Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I get regular reports on the timelines of appeals. The timeline has been coming down. I will bring through provisions, as part of the Social Welfare Bill, to appoint a deputy appeals officer to assist. In the way the legislation was set up, only one person could do this work. I am hoping to change that. I will bring it through with the Social Welfare Bill so that I will be able to appoint a deputy officer. That will speed up the process also for appeals.

The Christmas bonus is not included in the Department's Estimates. It is a discretionary decision made by the Government in the context of budget process and available resources. The level of payment can vary annually. It was not paid at all in the period 2009 to 2013. It is a discretionary payment. The decision to pay the bonus at budget time each year takes into consideration the overall fiscal position and the achievement of our overall fiscal targets. That is the way it has been and, hopefully, we will be in a position to keep paying it. That is the reason behind it.

Reference was made to the CE schemes and vacancies. With the labour market, where there are shortages of labour it is more difficult to fill these vacancies. We can see that the numbers on the PUP and on the live register are coming down. That is good news because it means that more people are getting back to work. As the Chairman has said, we need to continue to examine the barriers with regard to people remaining on the live register. This is why we have Pathways to Work, which we launched last year. We are completing the consultation on an early engagement roadmap for young people and for people with disabilities, and implementing this report. There are a lot of things happening in trying to help people to get back to work, whether it is upskilling or reskilling. We have also have the work placement programme and a number of different incentives to get people off the live register. We continue to work hard at that. The best way to take people out of poverty is to help them to get a job. That is the most important thing.

Reference was made to the tax and PRSI. That has been changed in the budget. I was glad that we were able to make some changes to the tax bands. It is important that work pays, and we want to make sure that it does so that when people go out to work they are better off doing that. We want to make sure that they are rewarded for it.

The issue of housing income thresholds is for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The problem with bands is that if a person goes over it, then he or she has gone over it. Where is the cut-off point? As a Deputy, I have seen this where students may have lost out on their SUSI grant because they were €4, €5 or €10 over the limit. It is very frustrating, but at the same time there must be some cut-off point. The Chairman will understand that.

On the EWSS support, the Minister for Finance has said that he will keep that under review and he will monitor it closely in the weeks ahead. Within my Department, there is the short-term working payment were people can work three days and collect the payment for the other two days. I am a big supporter of the wage subsidy scheme. I believe that is the way to go. I was in business. I believe that the right way to do it is to try to keep that connection between the employer and the employee. The EWSS remains open, albeit at a reduced rate. It has been a very successful support to businesses. Many businesses have said to me that without the EWSS their doors would have been closed.

We expect the Social Insurance Fund to return to surplus next year. The pensions commission examined the issue of a separate fund for pensions. I understand that the Commission on Taxation and Welfare is also examining this issue. It will engage with the Department on that.

I believe that I have covered most of the questions asked by the Chairman.