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

I have a few questions for the Minister. On pensions which was the topic of Deputy Bríd Smith's final question, I am taken aback by the Minister's announcement today that there will be no question of compensating people from 2012 onwards, apart from what she has already announced. My understanding of the Constitution is that it only prohibits retrospective legislation in the case of criminal law or revenue matters, for example, where someone is penalised, and that there is no prohibition on retrospective legislation to compensates people. We can debate that matter again. My understanding is that, regardless of who will gain from the changes the Minister has announced in respect of 2012 pensioners, thoe changes will kick in from this week but that they will not be paid until next year. When will they be paid? I presume it will be when the pension increase comes through next year, whenever that might be. How will they be paid? Will they be paid in one lump sum or will they be paid the arrears over a period?

On pensions generally, the Minister had to find an extra €208 million because an additional 16,610 people had reached the age of 66 years. That gives an indication of the looming pension crisis and how badly it is accelerating. Does the Minister accept that one way to deal with the issue is to abolish mandatory retirement? I read the Government's roadmap on pensions, in which there seems to be an implicit acceptance that, were mandatory retirement to be abolished, it might have a considerable impact on the pension bill in the future.

The Minister will be aware that Deputy John Brady and I have proposed Bills. If they are defective in some way, I am sure we could sit around the table to rectify them and make them pristine. Has anybody calculated what the Minister would save by introducing legislation to prevent people from being mandatorily retired before pension age? If there was a link between mandatory retirement and pension age, people would not have to retire before reaching pension age. Does the Minister have statistics that specify how many pensioners rely solely on the State pension because they have no other income? How many rely mainly on it? Does the Minister have figures that indicate the number between the ages of 65 and 66 years who are claiming jobseekers' allowance?

I would like to ask a few questions that relate to working age and employment supports. Can the Minister tell us how much it would cost if we were to pay the same rate of jobseekers' allowance and benefit to everybody from the age of 18 years? I am sure she has such a figure. How much extra would it cost? I note that Intreo is compiling a report on the effectiveness of the local employment services and jobs clubs, etc. Is the effectiveness of Intreo in upskilling people and finding placements for them being reviewed? I understand the JobPath programme is being reviewed. The Minister can correct me if I am wrong in that regard.

The number who claim disability allowance has jumped by 6,270, a considerable increase. There was a greater increase of 8.2% in the number in receipt of carer's allowance. I presume the ageing population is the reason for the latter increase. Will the Minister explain the increase in the number claiming disability allowance?

The Minister referred to domiciliary care allowance and carer's allowance when she spoke about targeting. It is made clear on page 53 of the Estimates that the target of 15 weeks, or four months, was achieved in just 2% of domiciliary care allowance cases in 2015 and 2016. In 2017 the figure increased to 24%, which is still very poor. The target was met in 44% of carer's allowance cases. People are waiting a long time to be paid these benefits which are means tested. I know that they receive arrears, etc. In the case of carer's allowance, just 44% of applicants receive a decision within four months. In the case of domiciliary care allowance, fewer than 25% receive a decision within four months. This shows the urgent need for improvements in this area.

In the case of children, has there been a review of how the working family payment is working? What jobs are being taken up as a result? I note that half of the increase of €4.4 million in the allocation for the Citizens Information Board relates to administration. Will the Minister explain exactly what it relates to?

I will conclude by asking the Minister about her figures for control savings. A projected figure of €510 million has been cited. I take it that it refers to the extra amount the State would have to pay if these anti-fraud measures were not in place. Are there figures to show how much was saved last year as a result of people being pursued and prosecuted for making fraudulent claims? Will the Minister give us an indication of the total overpayments? Most overpayments occur innocently as a result of errors on the part of the Department or the individual. What percentage of errors can be attributed to fraud? Annual savings of €510 million were projected for the past couple of years. The same projection has been made for this year, which means that there has been no significant improvement as a result of the anti-fraud campaign.