Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will ask my own questions next. If members wish to come in for a second round of questioning, I ask them to use the "raise hand" function. I have a number of general questions but, in this round, I will focus on more specific questions arising from the Revised Estimate.

With regard to live register figures and their interface with the PUP, do we have figures as to the number of people who transition from the PUP to jobseeker's payments? If we have such figures, what do they imply? If people chose to make that transition, it obviously shows that they decided they would be better off having done so.

What do we know about people on the PUP? Are we gathering that type of information? Do we know their living arrangements, their total household income or whether they are students or people who were formerly employed? This will obviously become a huge data set in the future. It would be very useful to have that level of information so that we can know what sectors are most liable to this type of shock. It would set a context for the continuing work in the Government with regard to universal basic income and for the way in which we set our basic welfare rates. What information is the Department gathering in that regard?

I very much welcome the significant increase in funding for school meals, 21.8% or €65 million. What metrics are we using to measure efficacy? Are we just talking about the number of meals on tables or the amount of money or are we looking at other ways of defining our success? Are we looking at the nutritional quality of the meals being delivered, for example? Are we looking at the social outcomes of children getting to sit together with a hot school meal? I am interested in the metrics used in this regard.

A very small scheme which jumped out at me is the experience year Europe, EYE, scheme. This caught my eye, and I am not going to apologise for the pun. Funding for this has increased slightly. It is a very interesting scheme for us. We know that young people suffered disproportionately during the lockdowns. It would be nice to see a pandemic divided for them, perhaps through a scheme like this which would support them in a European experience. It is a very welcome scheme. Would the Minister like to comment on that?

There is a line item for miscellaneous services. Some €17.8 million was provided for this in the Revised Estimates for 2021 and the outturn was €13.3 million. In this year's Revised Estimate, the provision is back up to €20 million. What is funded under this line item? If the outturn was significantly below the Estimate provided last year, are we confident that the money will be spent this year?

I apologise that I am taking somewhat of a scattergun approach and jumping around. Under administration, there is a heading for travel and subsistence which again shows the same pattern. It was approximately €5 million in the Revised Estimate for 2020 while the outturn was only €1.5 million. We can all understand why spending on travel and subsistence would be lower last year but in this year's Revised Estimate, the provision is back up to €4.155 million. Are we envisaging a return to business as usual? Is there not an opportunity to bring this spending down now that we are all much more used to remote working?

I have two other specific matters to raise. Some €18.6 million is allocated for other working-age supports. This may be a small figure within the overall context of the budget but does the Minister have additional details on this? In a similar vein, spending on the working-age employment support scheme is up 174%. There are ten smaller employment support schemes. We all understand the need to resource employment supports in the coming year, but will the Minister supply further details on this? The last matter I will raise in my scattergun approach is that there is an increase of €3.6 million in spending on eGovernment-related projects. I would not question this level of funding. In fact, I would imagine there is scope to increase it. Will the Minister provide some further detail on this? I will leave it at that for the moment.