Ministers Should Try Living on €204 per Week

Sinn Féin local election candidate for East Meath Sinéad Burke has called for dole queues to be cut not dole payments. She described as ‘Thatcherite’ the comments of Finance Minister Brian Lenihan who has claimed that social welfare rates are “far more generous than those in other countries and are a disincentive to work”. Burke challenged local Ministers Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern to survive for even a week on that sum.

Ms. Burke said, “Brian Lenihan’s Thatcherite comments should be rejected out of hand. His suggestion that social welfare rates in this State are too generous is an insult to the thousands of people in East Meath dependant on social welfare and who are struggling from week-to-week. These are the same workers that built the economy and paid their taxes, taxes that Fianna Fáil went on to squander.

“I challenge our two local cabinet Ministers, Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern, to try living on the €204 weekly Jobseekers Allowance, or indeed €100 per week that is paid to people under the age of 20. The audacity of a Fianna Fáil minister who receives more than €200,000 per
annum in salary and expenses lecturing those who they have been put on the dole queue is disgusting. Thousands of people are signing on thanks to the disastrous policies of this Government. However, instead of coming up with a job creation and retention strategy like Sinn Féin have proposed, Fianna Fáil are preparing to cut social welfare on the spurious basis that unemployed people don’t want to work because the dole is so generous.

“Having spoken to hundreds of people who are forced to queue for hours, outside in the rain or other undignifying conditions, I have yet to meet any who are happy with their situation and who would rather sign on than work. Fianna Fáil still do not seem to know that people want jobs. People want to work. They want to pay their own way and provide for their families. Fianna Fáil has failed to deliver these jobs. They have failed to fast track infrastructure projects such as
school building programmes and home insulation schemes. Dole queues should be cut – not dole money.”