I want to talk about a new scheme for care leavers in Wales that was announced last week. Under the plan every 18-year-old leaving care in Wales will be offered £1,600 a month over two years under a basic income pilot. This will be the highest amount to be offered on a scheme of its kind anywhere in the world. It is expected that about 500 people will be eligible to join the scheme, which will be taxed and counted as income by the UK Government. That means it would affect someone's eligibility for benefits. It will be unconditional and will not be withdrawn if participants get a job. Officials are saying it will be equivalent to a real living wage and will be taxed at the basic rate. It is an interesting proposals and something we need to look at closely here. The Welsh Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt MS, said the plans would "deliver financial stability for a generation of young people that need it most". A teenager who has foster parents and was interviewed about this said the pilot could make care leavers "equal with everyone else". Another interviewee said that people in care are "disadvantaged financially and this will bring us level". She also said it would be a safety net for those who have been in care who may not have support from their families and she noted that: "many have been damaged, physically and mentally - this can help pay for private counselling or therapy as often public waiting lists for these services are so long." That is not dissimilar to our situation in Ireland.

This plan for care leavers takes the concept of universal basic income, UBI, and applies it to a particular group so it is not UBI in its fullest form. However, it highlights how we can use the concept of UBI to support groups in a way that does not require eternal means testing and all these other things we have. To match the level of basic income for care leavers at about the real living wage is a bold move. In economic terms, if the project is successful and results in better paid work and healthier lives, the argument is that the long-term benefits would flow back into the economy. While this is not a pilot of UBI, its outcomes will be relevant to the debate around that and that will be important to watch from here.

We have a plan for a UBI-style income scheme for artists coming down the pipeline in Ireland and that is currently being worked out but this proposed scheme in Wales is one for us to really watch. We should then consider whether we need to look at something bold, brave and radical to support our care leavers in Ireland. I know there are many people on either side of UBI . It comes down to one’s personal economics and whether one thinks it should be purely about economic growth or whether we value people’s happiness in other measures. I would like us to have a conversation, not only about how we support care leavers when they leave care but whether we need to look at some sort of bold, brave and radical plan for supporting care leavers in order to level out the playing field for people who have already been disadvantaged.

I want to raise the decision made by Tesco on Tuesday last to outsource 100 security jobs in Galway and across the country. To put this into perspective, in the UK and Ireland last year, Tesco forecast its profits to be more than €3 billion. Savings made by this decision will not even amount to a drop in the bucket of that enormous figure, yet it will have an extremely negative impact on those 100 employees and their families. Having spoken to some of the employees, including some who have worked in their positions for more than 25 years, they have told me how they worked right through the pandemic, how on occasion they have been assaulted in their work, and so on. They have shown loyalty to the company which makes billions of euro profit every year. That loyalty has now been thrown in their faces. They are being asked to reapply for part-time positions and to state the obvious their terms and conditions would be lesser and different. Tesco likes to say “Every Little Helps” but it has no concerns about what helps their employees who have collectively given hundreds of years of service to the company, regardless of how little the figure is in the grand scheme of things for their profits. Anything little that helps its bottom line will be done, notwithstanding the impact it will have on 100 families in Galway and across the country.

We have lots of fantastic companies in this country that treat their staff with respect and dignity and that appreciate the service their staff provide. With its actions, unfortunately Tesco is making it clear that it does not belong in that category. I ask the Leader to raise this matter with the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Troy, and with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, because it is totally unacceptable for a company that is recording profits in the billions to be so dismissive of its employees in this country.