John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and her officials. I thank them for coming before the committee. I want to touch on a few areas.

Page 42 of the document presented to the committee refers to additional money for branch managers. I have sent correspondence to the Minister on the ongoing difficulties facing 58 branch managers who have engaged with the Department, but I have yet to receive a response. Agreement was reached during considerable discussions, but out of the blue the Department withdrew from them. To say the least, it was bizarre that it cited competition law in doing so. Has the additional €2.7 million been provided to address the payment issues that have arisen from the increased workload faced by branch managers?

Is it a new payment for branch managers agreed in negotiations between the Minister and the association?

On pensions, Deputy O'Dea referred to the mandatory retirement age. As the Minister will be aware, I introduced legislation on this matter which has completed Second Stage. I am awaiting a money message from the Government to allow the Bill to advance to Committee Stage. Late last year, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, announced changes which would allow public service workers to remain in the workforce beyond their retirement age. Strict guidelines will apply to these new measures, including a condition that persons seeking to continue in employment must first retire and be rehired at the lowest payscale in the relevant employment. I realise this matter does not come within the Minister's remit. Despite major concerns being expressed about these changes, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has not introduced heads of a Bill or legislation to give effect to them. Legislation to abolish the mandatory retirement age could be introduced and older citizens who want to remain in the workforce would thank us for doing so. In that sense, I disagree with the Minister's response to Deputy O'Dea's question on this matter. Legislation could be introduced if there was the political to do so.

On the changes introduced in 2012 and the Minister's welcome announcement regarding her efforts to address the matter, great credit must go to organisations such as Age Action Ireland, which made this the political issue of the day. While the vast majority of the citizens impacted by the issue are women, a sizeable number of men are also affected. I commend Age Action Ireland and all the older citizens who mobilised and made their voices heard on this matter. Will the Minister confirm that to qualify for a full pension under the total contributions approach, a person will require a full 40 years of credits? Is that the position because people are concerned?

An issue arises regarding total contributions and self-employed people who became sick and no longer qualified for credited payments. This is a serious issue which must be examined. Is the Minister considering this matter and what provision is being made for self-employed persons?

On employment support programmes such as the community employment scheme, Tús and the back-to-education scheme, the Minister stated that the drop in spending under the community employment and Tús schemes was due to a "decline in the number of participants arising from the improved labour market." Why have referrals to the JobPath scheme soared, while community employment schemes are struggling to fill places? Is the Minister aware of the difficulty Tús and community employment programmes are experiencing filling places? As I indicated, referrals to JobPath are soaring, whereas the number of referrals to these schemes is plummeting.

Last week, representatives of the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, appeared before the joint committee. They stated that there was a direct correlation between JobPath commencing operations and the decline in the number of referrals to their schemes. They cited the example of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where in 2015, the year JobPath was established, the number of referrals to Tús declined from 722 to 261.

In another area - this applies throughout the State - the local employment service, which was contracted for 20,050 referrals, has only received 15,900 referrals, a drop of 20% in referrals.