Deputy Mary Lou McDonald - speech from 07 May 2020

Ceann Comhairle, I'll speak for a number of minutes and then I'd like a response from the Taoiseach and then a response and so on. Graemeaigat, can I start by sending sympathies again to all of the bereaved, to extending solidarity to all of the sick and wishing them a full recovery and to again set out our thanks to every worker on the front line and also to acknowledge the efforts of our people as they live with extraordinary public health restrictions on their lives. I listened with very great concern yesterday to Pascal Donoghue as he indicated that a cut would be made to the COVID-19 payment and the wage subsidy scheme in June. I want to say at the outset that cutting or tapering off these interventions and supports is wrong. Such a decision would represent a serious blow to workers and families who have lost their incomes as a result of this pandemic. Because when a person loses their job, as we know, they still face the cost of living. Bills still need to be paid. Money has to be found for the mortgage or the rent. Food must be put on the table. Children have to be provided and planned for. And those of us living in the real world know that €350 a week is the bare minimum needed to keep a show on the road. We know that it's the bare minimum needed to make it to the end of the week. So to cut this payment would be to pull the rug from under the feet of so many and force those who can least afford it to pay for the economic fallout from this emergency. I think that such a move is even being floated at this stage suggests that Fine Gael remains out of touch with the lives of workers and families, with those bearing the brunt of this economic shock. The comments from Mr Donoghue sent a shiver of apprehension down the spines of those who suffered untold hardship as the result of the vicious cuts meted out by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over the past decade. Indeed, many families were still struggling with the financial impact of your austerity policies from the last recession just as the pandemic hit. And those people remember the deluge of mean-spirited cuts of that era. They remember that in the last economic crisis Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil chose to protect the banks and the wealthy, and that you chose to punish ordinary workers and families instead. They lived with the minimum wage being slashed. They lived with the numerous cuts to child benefit. They lived with the profound damage done to our public health service and to our housing system. Slash-and-burn policies aimed to service a debt that did not belong to the people. And at the same time, as this suffering was heaped on ordinary people, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil still managed to ensure tax breaks for the vested interests and massive payouts for bondholders. Now, it's not lost on anyone that words like unaffordable and unsustainable are rattled off and deployed to describe financial measures that benefit ordinary people. But somehow money and resources are always found to preserve the privilege of those at the top. You see, I suppose on the Fine Gael Street, banks are systemic, but securing the livelihoods of workers and families would always prove just too expensive. The reality is that we will have an unemployment crisis well beyond the summer. Whole sectors of our economy will need more than a couple of months to recover to get back on their feet, and workers will need to be supported and protected. Workers and their families need stability, they need certainty, and at this point in time they do not need announcements from government that the €350 a week that they currently rely on is about to be cut. In fact, such an action would contradict the promise made at the outset of this crisis that ordinary workers and families wouldn't be thrown overboard on this occasion. It would signal that the motto of we are all in this together was just a slogan in the end used to garner public goodwill. It would provide a telling glimpse of what's in store for workers and families should a Fine Gael Fianna Fáil government transpire. So, there can be no return to austerity, and be in no doubt that this is your first test. So, I want to ask, will you, Tí Shak, give a commitment to the Dáil, and more importantly to the workers and their families, that the payment of €350 will be maintained at its present rate and extended beyond June? Thank you, Tí Shak. Thanks very much, Count Corle. The temporary wage subsidy scheme and the pandemic unemployment payment of €350 a week have protected those who lost their jobs in a way that I think was appropriate and was right to do. I think we all acknowledge that it cannot last forever. It was an unprecedented action, and it's not affordable for it to last forever. And I think the vast majority of people in the country understand that. However, it will need to continue, at least until people have the opportunity to return to their jobs. And for the vast majority, that won't be possible before mid-June. So, yes, it will need to be extended beyond mid-June. And I'm happy to say that here in the House today. I am sorry, though, that Deputy MacDonald chose to become so party-political in her contributions. Because what she said was so two-faced and so fundamentally dishonest. My party, Fine Gael, never cut the minimum wage. Working with Labour and then with Independence, we increased it by 25%, one of the highest in the world. What is the minimum wage in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is in power? In this jurisdiction, a government led by my party introduced a pandemic unemployment payment of 350 euros a week, so the people who lost their jobs had some financial security. What happened in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is in office? A hundred pounds a week. Nothing for the self-employed until June. And Sinn Féin ministers on their Facebook site promote the fact that they hand out food parcels to the poor. Reminiscent to me of Donald Trump handing out toilet roll after the hurricane hit the islands in the Caribbean. Sinn Féin's leader here in this House, Deputy MacDonald, is an opposition party leader. That's fair enough. And she can criticise what we do, say it's not enough. She can do that every day. But she can't hide the fact that she's also leader of an all-Ireland party. A party that's in power in Northern Ireland, where the minimum wage is lower than here. Where you don't give people £350 a week. You hand out food parcels and boast about it on Facebook. I'd be ashamed to do something like that. And don't blame it on the Tories. And don't blame it on London. If it wasn't for their money, it'd be even worse. I'm glad to hear that he should confirm that the payments will be extended beyond June. Will he indicate for how long will these payments be extended? Will he indicate that the level of payment at €350 will remain the same? Will he indicate also if he could be more ambitious in terms of the supports for small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-businesses? Because what he left out in his exposition of the North is, in fact, that grants of £10,000 sterling or £25,000 sterling are being made to businesses across all sectors in the economy. In fact, what has been dedicated to those efforts in the six counties is far greater than the entire £250 million, which is pretty miserly, that's been set out here. And businesses are contacting, I'm sure, all of us to say that that is inadequate. Can I just also say, Keowncarl, I'm very proud of the community work that our activists do right across the island. And, you know, it's not just in the North where people are running meals on wheels and bringing packages and parcels to help people who are struggling. Today, the St. Vincent de Paul launches their fundraising effort in acknowledgement of the fact that we have a lot of needy people. But I'm glad that you've changed your mind in terms of cutting this subsidy and income support scheme. So, at what rate is it still €350? And for how long will you extend this payment? We've left in a minute here. No decisions have yet been made on the rates or on the timelines. That may yet be a decision to be made by the next government, if we have a new government by then. But if we don't, then obviously this continuing government will have to make that decision and we'll make it well before mid-June and we'll give people plenty of time for that. I think it's a great thing, by the way, that people do provide food banks and hand out food parcels. And this government actually funds food banks. And we've done that for a very long time. What we don't do is post on Facebook pictures of our ministers visiting them and handing out food to the poor. Because that's what you should do in Northern Ireland, and you're the leader of Sinn Féin in all of Ireland, is make sure that people, that Northern Ireland executive matches what we're doing. And again, we saw the two faces of Sinn Féin when it comes to business grants. And the deputy is correct. They are doing more for business than they are doing for the unemployed in the north. When it comes to business grants, it's because Sinn Féin's in government. But when it comes to their failure to look after those who lost their jobs, as we have, it's somebody else's fault. People need to see through this. Everyone in this chamber does. Thank you.