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

The exceptional needs payments have obviously been really important last year and this year. Additional staff were to be taken on by the Department. Will the Minister give us an update on those additional staff? Is it possible to apply for exceptional needs payments and additional needs payments online? This is something I raised with the Minister last year. It would be helpful to a cohort of people to be able to upload all of their supporting documentation and submit their application online rather than having to go over and back when full information is not provided in the first instance, as happens in some cases. What are the current processing times for applications for these payments or the most recent information the Minister has on them? Does the Minister have figures on the number of people who receive the heating supplement, a payment that is not widely known about, every week?

I have raised the issue of treatment benefit previously. When we compare our system with those in other jurisdictions and EU countries, we see that people who pay PRSI throughout their working lives see very little for it here. I have previously asked the Minister whether it would be possible to look at some kind of app for people who are working and paying PRSI that would notify them when they are due a scale and polish, an eye test or whatever it may be. People, particularly workers, should be better informed as to their PRSI entitlements and should be notified when they are due something they can get in return for paying their PRSI. An app or some kind of online function would be really helpful in that regard.

Young jobseekers aged between 18 and 24 are on a much reduced rate of €129.70. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to bring them on par with all other jobseekers. We should not be discriminating based on age. I appreciate the Minister probably will not want to call this discrimination but you only get the reduced rate if you are 18 to 24 so it is based on age. It is unfair and should be removed from our social protection system as quickly as possible.

With regard to the one-parent family payment and lone parents in general, the Minister made a comment regarding the post-budget analysis of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. As she will know, the ESRI also found that lone parents benefited relatively less from budget 2023 and, because they tend to be more likely to depend on social welfare, they are more exposed to income losses when welfare payments rise more slowly that inflation. There are issues. Post budget, the lone parent organisations were concerned that there were not specific measures, particularly with regard to the likes of the one-parent family payment. I will refer to the recommendations of the child maintenance review group, particularly those relating to the consideration of child maintenance as means when it comes to social welfare supports and the obligation on lone parents to prove they have sought maintenance. The review group was very clear in its recommendations as to what needed to be changed. Will the Minister provide an update on the legislation she plans to bring forward to implement those recommendations?