John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At least 50,000 have yet to be even reviewed. How long is that process expected to take, in terms of finalising the 24,000 and dealing with the others? Is there a timeframe for dealing with all of that? I ask the Minister to indicate the size of the average payment. She said that 80% of the 8,500 have seen their payment increase. What is the average uplift?

I agree with the comments of the Chairman with regard to the Christmas bonus including the fact that it is called a bonus. There has been talk of changing the name because it is not an actual bonus. People see it as a payment and perhaps it should be called the Christmas payment. There should not be a question hanging over it every year in terms of whether it will be paid. People need certainty. I urge the Minister to consider that matter.

The Minister provided an update on the hot school meal pilot scheme, which is ongoing and said that she wants to expand it to include 36 schools. She also said that she would like to see it rolled out to a much wider audience. What does she mean by that? The scheme is brilliant and I would love to see it extended to every school in the State. Is that the type of audience to which the Minister refers or is she talking about DEIS schools only at this stage? I ask her to elaborate a little more on that.

Deputy O'Dea made reference to exceptional and urgent needs payments. The figures show that in 2018, the Department spent more on such payments than was provided for in the Estimates. However, the Estimate for this year is significantly lower than the 2018 provision. I ask for an explanation for that. We are constantly raising the fact that the discretion applied by community welfare officers varies widely from office to office. There does not seem to be any oversight there. Last year there were considerable difficulties with illness benefit payments and people were advised to go to their local community welfare office. Some were given money while others were not. The Department had sent a memorandum to all community welfare offices telling them that payments should be made but there were considerable discrepancies between offices, which is a matter of serious concern.

The Minister referred to the fact that level of unemployment among young jobseekers is not falling as fast as she would like. The rate of unemployment among this cohort is currently 14.3%, which is absolutely scandalous. The discriminatory policy of the Department, under which young jobseekers are given considerably less financial support than those aged 26 and over, has not worked. This policy must be looked at again because it has a very negative impact on young jobseekers, including leading to homelessness. When can we expect to see the report on young jobseekers? I expect that report will back up what I am saying. It was supposed to be published in 2017 but has not yet materialised. The rate of unemployment among young jobseekers is 14.3% and that report is critical. We need to know when it is going to be published and when we will be able to scrutinise it carefully and go through it in fine detail.

Can we get clarity on that?

I referred to illness benefit a moment ago. This area was plagued by huge issues last year. The Minister said that many things have been changed since and procedures put in place. Hopefully the matter has been resolved. I do not know if further issues have arisen. Some issues came across my desk, and just after Christmas I had sent them to the Department and to the Minister and they have been dealt with quite speedily, to be fair. The big issue was where some GPs used the new system while others did not. The Minister said that she hoped that all GPs would be signed up to and using the new system by now. What stage has this reached?