Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Everybody has been suggesting ways the Minister can increase expenditure but I will start on a positive note by suggesting a way the Minister can increase revenues for his Department. This relates to bogus self-employment, an issue on which the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Finance commissioned a report. Over the summer months I talked to many young professionals who said they were continually being offered jobs as self-employed workers, when the jobs in question were really for employees. This results in a loss of PRSI to the Department and a loss of benefits to the person who is forced into bogus self-employment. I ask the Minister to look at the report and to publish it as soon as possible. He should look at the possibilities in the report for additional sources of revenue, to ensure that funds stay in surplus and money can be paid out.

The previous speaker mentioned micro loans, which have been successful since the Minister launched them on a nationwide basis. The money involved constitutes some €100 million to tackle moneylenders and is an anti-poverty measure which I know the Minister will continue to support. It would be extremely useful to get the idea of the standard bank account across the line, and there has been a commitment from the financial institutions to support this. If people on social welfare and on low incomes had access to standard bank accounts, they would be able to pay their heating and lighting bills online and this alone would bring them an additional €500 per year.

That is a tenner a week for a fairly small measure. As part of its social dividend the financial sector gave a commitment to sponsor or put money into the pot for the standard bank account. A lot of work was done on it but it did not, unfortunately, get across the line so I ask the Minister to prioritise that area continually.

JobsPlus has been quite successful in helping people back into employment by enabling employers to take people on a little earlier. People in their late 50s are a specific case. Those who lost their job at the height of the recession are at the wrong age and employers are not anxious to take them on. Most initiatives are targeted at youth unemployment. A specific measure in JobsPlus could help a lot of older people back into the market and the Minister might have a look at that in the context of his budget priorities.

I will move now from short-term budget priorities to the long term - perhaps a period of two, three or four years. One of the major challenges for the Department of Social Protection and the Minister is pensions. I would welcome a very early engagement on pensions with a view to developing a model, and Deputy Willie O'Dea mentioned automatic enrolment in this context. As we move on from a difficult recession we need to plan for our next challenges down the road, and the biggest financial challenge the State faces is on pensions. The sooner we start plotting and planning our way through that issue, the less detrimental it will be to individuals, society and the economy.