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

I apologise - I had meant earlier to ask the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, or the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, about the rural social scheme, Tús and community employment, CE. I notice that all are down in the Supplementary Estimates, in that the amount estimated was not actually spent, particularly in respect of CE. I know that changes have been made, and I appreciate that a lot of work has been done on this. It is really welcome and will make a difference. However, now that those changes are coming in, and it will take a little time to see the outworkings of them, a really close eye needs to be kept on all three schemes. We need to see vacancies and the high level of vacancies, particularly in respect of CE, come down. I welcome the additional access that will be there now, particularly to CE with the changes made in the Social Welfare Bill. All of that is welcome.

I do not think anyone disagrees that Tús for a one-year scheme is just not enough. Maybe it would be worthwhile looking at the figures for the number of people who come off Tús and go back onto a jobseeker's payment rather than leaving them on it for an extra year. If you are looking for a job and you have six months' experience on Tús, you might not even get a job, particularly if you are on other work experience. A year is just so little time for people. Rather than seeing them go back onto jobseeker's allowance, why not allow them to do another year, build up maybe another year's experience and then try to get a job? I do not know how many people go back from Tús onto jobseeker's, but it would be worth looking at. Those three schemes are really important and we need to keep a close eye on them.

Lastly, in respect of family carers, I welcome what the Minister said about the means test. I find this to be a particular issue in rural areas, where couples own land or have farms. I had a lady in with me this week. She is just about to come off carer's benefit. She has had her two years. She had to leave her job to care for her husband. It was not the plan, but that is what she had to do. Things happened and things changed. Her carer's benefit will be up in January. She will not be able to get carer's allowance. I have filled in the form with her and she will apply anyway, but they have land, they have a farm, and it will be passed to the son eventually, probably sooner than was planned now in order to see if they can get the carer's allowance. She has a little bit of an occupational pension, as does he. They have worked from their teens, yet she will have to care for him 24-7 now. She will do it but she will not get any income support through carer's allowance because of the little pensions they have, and they have worked. That is the issue with the carer's allowance in some cases. She will provide that 24-7 care but it will not be recognised because they have worked and they have a few euro from that work. Those are the issues. We have land at home. It is not worth anything. If it is sold, it might be. A farmer may have such land but it may not be worth anything and he or she may not be getting any money from it unless it is being rented out.

All of that needs to be looked at in terms of the carers allowance, particularly when it comes to farmland. That is it.