Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their contributions. I thank Deputies Willie O'Dea and Aengus Ó Snodaigh for supporting the Supplementary Estimate which is needed to enable us to continue to pay all recipients of social welfare that they so strongly defended in their contributions. We had to wait for the PRSI receipts for November which, as stated by Deputy Ray Butler, were the PRSI receipts for the self-employed. We had to do it this week because the authorisation of the Dáil, in terms of the money we have to spend, expires this week. Obviously, this would have had dramatic consequences for those in receipt of social welfare. That is the reason for the delay. Also, this year 30 November fell on a Friday and 1 December on a Saturday, which meant we did not receive the Exchequer returns until Tuesday. Where these dates fall earlier in the week, we receive the returns quicker, often on the following day. We brought the Supplementary Estimate before the sub-committee as soon as we could and I thank members for accepting this.

Deputy Willie O'Dea asked about jobseeker's allowance. The average live register figure underlying the 2012 Estimates is 425,000. It is expected that the outturn for the year will be approximately 437,000, resulting in a higher cost of €235 million for jobseekers' schemes. This is made up of an excess of €271.4 million on jobseeker's allowance which is offset by an underspend of €35.7 million on jobseeker's benefit. There is, thankfully, an underspend on jobseeker's benefit because fewer people are losing their jobs. The employment figures at the end of November indicated that there were 417,000 people unemployed, which I accept is too high. In terms of the live register, this is 12,000 fewer than in November 2011 and 7,000 fewer than in November 2010. In other words and as members will have heard from economic commentators, the level of unemployment is stabilising.

Unemployment is falling somewhat, particularly at the end of the year, so that is the reason for this. If that trend was to be sustained, and the art of forecasting in respect of employment numbers is difficult, it would have a hugely beneficial impact on the figures for next year. Every time somebody leaves the live register and goes back to work, we get some PRSI and ultimately some taxation and his or her general spend tends to be higher.

In respect of community employment and other employment support schemes, Deputies will remember that community employment was transferred along with the transfer of the FÁS employees and employment services to the Department of Social Protection on 1 January 2012. Savings on materials and training grants were not fully realised. The expected savings in allowances due to the removal of concurrent payments were not realised in community employment but were realised in respect of other payments. The double payment was not always under the community employment heading. It may, for example, have been in respect of another social welfare heading. People were concerned after last year's budget that they were going to be huge cuts. As Deputies will be aware, all the community employment places have been maintained and all of the supervisors have kept their jobs. We have done a job of work in reviewing the schemes that has been extremely positive and productive both for ourselves in terms of taxpayers' money and for the schemes themselves. We have identified savings in areas like insurance, audit and excessive administration which will yield savings not just this year but in years to come. I am delighted with Deputy Ó Snodaigh's comment that he is supporting community employment because all areas of employment supports are critically important in giving people who have been long-term unemployed an opportunity to become active again.

I will clarify matters relating to Tús and JobBridge. Both schemes were advertised in the summer of 2011. The very first entrants went on those schemes only at the end of summer 2011 and the schemes only began to gain momentum from September 2011 onwards. Since then, we have not only been spending up to the level of the scheme but have, as far as I know, over 5,000 people on Tús, which was the target, and about 5,500 on JobBridge. Some 6,000 people have completed JobBridge and the Indecon survey showed that of those people who had completed an internship, more than half of them found further employment. In terms of this kind of supported scheme for getting back into employment or getting into employment in the first place in the case of JobBridge so that people get their very first job, I am happy to say it has allowed some extraordinarily fine graduates and young people who came out of college with all sorts of honours and ran into a brick wall in respect of economic opportunities to show their talents, be in demand from employers and get employment. Our spend on Tús and JobBridge is up where it should be. It has taken time to build up the schemes.

There are higher numbers of recipients of the back to education allowance than are provided in the Estimate and higher than expected average value payments. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh stated, this is a well-supported scheme. We must ensure that the back to education scheme is as employment-related as possible so that people on the scheme have a pathway that will not just help them get back to education for its own sake which is important but also get them back into employment.

Deputy Butler spoke about self-employed people and employers. I have visited about seven towns and cities to meet employers, including Deputy O'Dea's constituency. Employers still complain from time to time that it is sometimes difficult to get somebody to fill a vacancy. We are setting up Intreo, which is a new scheme to enable and encourage people not just to collect a payment from the Department of Social Protection but to get back to education and employment or support their community through community employment or Tús. I invite the Chairman to visit Sligo where the first Intreo office was opened by the Taoiseach and me. He will find that in respect of jobseeker's allowance applications, the longer periods on supplementary welfare allowance are being reduced very dramatically under the Intreo structure. I am sure Deputy Ó Snodaigh will be pleased to hear this. With an integrated office and reception, the service people are looking for can be identified. They then get a dedicated time-based appointment and whatever forms they need. They come in a few days later and are interviewed. As the new system develops, hopefully, the number of people who will be getting supplementary allowance payments and the period for which they will be getting them will be significantly reduced. Intreo has been rolled out in ten offices around the country and we have a very ambitious programme for the next year. I hope this will significantly improve the experience of people who, unfortunately, find themselves unemployed and go to offices of the Department of Social Protection seeking a payment.

Deputy O'Dea referenced FIS. Perhaps I could invite the committee to visit the Longford offices in the summer where claims for FIS and carer's payments are processed. We have invested in significantly enhanced procedures such as screening or scanning the applications that are made. Most people applying for social welfare make handwritten applications and all of the Deputies here have probably helped people with the applications for the various schemes. We were not in a position to scan those but that has started this year. In changing over, one must run both systems in parallel. The processing of FIS applications has now gone to Letterkenny and most new FIS applications are dealt with in two to four weeks, which is a significant improvement on what it was. We have a dedicated team of between 20 and 30 people working non-stop on the backlog. The FIS delays are being reduced which is why the expenditure on the payments has gone up. We are pursuing parallel operations for other applications such as those for carers' payments. Hopefully, the outcome will be a much better service for people who make these applications.

I know that during the year some Deputies suggested that spending was somehow consciously being delayed in the Department of Social Protection. When people look at the Estimate, they will realise that because of the demographic bonus in respect of children and older people, the demand for services has expanded enormously.

With regard to the deficit in the Social Insurance Fund, I have met the committee and discussed this on a number of occasions, including sessions held regarding the actuarial report on the fund. The suggestion in that was a figure of €1.8 billion and the suggestion this time last year was looking to that figure. As a result of a fall in PRSI and expansion of demand in the numbers of people applying for schemes, the figure has expanded to €2.2 billion. It shows we must fund the Social Insurance Fund properly, particularly with regard to pensions.

There was a point about self-employed people and advisory groups are currently examining the issue. Self-employed people currently pay 4%, which is specifically for contributory pensions and a survivor's or widower's pension. If we extend the process, self-employed people would have to pay the full amount and even slightly more. The cost of the Social Insurance Fund schemes far outweighs contributions made, and that is one of the rebalancing processes we must complete.