Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the interesting factors is that in 2012 it was €20.912 billion. We should consider the increase in real terms, allowing that there was 10% inflation in the past year alone. People sometimes get the impression that social welfare expenditure is running out of control but when we compare this year with 2012 in real terms, taking all the inflation through the years into account, it is very well under control. That is a good thing. Much of that is influenced by the fact that there is strong employment in the economy. Nobody factored in all the people who have come here to work. I grew up in an era when getting a job was a problem. Now, the problem in many situations is getting employees. We cannot get enough bus drivers, care workers, hospital workers, retail workers and so on. That is a good news story. It is the way we want it - to be very generous but to do it with a strong economy.

I compliment the Department in respect of a very human matter, one that many Deputies encounter, which is that it waits until it gets an answer. If it takes seven weeks, it waits seven weeks. By way of contrast, when it comes to applicants for a medical card, after 28 days, bang, they are out. For a small farmer with three cows, for example, there is an insistence on getting full accounts and after 28 days the farmer would have to start again. I compliment the Department on its humanity in the way it deals with people. In spite of the fact that it is a massive Department with many customers, it generally provides a very understanding service that takes account of people's reality. Many of the people with whom the Department is dealing, particularly in respect of means-tested schemes where there are complications, are quite vulnerable. They find it difficult to get the paperwork together and need assistance to do so. I compliment the Minister and the Department on their approach in that regard. Long may it last. They should not let any tiny-minded person change it. There is always a temptation in that regard.

I very much welcome the means test commitment. The Minister is aware this has been a bugbear of mine. In an ideal world, there is an attraction to the concept of the seamless basic wage system but to go there in a rush would be very foolish. However, I have always believed there are two changes we can incrementally make that would start us on a road to persons not being penalised for activity. When it comes to the means test for jobseeker’s allowance, farm assist and so on, some people are penalised at 100% for self-employment, while others, such as farmers, are penalised at 70%. There is a bit of a tweak in respect of the environmental grants. In the heel of the hunt, however, a maximum of 50% should be enough to take off anybody. It is still a high percentage. It is more than one pays in income tax at the top level. It would be an improvement, however.

The great news is that expenditure on jobseeker's allowance has dropped since 2012, from €3 billion to €1.5 billion. I know 2012 was a time of high unemployment. Again, the Department is not running away with itself. Farm assist is very interesting. It has gone from €108 million down to €59 million. There are two ways one can deal with farm assist. The Minister’s colleague would be aware of this. One is to ease the means test. That should be done anyway. The other is to encourage people into the rural social scheme, RSS, and give them, as per the original scheme, the full payment of the RSS and disregard their means. In other words, a person who does the 19 hours of work gets the full wage. Nobody in private employment gets penalised for self-employment. Employment under the RSS is a job. If it was taken out of rural Ireland, one would suddenly realise the incredible output of work for which it is responsible. The Minister knows that. She represents a rural parish, just as I do.

On the other side of that and in the context of semi-employment, the same thing goes when it comes to the amount of work a person on jobseeker’s allowance can do without starting to lose more than he or she is gaining. That is a problem.

I have always believed that we should make the working family payment as attractive as possible such that very early in a person's move into employment he or she would move out of the Xs and Os and the whole lot and go onto the working family payment.

This is not as radical a suggestion as it will sound but I cannot understand why the concept of the working family payment does not apply to single people, albeit with a lower threshold. Why is it not possible for those in low-paid employment, such as part-time employment and so on, to transition onto a supplementary income rather than having to stay on the jobseeker’s allowance system, or the dole, as it was formerly known? These are simple changes. Every year, there should be incremental improvements and changes. Any time we have done the big bang solution, there have been unintended consequences, but when it is done incrementally, there is very little risk. As I stated, the figures are going the Department’s way anyway.