O'Kennedy, MichaelFriday, 31 May 1985 |
Dáil Eireann Debate
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The Deputy is stuck with the label, too.
Hear, hear.
It is how it is spent and where it is spent.
On a point of order, I want to be clear on something the Deputy said.
The Chair did not listen to my question. I am asking on a point of order about the role of the House. Is it the role of this House to do something about it or is it the role of the Government?
It is not. We hear the plea: “Let us do something about it”. We are not the Government, they are.
That is not the case. The Government have responsibilities.
Let us change places if you want us to do it.
Why should we be blamed for what you failed to do?
The atmosphere in the House for the debate demonstrates the problem. We are discussing what has become a crisis of major proportion and Deputy Durkan has acknowledged that. Here are the comfortable r...
The people are looking to the Government to do what they asked to be allowed to do. That is what I have to deal with in the first instance.
It is clear that the provisions in the revised Estimates for the Public Service were very different from the original Estimates. For example, in the revised Estimates old age pensions were increased ...
We are dealing with unemployment in that sense and with the consequences, which are horrific. Could I focus for a few moments——
We are, you know. We will have neither an economy nor a nation left if this goes on.
I have not even started yet.
I did, quite so.
If I was not here for the Estimate on Labour, let me say this much——
Let me tell the House what I would have said then. I want to have it on the record here, for about the twentieth time, despite the fact that the Minister for Finance regularly misrepresents me, that ...
——and agencies and short term programmes and palliatives and put it into real planning——
You are telling me that I must deal with the consequences. I shall deal with the consequences. Let no one complain from the Government side that the Opposition are not prepared to put up the alterna...
An ultra right wing approach to social concerns. Let us not pretend that all these matters are not interlinked.
I know that. I am supposed to confine myself.
One is entitled to make references, at least by way of demonstration. I am just 20 years in the House. Any attempt to ignore the inter-linkage is unreal. I would not like to see this House being dem...
I have been more diligent in my attendance in this House at debates in every area — I am not going to boast about it — than any Deputy, including Deputy Barnes. I have particular responsibility for F...
I want to look at how the Government apparently react to the problems of unemployment. There are a number of ways of doing this. First, one cuts back on the provisions for old age pensioners, which ...
I heard the Minister of State for Women's Affairs this morning lecturing us here about marriage and so on but that seemed to be relevant.
May I refer the Chair to the statement this morning of the Minister of State for Women's Affairs.
The Chair allowed that speech.
The Chair is permanent. The Chair is the Chair.
If the term “social welfare” means anything it should mean providing for the needs of people in that category and lessening the burden on them.
We could end this debate by giving the Department another £50 million from somewhere and let them shell out the money for more unemployed people, for the old, the sick and the disabled. Let us give th...
I am not. I know what the Chair is trying to indicate.
I thank the Chair for that commendation. I must put it in print in the local paper. I suppose I can talk about items such as poverty programmes and so on? I have seen some of the reports on poverty...
You should read the reports of the Combat Poverty group.
The Chair is trying to confine the debate so much as to make it unreal.
It is not ridiculous. You are going to get it now, each and every section dealing with old age pensions, children's allowances, unemployment benefit——
I will deal with children's allowances. What has been done in this area has helped to undermine family stability. The provision here is exactly the same in money terms as last year, not one penny in...
I know that. I do not mean you personally, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I know every member of the Labour Party personally is well disposed; I know they are there to serve the right interest. But, as a...
Yes, but I might stress that there are a number of dual income families. We must now begin to examine some means of giving incentive to one or other of the partners, male or female, in those dual inc...
I did say dual income families. The Deputy should not be so God damned sensitive about this all the time.
I am quite happy to see married men doing it as well. As it happens married women have come to me saying that they wished, if they could, because of what they see all round them. If Deputy Barnes wan...
I am not saying that married men should not as well. But what I am saying——
Where there are people, be they married women or married men in dual income families, whether they be teachers, nurses or whoever, who are interested in reducing their working hours for a commensurate...
We are still dealing with employment. One other area to which Deputy Durkan referred with more than a passing reference relates to service to the nation. This could be something for people without j...
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