Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for my late arrival.

I congratulate the Minister and welcome her to the committee. Like other members, I extend my thanks to the staff of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection for the courtesy and consideration which they always afford me when I have to contact them, which I do very regularly. Many of the points which I wished to raise have obviously already been raised but I would like to zone in on a few.

Deputy Brady mentioned the report on lone parent's allowance which we were promised by the previous Minister. The reality of life is that the 2012 changes definitely worsened the position of lone parents. I was very heartened to hear what the Minister said about how damned hard it is to raise a child on one's own. The Minister who brought about the changes to the lone parent's allowance said that the reason for the change was to encourage such parents to work. It must have been the first time in the history of the universe that people were encouraged to go out to work by being penalised for doing so and by having their situation made worse in respect of their lone parent's allowance. I suspect that the report will uncover all of this. I hope it does. The Minister says that she expects to see the report in the coming days. Will she see it in time to feed its recommendations into the forthcoming budget, or at least into the social welfare Bill which will follow the budget? One should look at the number of parliamentary questions on lone parent's allowance which are tabled in the Dáil. In the context of the total social welfare bill, the cost of some of the changes which we, and which this committee, have suggested, such as increasing the amount one can earn and so on, is quite low. There is also the additional benefit that when more people are encouraged to work, money comes back in the other direction.

On the self-employed, I heard what Senator Butler said. I believe the Senator was talking about the compulsory system and the voluntary system. In effect, the then Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, had to make a choice, and last year he decided that he would use neither the compulsory nor the voluntary system. He extended the entitlement to the invalidity pension to the self-employed, which we all welcomed, and paid for it out of the taxpayers' money. That is also a valid way to do it. People do not have to be compelled to pay any more.

The Minister indicated to me on a number of occasions in the Dáil that he was also favourably disposed to extending social protection in the form of jobseeker's benefit to the self-employed, which employees get. He also indicated to me that, speaking personally for himself, he was reasonably well-disposed to the idea of doing that on a voluntary payment basis. The Minister, Deputy Doherty, favours the all-in system, which would be a somewhat different approach. I welcome the extension. From December, self-employed people with a certain amount of contributions will be able to get the invalidity pension for the first time. That is progress. There are other entitlements with different criteria which employees can get, such as illness benefit. Employees can also get jobseeker's benefit and so on. Will the Minister indicate whether there will be any new movement in the budget towards the extension of those benefits to the self-employed? What is to happen in December was announced and provided for in the last budget. Will there be any improvements in this budget?

I also wish to ask the Minister about the forthcoming legislation on banded-hours contracts, and I welcome her intention to introduce this legislation quickly. I noted carefully what the Minister said in reply to one of my colleagues, I believe it was Deputy Collins. She said that she had spoken to both ICTU and IBEC and that she more or less agreed with ICTU's approach. ICTU has also approached me about this issue. I am sure they have approached everybody here. ICTU have recommended and suggested to me that the legislation should contain a provision whereby, when a banded-hours contract is introduced, there should be a review to see the reality of the situation. In other words, if the band was between 20 and 25 hours, instead of zeroing in on the lower end, that is the 20 hours, there should be a review to see what the actual performance was. If the actual average, over whatever period, is agreed as having been 23 hours, for example, it should be regarded legally as a 23-hour contract. Is it the Minister's intention to accede to that? It must be if she is saying that she agrees with ICTU, because that is precisely what it is proposing.

Senator Ardagh raised a question about stop-gap measures for people waiting for social welfare benefits. I know that in theory and on paper there is a thing called supplementary welfare which one can supposedly get at the discretion of the local community welfare officer when one is waiting for a benefit to come through. I can tell the Minister for a fact that in the case of somebody in Limerick who is waiting for jobseeker's allowance or some other allowance, it would be easier to rob a bank with a water pistol than to get supplementary welfare allowance. They keep telling us that the money is not there or that the claimants do not qualify for it. I could give the Minister a whole variety of reasons as to why they do not qualify. They are left at the mercy of their families. The supplementary welfare allowance system needs to be looked at radically.

We had an exchange on the question of Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS and Citizens Information centres the other day. I received a copy of the cost-benefit analysis, which I confess I have not yet had the opportunity to read. Has the Citizens Information Board signed off on that? Is there agreement among members of the board on that document? That is the first issue.

Perhaps the Minister will comment on the second issue. I remember when the representatives of the Citizens Information Board were before the committee advocating for the changes. They said that the present system was cumbersome and that the new system would result in savings which we would be able to use to assist clients. It is my understanding that the Citizens Information Board has sought €4 million extra in this year's budget to help implement the changes. That would seem to contradict that assertion. Will the Minister comment on that?

The Minister mentioned the need to change our mindset about people retiring at 65 and so on. I could not agree with her more on that issue, but the problem is that it could take a generation to change people's mindset, as the Minister knows. There are two Bills on mandatory retirement, one from Deputy Brady and one from myself. The Minister says that contracts are in place and that they cannot be overruled by legislation. My advice is the opposite. My advice is that, if it is in the public interest, legislation can overrule existing contracts. I ask the Minister to advance consideration of that Bill.