Bríd Smith: Budget fails elderly, disabled and struggling households

Cian Cáirle, I wasn't going to start in this way because it just sounds sort of Dickensian but it is but having listened to some of the government TDs eulogise this budget I want to start by reading a letter I got in my constituency office from probably a neighbour who lives around on the road near me in Ballyfermot I went to my parents home at 9pm tonight my mam had the bottled gas fire right in front of her and my father had his house coat on him and was in bed I can't stand back or stay quiet my parents need urgent help my dad's almost 73 years old he has COPD and my mam is 66 year old the house has no heating at all and the hot water takes hours as it's coming from an immersion which costs a fortune the boiler recently broke down and they haven't got the money to have it repaired my dad recently retired and the money that he has from a small pension puts him slightly over the right to the fuel allowance so they want me to come and see them and I will be visiting this home either tonight or tomorrow night and I want to contrast that with the idea that somehow this is an amazing budget it's going to lift people out of poverty that aren't we a great country of egalitarians this house sees everybody as being equal and treats them equally well actually we don't this is the third wealthiest country on the planet and all the wealth is in the hands of a few and when somebody on the other side talks about sharing the wealth equally we're well far from it I just want to go through some of the issues in the budget that I thought are worth raising first of all the obvious point Gavin come out of the COVID period when this country did recognize that everybody needed at least 350 euro a week to survive and everybody got that payment we come out of that period the COVID payments are removed and we're back down to the basic welfare payments and what do we get in the budget of this year in the middle of a cost living crisis never seen anything like before in the history of this state we get we get a 12 euro rise on basic social protection payments but 12 euro is not anywhere near the figures for inflation what would be required to be inflation proofed would be like 25 euro a week on every social protection payment and we do recognize the one soft payment measures have given people a bit of breathing space and it's certainly given the government a bit of breathing space and really I would describe them as palliative they will keep the pain away for the few months in the in the lead up to post Christmas and but after that the energy hikes will continue food hikes in particular will continue and people's social protection payments and basic income will not and will not see them through I particularly think this is true of people with disabilities and many deputies have referred to it if we as a state believed that everybody need a minimum pay of 350 a week to live on to survive and to keep them out of poverty then that's particularly through of those with disability payments because of the extra needs that they have just in terms of of getting over the everyday challenges that they face and so I think that that needs to be looked at again Minister and perhaps a mini budget that would really address the question of the need to improve the lot of people with disabilities and it's quite a high rate of people with disabilities in this country. Other deputies have mentioned the exceptional needs payment and I think in all of our experience and the family I'm going to meet in the next day or so this will become part of the discussion with them but I think in all of our experience we know that the wait is way too long and that the refusal rate is way too high and I've looked back at some PQs that deputies around the house have asked about their own particular areas and the exceptional needs payment but they are rising the figures the national figures are rising and rising and rising and rising so in April there was six and a half thousand applications for exceptional needs payment in July that was 17,000 and I don't know what it is now but the average process time is eight weeks it can be 12 or more weeks as deputy function just said there in the case that she cited so that has to change if there are exceptional needs then they're needed now like this couple with a boiler that needs fixing and another 500 or so for the labour but I have it I'm a TD I'm paid handsomely but if you're living like that couple who live around the corner from me then there's huge discrimination and huge challenges to be faced. I think the other thing to mention is this idea that the fuel allowance is all sorted it's not actually there's a number of exceptions to getting the fuel allowance that are going to stand in the way of a lot of people one is that if you live with somebody who is not on a qualifying payment so I have a case of a blind man in an island off the coast of Cork and he came to me because he's known me from the past and somebody who lives with him and helps him has been refused carers allowance and now he has been refused for the first time ever fuel allowance because she's living there and she's not entitled to any payment from the state so she has no income and he's been cut off fuel allowance. None of these things make sense and I think we need to be able to have a system where we look at individual cases and that they're dealt with in a fair and compassionate manner and in a timely manner and there are other reasons why you wouldn't be entitled to fuel allowance if you're on job seekers, illness, enhanced illness, occupational illness benefit, maternity or disablement benefit. If you're getting any of these payments you're not entitled automatically to the fuel allowance and that offers a real barrier for other rights that people might have to the SEAI grants for example. So I've had dozens and dozens of workers who have retired with a tiny pension that throws them maybe €6, €5, €3 over the limit and they're cut away from all benefits from the SEAI which is really, really shocking and that needs to end. The other thing I just want to re-emphasise is that we need the sort of social protection increases that keep track with inflation. Inflation isn't gone away. They reckon it'll be at 7% at least next year and on certain items particularly on food which is something that people who are dependent on social protection spend most of their income on and they spend it in the here and now. Food inflation has gone crazy on the most basic stuff. Dairy products for example, the food inflation on them is, I don't understand it, particularly in Ireland where we've got the biggest dairy industry in the whole of the EU. Dairy inflation is at 26%. There's no explanation for that other than profiteering and price gouging and the same has happened with the energy companies. I know the Cabinet are talking about bringing in a solidarity tax and a windfall energy tax and it isn't beyond its time that this is happening but there is still profiteering taking place at the same time that the poorest, the most marginalised are struggling to survive on that. And I think Minister, there's a few things I've raised with you there that we need to look at and that we need a system that's timely and compassionate that can deal with the hardest of cases that we're facing in the hardest of winters that we've seen for a long time because of the level of inflation and the various crises that we're facing. And that leaves out the whole housing crisis and the whole need to address the biggest crisis that this state is facing which is the housing crisis but many of the people who are in this cohort are facing the dual challenge of both the housing challenge as well as the poverty challenge. So I don't think the budget should be eulogised by the opposition, especially when you live in a country that is so unequal and is so clearly there's a big hollow between the very wealthy and the very poor.