Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy made a good opening point regarding the delay in getting the roadmap back on the agenda as a result of the election situation and then Covid. I was eager to get the group together as quickly as possible before Christmas. To answer her question, I will address monitoring as well what has been done and what is in progress. Of the various commitments, eight have been achieved, six have been achieved with ongoing delivery, 52 are in progress and three are yet to commence. That is a reflection of the fact that momentum on this only really began since the Government came into office and that many of the Departments involved had much of their resourcing pulled in a different direction. Those tend to be the Departments that have been particularly at the forefront in the pandemic.

Social protection, health and children cover the majority of the commitments and so the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth have had a lot of resourcing pulled in a different direction.

In terms of monitoring, the group has met once and will meet again next week. There is a great deal of interaction in between meetings as well. For example, I have met the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, between meetings and there is ongoing engagement of officials between meetings as well. A great deal of the work is done between meetings. When the group gathers it is about catching up on what has been done but much of the work is progressing during meetings as well. It is not the case that work is dropped for a couple of months and picked up again for a day or two; it is very high on my agenda. It is a large part of my work and something I work on in one way or another every week. There is a constant push behind it.

In terms of other monitoring mechanisms, the main one is the annual report on which I report to the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality. This committee can play a role in that regard. I would welcome appearing before the committee periodically to update it on progress. I think that would help momentum in implementation of the report as well to have regular public scrutiny of it. I would be happy to do that.

On the review in 2022 and whether I would envisage the document being updated, I would expect so, particularly in the context of some of the things I have outlined and on which the Deputy made some good points as well in terms of the living wage. There are things in the programme for Government that are progressive and can be included in a revised roadmap. I outlined a number of other reasons it needs refreshing as well. The core of what we need to do is here in terms of the poverty targets in particular.

The Deputy mentioned benchmarking. It is referred to in the roadmap. There is a proposal to introduce benchmarking on the pension side. In terms of where that is at, it is not hugely progressive, but it is there in terms of something that we can push. Following work on the pensions commitment, there is a commitment to look at other social welfare rates as well. I would be an advocate of benchmarking. I agree with the general point in terms of how rates are raised in a political realm rather than based on the facts of people's incomes and the gap in people's incomes.

I take the Deputy's point in regard to lone parents. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and I met a group of representative organisations some weeks back, where we discussed some of the issues which the Deputy touched on, which I might touch on briefly now. On child maintenance, there is an ongoing review in that area which was flagged at that meeting. There has been some progress made on some of the issues that were raised by the group, but the child maintenance side is getting attention and a public consultation on it was recently opened as well. It is an issue that is recognised as one that we need to work on. There are other issues such as changes to lone parent supports when the youngest child turns 14 that we are looking at, and the area of employment and education and the difficulties on that side. A range of issues were discussed at that meeting that we are taking seriously. Lone parents are one of the three groups that I would see as needing particular attention. The other groups are people with disabilities and children.

On food poverty, one the benefits in terms of the steering group is that it is a type of interdepartmental group as well in terms of the social inclusion roadmap looking at all Departments. Food poverty is one of those issues that cuts across a number of responsibilities and possibly is one that nobody is necessarily putting up their hand to claim. That is the situation I am in now. We need to take ownership of food poverty in terms of where we are going to go with it. There is a lot being done in the Department of Health. The Chairman mentioned Safefood. I met with it before Christmas in regard to some of its work in this area. I am not sure of the Unite figures. I think I read the report the Deputy spoke about, but I do not recall the figures.

On the Departments figures, they are patchy. One of the pieces of work that needs to be done is to define food poverty more clearly. Food poverty is complex. I am not saying that to bat it off. It is in part about cash in the pocket, but is about accessibility as well. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances that add to food poverty, some of which people would never think of. For example, something as simple, or as far removed, as planning can have an impact on food poverty. In my constituency there are sprawling housing estates on the edge of towns where there are no decent shops nearby but there are two or three chip shops that are much more accessible than the decent shop. It is in that regard that planning is an issue.

My intention is to write to all Departments asking them to assess their relevance in terms of food poverty. The Department of Health stands out in this regard, as does the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, but other Departments have a role to play. Food poverty stood out, particularly after the first meeting of the interdepartmental group, as an issue that needs to be pulled together. We are doing quite a bit on it in terms of the hot school meals. The sum of €65 million is budgeted for this year for school meals, which is very substantial. That is having a real impact. It was notable that during the pandemic when schools were closed, food provision carried on and parents picked up the food from the schools or it was delivered to them. This signals that there is something really wrong on that side of things. It manifests itself not just in the supports we provide, but in the need on the other end of the range scale with older people which, again, was highlighted by the pandemic.

The Department of Rural and Community Development provides supports to a number of organisations that facilitate meals on wheels. For example, we support FoodCloud, which is the main distribution point for much of the funding that comes from the Department of Social Protection through the Fund for European Aid for the Most Deprived, FEAD, programme. We support a number of community services programmes that implement that programme on a local basis. Last year, Irish Rural Link was provided with a grant to do national co-ordination work in regard to meals on wheels. The Department of Health is very much in this space in terms of the meal on wheels for older people. I am glad that the issue of food poverty was raised. It is a serious and tricky issue. We have arms out there that are working on it, but we need a clearer picture on the extent of it, we need to see what we are missing and we need to pull it together in a more coherent way.

On community employment, CE, I have heard that people who have completed a number of modules are concerned that because a lot of the training is not happening at the moment and they are due to finish up on the scheme in July, they may not be able to get a full qualification. I have been reassured that if people have to exit their CE contract, which will be the case for some, Intreo will deal with them. The officers in Intreo will go through the suite of training options available to them, with a clear intention of ensuring that what training has been done is not lost but built upon. There are financial incentives to support that, the training support grant being the most obvious, but also the back-to-education allowance at another level.

I cannot give the Deputy an update on fuel poverty. I am aware that there is a potential for extending the fuel season coming up in the next couple of weeks, but I do not have an update on whether a decision has been made. I hope I have covered the issues raised by the Deputy.