Last night, behind closed doors, the Government agreed to legislation that will result in arms of the State becoming debt-collecting agencies for utility companies. There was no fanfare, no press release, no standing on Government steps with the Taoiseach on one side of the Tánaiste and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, on the other. I must put it to the Tánaiste: where has the basic decency of the Labour Party gone? We now have a situation in which an arm of the State will be a debt-collecting agency for a utility company, with no ability-to-pay clause in the primary legislation. One in eight children is living in poverty, and people are struggling on social welfare payments, although there has been a huge cut in those payments, including the cost of education allowance, the fuel allowance, the back to school allowance, the one-parent family allowance, farm assist, household packages and respite care grants. The CSO's recent figures show that there has been a 2% decrease in real family income. There is huge pressure on families, yet we now have a situation in which people in extreme poverty will be dragged to the courts and attachment orders will be made to their social welfare payments or their basic wages.

Dip in their pockets.

Does the Tánaiste believe it is decent and fair that ability to pay is not taken into account? We have raised this time and again. People who advocate for those on the margins have stated that an ability-to-pay clause needs to be put in place, but it has not been. We are now being told by the Minister, Deputy Kelly, that it will be taken into account. If it is so important, why was it not put into the primary legislation in the first place?

At this late stage, I would urge the reversal of this decision to allow the Government to pick the pockets of people who simply cannot afford to pay. They are queuing up in the offices of community welfare officers every day of the week looking for additional social welfare payments because they are struggling. The Government is now saying in primary legislation that it is going to put the hands of Irish Water into the pockets of people living in poverty.

Would the Tánaiste agree that this legislation on the attachment of orders to social welfare payments and lower wages is an attack on vulnerable people, that it is unfair and not a decent thing by any stretch of the imagination, and that it will cause huge hardship to many families who are already living on the poverty line? The Tánaiste should bear in mind that these figures are borne out by the recent CSO surveys, which show that real household income is falling and that one in eight children are living in extreme poverty in this country today.

The most recent CSO figures show that, thankfully, a lot of people are going back to work, and the biggest way to improve any family's income is to go back to work. Recalling reductions in social welfare, I do not think people will ever forget that Fianna Fáil cut people's social welfare by €16 to €17 a week. That is its legacy, what it has to live with and what it has to explain to people. That is the cause of the fall in people's incomes in respect of social welfare. Deputy Kelleher was a Minister of State at the time and was probably party to those decisions.

In regard to the Deputy's point about Irish Water, over 1.2 million people have registered with the company. At the moment, as Members of the House are aware, the bills are going out. In fact, the Deputy will probably know from conversations that a lot of people are pleasantly surprised to find they have actually beaten the cap. However, where they have not beaten the cap, the quarterly charge for a larger household is €65.

This decision by the Government is essentially to distinguish between those who cannot pay and those who will not pay, and, in the case of people who will not pay, to lay out a clear path for the recovery of civil debt. We know there are a lot of Deputies in this House who earn over €80,000 gross, so I think they are people who can afford to pay. As we know from the record of the House, however, a lot of them have said they will not pay, and they want everybody else to pay for them. That is not acceptable.

Coming back to the question, the first thing about this legislation, which is based on a report by the Law Reform Commission in 2010, is that it removes from people any threat of imprisonment in regard to civil debt. The threat of imprisonment in regard to civil debt, as I am sure people know, goes back to the times of Charles Dickens, when people were imprisoned as debtors. It is a very fundamental reform to take that threat away. I have to say I am very pleased that various organisations have welcomed this legislation.

The second issue is how we set out the details of the legislation and how we distinguish between the people Deputy Kelleher was rightly concerned about and the people on good incomes who just say, "Let everyone else pay for me. I am not paying." Notwithstanding the fact that our water services cost a lot of money, and despite all the work that Irish Water is doing, we know about the leaks and other difficulties such as lead in pipes that were not addressed for decades by local authorities. This reform of court-related debt procedures will be dealt with by the Department of Justice and Equality and we will then have a series of other reforms. The Bill now needs to be drafted.

With regard to social protection, if somebody on social protection is faced with debts, we have long-established principles which remain absolutely intact in regard to how and when money can be deducted from a debt. It has been subjected to very detailed discussion in this House at different times and actually deals with very small amounts.

More importantly, we want to have easy pay systems, in particular through An Post, something which is under discussion and is currently being finalised, through the household budgeting scheme. It will allow people to pay a small amount on a weekly basis. I resent the implications of the Deputy.

Is this a Second Stage speech?

People on social welfare pay their bills and meet their household commitments just like everybody else. We know that people struggle to pay, but to imply that somehow or other those in receipt of social welfare do not pay their bills is a slander.

That is not what he said.

That is not what he said.

A lot of people will resent what the Tánaiste just said. The point I made clearly is that it not that people will not pay but that they simply cannot pay. The Tánaiste should know that. Her legacy is that there are 1,000 children in this city sleeping in emergency accommodation every night as a direct result of her decisions with regard to the cap on rent allowance. I will take lectures from many people but on this issue, I will not take a lecture from the Tánaiste.

There are thousands of families who simply cannot afford to make a contribution to bills for water because they do not have the money. That is evidenced by the fact that people are queuing up before community welfare officers across the State week in, week out to try to access additional payments because of the cuts to social welfare over the past number of years.

I will name the cuts. There have been cuts to the education allowance, fuel allowance, back to school allowance, one-parent family allowance, farm assist, household packages and respite care grants and a cap on rent allowance. That is the legacy of the Tánaiste. The Government will pass legislation which will take no account of ability to pay. Reference was made to the fact those in the House earn €84,000 a year. Nobody in the Chamber is on social welfare but there are hundreds of thousands of people in the country who are and who cannot afford to make their weekly payments. I am not making up those figures; every statistic and survey shows that there is a major problem with poverty in the country. Some one in eight children are living in abject poverty. Some 30% of household incomes are on the breadline.

A question please, Deputy.

It is very true that the pathway out of poverty is returning to work. However, many of those returning to work are on zero hour contracts or are in employment that gives them no security whatsoever. The Tánaiste should not applaud herself and pat herself on the back. Would she accept that there are families living in poverty who simply cannot afford to make a contribution to the cost of establishing Irish Water and pay for water? The proposed attachment order system is draconian, an attack on poor people and does not take into account ability to pay.

After the Deputy and his party had bankrupted the country, his special contribution to poor people, as a member of the Government, was to reduce the minimum wage by €1 an hour.

That is factually incorrect.

He did that, together with his colleagues. It was a low blow-----

That was for new entrants.

What about the respite care grant?

What about household packages?

After it finished wrecking the banks and the construction industry, we are getting the story of what happened on different nights in dribs and drabs.

The Minister for Finance said that some people are allergic to work. They are allergic to the Labour Party.

The particular contribution of the Department in which the Deputy had the honour to serve was to cut the minimum wage by €1 an hour. The previous Government cut social welfare by €16 or €17 a week.

The current Government cut it again.

Do not forget the bonuses.

I know the Tánaiste's heart is not in it.

We maintained the weekly rates and, as a consequence, the social welfare system in Ireland has had the largest reduction in poverty risk of almost any state in the European Union. For the information of the Deputy, our social welfare system is a strong system of support for people when they need it and helps people of working age get back to work. If the Deputy is suggesting that people should be encouraged, including people who can pay like some Deputies in this House who will not pay-----

No, he never said that.

The Tánaiste knows full well-----

The changes in debt reform are long overdue. Taking prison out of civil debt issues is a reform that has been required in the country since the foundation of the State and we will now introduce it. That is why so many organisations have welcomed that change. Fianna Fáil should welcome it. Were it true to the philosophy-----

The Government is propping up utility companies.

The Government is like Scrooge, or Fagan who was a pickpocket.