Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have that figure with me, but I will come back to the Deputy with it. It will take me a couple of days or weeks to get the figure because it is not something we would have. I will give it to the Deputy as soon as I get it. The Department will need to correspond with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. I will get back to the Deputy. Again, nobody is pushing anybody out the door.

We are recruiting medical assessors to work across a number of schemes, including the illness benefit scheme.

Deputy O'Dea asked about the FIS or working family payment awareness scheme. We have a new interactive platform for engaging with our clients, customers or citizens. There is a conversation that I would love to have around this table one day. I am going off script slightly at the moment, not that I have a script. I am going off on a tangent. Every time we announce something, we get a barrage of responses from people asking why we have a "customer" charter. We decided to draw up the charter a number of years ago because we wanted to provide the most excellent level of customer service. That irks people because they are not really customers. Then we called them "clients", but they are not really clients. We cannot call them "citizens" because we look after many people who are not citizens. I am not sure what the correct language is. Someone told me one day that I should just call them "people", but sometimes that does not quite fit into what I am talking about. I would love some advice on this. The last thing we want to do is to upset somebody by saying "citizens" when we look after people who are not citizens or by saying "customers" when they are not really customers. If I could get some advice on this issue, that would be deadly. Similarly, it was noted this week that some people do not like the idea of us calling the Christmas bonus a "Christmas" bonus. It was suggested that we should think about calling it something else. We are all gone very politically correct lately.

We are making people aware of the new mygovid.ieand mywelfare.ieplatforms, which are very interactive. All of our people in the Intreo offices and all of our front-line staff are well aware of the conditions around FIS. The idea behind FIS when it was introduced a number of years ago was to try to encourage people who depend entirely on welfare to go out, take a chance and try to do work. We were trying to give them comfort that they would not lose the supports they previously enjoyed. We are trying to make sure the transition period is well supported by the Departments of Health and Employment Affairs and Social Protection. That is what is there. We are consistently trying to help people to get into employment. We are certainly not shy about telling people that FIS is there. The new €95 disregard for rent payments will certainly be well advertised in all of our offices next year. It is not something that we are keeping secret. I genuinely believe that it is because people's fortunes are improving that these schemes are not required anymore.

I have covered the issues of community employment, school meals, back to school payments and agencies.

I have not yet responded to Deputy O'Dea's question about the court ruling during the week which deemed that our withholding of contributory pension payments to a particular gentleman under section 249 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 was unconstitutional. The report from the court is very lengthy. We are probably still assimilating it without jumping to any conclusions. I know what my gut is telling me to do, but obviously I have to get some advice before I can do that. The Attorney General has the report. I expect to have a meeting before the end of this week, or early next week, at which a final decision can be made. The Deputy is well aware that this is not something that can be put on the long finger. We need to decide soon whether we are going to appeal or make alternative arrangements. I will be looking for the co-operation of all parties in the House when the time comes to rectify the position we currently find ourselves in. Even if it is not of our making - I hope it is not - it is not very satisfactory.

The final point I would like to make in response to Deputy O'Dea relates to pensions. He was looking for the actual numbers for the year-on-year increases. This year, an additional 17,300 people are receiving the contributory State pension, an additional 500 people are receiving the contributory widow's pension and an additional 130 people are receiving the non-contributory State pension.

The total pensions additional this year are 17,930.