Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and for the work they do every day for those they represent. I have a number of questions for all the witnesses. Benchmarking all social welfare rates across the board to the minimum essential standard of living is critical. On top of that, the cost of disability and carers have to be considered. That is what makes both of those groups unique, particularly carers because there is a cost of care that is not being recognised.

I want to ask St. Vincent de Paul about poverty. This is something that needs to be tackled in a big way and there needs to be a major focus on it, particularly as we come out of Covid as unfortunately it will no doubt have increased. What steps can be taken, aside from the minimum essential standard of living, the poverty proofing and the other steps that are detailed in its opening statement? Is there anything else the Oireachtas can do on poverty? Is there anything that has been done internationally that has been proven to work?

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has put a lot of emphasis on the urgent and exceptional needs payments, particularly when we spoke about fuel costs, utility bills and debt. St. Vincent de Paul is getting an awful lot of calls but is it getting any feedback from people who might have been in touch with their community welfare officer, who have applied and who have not been able to get the payment? The difficulty we have is that we only get the figures for the number of people who have got an exceptional needs payment or an urgent needs payment. We do not get the total number who applied and therefore, the number who have been refused. It is a messy situation whereby one community welfare officer will give something and another would not. The way it is made up is problematic.

On lone parents, child maintenance is crucial and it has been proven that where it is paid it does and can lift children out of poverty. I hope that when the maintenance review group reports - towards the end of the year apparently - it will seek a statutory child maintenance service. That is really important for lone parent families.

Of the calls that the St. Vincent de Paul has received last year and this year, does it have any further information on a breakdown on those who are at work or not at work and on the supports they are looking for?

I have a number of quick questions for Family Carers Ireland. Has it had any engagement on the national carers strategy? The last strategy was in 2012, which is a long time ago. There was an understanding at that stage that money was tight and carers said they would step back and wait. They did so and unfortunately they are still waiting. On the total contributions approach that has been introduced for the State pension, has Family Carers Ireland seen any improvement or has it received any feedback on improvement to that system for carers? Is the option of paying the carer's support grant in two instalments something that Family Carers Ireland will look for?

I spoke to a carer the other day who raised with me something that has not been raised in quite a while, which is the bin waiver for those with medical incontinence. Is this an issue that is raised with the witnesses?