's before working families and low-income households who are struggling day in, day out. I can assure the Minister that unlike so many of the people I deal with on a daily basis, Ronald McDonald is not worried about paying the heating bill. This money could have been used to fund a cost of disability payment starting at €25 per week and to fully, once and for all, abolish the carer’s allowance means test. Carers in this country are saving the State €20 billion each year. These could have been the radical measures that people needed in budget 2026, the measures that the Labour Party proposed in our own alternative budget. To add insult to injury, there would have been money left over to help even more people. This is what we should be debating here today instead of what is in front of us in this Bill. I previously shared a story of a constituent of mine who has multiple sclerosis and is struggling to cope with the cost of disability. She cannot avail of the disability allowance because her husband works and the payment is means-tested. She is also raising two children and like many families they are struggling. I have had numerous calls to my office asking how the Government expects families to be able to afford a heating bill this winter. The painful truth is that budget 2026 has left people with disabilities €1,400 per year worse off due to the loss of once-off measures. That is not spare cash lying around, it is what keeps their heads just above water. It is what helps keep the heating on during these cold winter months; heating that gives people with a disability some form of quality of life and which is essential to it. As always, there is still time for the Government to do the right thing and provide some level of support for people with disabilities. A €10 increase in core weekly social welfare rates is a paltry amount for many people on fixed incomes, like pensioners, who are deciding between eating and turning on the heating. An increase of at least €16 per week was needed to keep up with the cost of living, while additional increases were also needed in child benefit and a targeted second tier payment should have also been a priority for this budget. The number of children in Ireland living in consistent poverty nearly doubled in 2024 to 8.5%, rising by over 45,000 children in one year to over 104,000. ESRI research published in September also shows that one in five children, that is, over 225,000 children, live in families below the poverty line when housing costs are accounted for. It is a failure of our society and those in government that child poverty figures are relentlessly rising. We called for a new targeted second rate of child benefit, as recommended by the ESRI and the Commission on Taxation and Welfare. That step could have reduced child poverty by a quarter and cut the child poverty gap in half. The increases in this Bill to the various streams of maternity and parental benefits are welcome but fall short of what Labour demonstrated was possible in our alternative budget. The Labour Party would have increased the payment rate to €350 a week rather than €299, as the Bill does. That would be the first step towards the introduction of a pay-related leave benefit scheme. We would also extend the amount of paid parent’s leave available by a further three weeks for each parent taking it to 12 weeks each. Combined with maternity and paternity leave benefits, this would provide 52 weeks of leave. To bring Ireland into line with other EU countries, the Department of Social Protection must also begin to develop proposals to achieve pay-related leave benefits and carer’s benefits. We would also have removed the three-day wait for jobseeker's benefit and moved towards a system based on hours worked rather than days, reflecting modern work practices and providing additional funds for the extension of pension benefits to bereaved partners. We would have reformed disability payments and introduced a single taxable benefit, protected secondary benefits like medical cards and phased in a cost of disability payment in 2026, starting with a payment of €25 per week. As an interim step, we would increase the disability allowance weekly income disregard from €165 to €250 for those in work. A significant proportion of single parent households are consistently at risk of poverty and face higher rates of deprivation. We would have provided for targeted income support measures in the budget. Lone parents transfer to the jobseeker's transition payment when their youngest child turns seven years of age, but there are still a number of anomalies between the two payments. For example, those in receipt of one-parent family payment can access the working family payment, but those on jobseeker's transitional payment cannot. We would have extended the working family payment to those on jobseeker's transitional payments and increased the earnings disregard for one family payments and the jobseekers transitional payment from €165 to €250. Like previous speakers, I also want to highlight the concerns expressed by the Irish Congress of Trade Union, ICTU, which has called the Bill a sting in the tail for workers. This is due to the fact that the Bill contains a stealth cut to the jobseeker's pay-related benefit. Despite introducing a €10 increase to weekly social welfare payments, ICTU has since learned that the jobseeker's pay-related benefit has not been included in the general increase. This is essentially a payment freeze for many people who have worked and paid their taxes – the people who keep this country going. We are already seeing a slow but steady increase in the rate of unemployment, which now stands at 5%, according to the most recent CSO statistics, a figure which is up by nearly a quarter since last year and which is at its highest level since the pandemic. This comes after a string of high-profile job losses at companies like Fastway, Amazon and Intel, as well as reports of an increase in so-called quiet or silent layoffs and a reduction in the number of companies that are hiring. Workers will pay an extra €52 this year and €104 next year. This is in order to help fund the new payment, which will help workers in the short term when they lose their jobs. That is what workers have signed up to, yet the Government does not seem to be keeping its side of the deal. I encourage the Government to do the right thing and rectify this as a matter of urgency. The Government had no issue with addressing issues in the Finance Bill, including a VAT cut in respect of apartments. It must now do the same for workers. I have raised on previous occasions the lack of support for foster carers who the State relies heavily on to provide care for children with nowhere else to go. Budget 2026 should have indexed the foster carer allowance to take account of the ongoing cost of providing care and provide pension security for families who dedicate their lives to fostering. Foster carers had to wait 15 years for the last increase in the allowance. The question many are now asking is whether they will have to wait another 15 years for the next increase. The allowance is to pay for the child. Many foster carers will use much of their own savings just to get by. I have raised the issue of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance for foster families with the Minister. It would have cost just over €1 million and would have been a vital support for all of those foster caring families. They will again have to use their own savings and any other income they have to provide the very best for the children in their care. That is what these families do. They put everything into the care of their foster child because no one else will and the State has failed to help on this occasion. I want to use this opportunity to highlight an issue we will discuss tomorrow during Question Time. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the Government is taking the €38 weekly fuel allowance away from those who qualify simply because they now have to provide a roof over the heads of a son or daughter who has returned home because they cannot find accommodation. Unfortunately, some may break up with a partner or simply cannot afford to pay rent in their area. It is very unfair to make this cut during our current housing emergency. Again, I ask the Minister to examine this matter. Unfortunately, I am sure he, like my office, received a number of such queries during the week. I am not sure whether the Department is targeting people, but there have been multiple queries submitted to my office this week by families who provide a roof over their loved ones' heads and who have had their fuel allowance cut. I want to raise with the Minister, as I have done on previous occasions, the cap of 18.5 hours for those who are working and are in receipt of carer's allowance. This affects those who need to work or study. I have had many queries from those who are studying. The cap is becoming a serious problem for those who are travelling long distances to attend courses while at the same time providing essential care for a mother, father, brother or sister. I know everyone in the House has examples of this, but, unfortunately, the 18.5 hour cap is excluding those people from receiving the payment. As I did when I was a Member of the Seanad, I want to ask why we cannot increase the eligibility for domiciliary care allowance from the age of 16 to 18. I am sure the Minister's office receives calls from worried and distressed parents whose children's disability is a lifelong one, yet they must go through reams of paper to prove they still have an entitlement to domiciliary care allowance at the age of 16. It is simply not good enough. Other families are struggling to provide care and much-needed private services for their 16-year-old children because they face the withdrawal of the payment. Many families find they have to endure a review or appeal. They welcome the fact that, as the Minister said, the allowance has increased. However, we must examine the age limit and do something about the reams of paperwork people have to fill in when their child has a lifelong disability. These social protection measures will do little or nothing to help many pensioners, lone parents, carers and people with disabilities who have to make tough choices this coming winter. They are making choices like whether they can afford a heating bill or have enough money to buy something to feed themselves. I deal with many people on a daily basis who ask me what they are going to do. I must raise with the Minister and with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael people's concerns about the direction being taken in respect of working families and low-income households. These families and individuals raise their concerns with me on a daily basis. The cost of living for many is simply out of control and energy bills are through the roof for many people. Many hope and pray for a mild winter. It is a conversation piece time and again at my clinics, and I am sure many others hear the same in their offices and clinics. In a country with the surplus the Government has in front of it, it is simply not good enough that people are hoping and praying for a mild winter. Regarding the auto-enrolment system, I and the Labour Party broadly welcome its introduction. It is much needed and will help to increase the basic standard of living for workers who are unable to contribute financially to a private pension or whose employer does not provide one. It is a conversation that I encourage the Minister to continue to have with young and not-so-young workers because it goes to the core of future suitability for many working families in this country. I have previously raised the issue of the self-employed. They should also be auto-enrolled. We have heard over a number of years about concerns regarding ongoing bogus self-employment contracts, in particular in RTÉ. Self-employed people must be included in order to ensure companies are not incentivised to place workers on such contracts. The pension coverage among this cohort is, as we know, already too low. I welcome the implementation of the scheme but, as I mentioned, the Labour Party has some concerns, and I ask the Minister, as I have done on previous occasions, to address them. I again welcome the fact that we are debating the Bill and thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to contribute

Sentiment score: 0.15