John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the officials from the Department. I will begin with a similar question concerning administration. I note the Minister's remarks about JobPath and his acknowledgement that it comes under the spending under this subhead. There is a lack of clarity and information on JobPath and constant rhetoric and comments about commercial sensitivity surrounding it. To find that money relating to JobPath is now appearing under this subhead with no clarity or information just adds to these issues.

I want to come back to JobPath because I have a series of questions. Could the Minister elaborate on that? We have heard that money for the two private companies, Seetec and Turas Nua, is buried in administration under non-pay costs. Could the Minister elaborate on that? I am somewhat concerned and confused about it.

In respect of pensions, I note the Minister's constant use of the words "winners" and "losers". He is certainly very used to employing those words. There were certainly no winners from the changes introduced by the former Minister, Deputy Burton, in 2012. The Minister stands over those changes and he continues to roll them out. The real losers were women. Does the Minister agree with that? There were certainly no winners- only losers. Women lost out. Over 36,000 people were on reduced pensions up to June 2016 as a direct result of the changes in question. The figures bear that out. Does the Minister think this is fair? The figures underpin the argument to the effect that those affected were, in the main, women. The breakdown shows that there was a reduction of 100% in respect of the State pension transition. We know that this is another group of people who are losers. Again, there are no winners under this Minister and I think he would agree that this is very much a case of losers. This is where people who retire at 65 are forced to accept a jobseeker's payment instead of drawing down a full State pension. Many of these people, and I am sure the Minister agrees with this, have worked their entire lives and paid their contributions hoping to get their State pension only for it to be moved at the last minute. The State transition pension bridged that gap to ensure that people were not up to €40 worse off. Does the Minister think these people are winners or losers? If he looks at the statistics, he will see that 65 year olds make up the largest category of people signing for a jobseeker's payment. Over 5,200 65 year olds are signing for such payments as opposed to drawing down the full State pension, to which they should be entitled. Are there any updates on those figures? To use his terminology, does the Minister think they are winners or losers?

I said during the discussion on last year's Estimates that one of the worst cuts introduced was the abolition of the bereavement grant. I asked the Minister about its abolition at the time and he went off on a tangent saying there were three types of payments that can be used to pay families that are going through financial difficulties at very vulnerable and difficult time following the loss of a family member. The figures here show quite clearly that there was a 100% cut in the bereavement grant. This does not stack up with what the Minister said last year about three payments. Could he comment on that matter?