Mr. Paul Ginnell:

Deputy Joe O’Reilly referred to the focus on jobseeker’s payment. Focusing on the unemployed and jobseekers is important. Intreo offices are the main centres to which people go if they need support but the focus of those offices is on the short-term unemployed. Anyone on a disability payment or a lone-parent payment who wants to obtain support to enter the labour market from an Intreo centre is not prioritised. Our focus is on ensuring equality of access. The Intreo service should be open to all people of working age who seek its support. In the past two months, the Government selected two companies to provide supports for the long-term unemployed.

Our goal is to comment on the current country-specific recommendations and how they have been implemented. This also helps in influencing future recommendations. We engage, on an ongoing basis, with the European Commission staff in Ireland. There are two semester officers in Ireland the focus of which is the European semester and engagement with stakeholders in the process. They are key for us in engagement and influencing future recommendations. For the first time this year, the Commission published a report in February which outlined what it sees as the priorities for the country. That is a process in which we are engaged.

Deputy Halligan referred to increases in taxation. The country-specific recommendation refers to tax expenditures - tax breaks in other words - and the need to examine those areas. We have asked for an annual report on the value of tax expenditures. Several areas were addressed in recent budgets but there are other areas, such as pensions, which could be addressed in the future. We have other suggestions for this area which we have put forward in a longer document.

Compared to EU levels, Ireland does not fall behind in the context of income tax but rather in respect of social insurance. The level of PRSI is way behind European averages. In most other countries, there are higher levels of taxation at local level. The new property tax in some ways covers that. There are issues in that area which could be addressed. It is stated that people on low incomes pay a higher rate of VAT. It is about increasing levels of taxation but in a proportionate and progressive manner. There is a detailed report on this which we can send to the committee.

On the differences between the living wage and the minimum wage, different members of our organisation would prefer those working would move towards a living wage, which is a higher hourly rate than the minimum wage, although the minimum wage will increase by 50 cent as recommended by the Low Pay Commission. Both the living wage and the minimum wage focus on an hourly rate. If someone is only getting five hours to ten hours of work a week, however, they will not have a weekly living wage. There is an issue around contracts and precarious work conditions. The Government has commissioned a report from the University of Limerick on precarious work conditions, which will hopefully highlight many of the issues which need to be addressed, alongside the hourly rate to ensure a balanced approach.

Regarding membership of the Better Europe Alliance, it is one of three national alliances established at European level. Most of our organisations are members of a network at European level. It is not a closed organisation and other groups can join this alliance. There are currently 12 members of the alliance.