Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Good afternoon. I echo my colleague's welcome to the witnesses and thank them both for the papers they have presented. This has been a really interesting discussion which shows real foresight and forward planning, which is really necessary.

Unfortunately, I have had to represent constituents who have been subject to sanctions from the Department of Social Protection for something very simple like not signing a form or not turning up to a meeting. They were left with reduced or no money and it was disgraceful. Having said that, most of the staff working in the Department are extremely helpful but they are overworked and sometimes the bureaucracy and paperwork that is required is excessive. What the witnesses said earlier about going back to what social protection or social welfare should be about is very important and we must think carefully about what kind of system we want.

In their work, will they examine all the payments made by the Department of Social Protection, including payments such as the carers allowance and disability allowance? Will such payments come under their remit? I am my party's spokesperson on disability and on carers. The carer's allowance is a means-tested payment. The role of carer is predominantly taken on by women but often if a spouse or partner is working, carers do not qualify for any sort of payment. The carer's allowance was introduced 30 years ago and was originally supposed to provide support for older persons to keep them out of nursing homes. Now, we see many parents working 24-7 caring for a child with a profound or complex disability who do not qualify for any money. Up to now, many carers also had no pension rights because they did not have the opportunity to work outside the home. That is set to change from next year, which I welcome, and I really hope that change happens. Will the witnesses examine that issue? I am not convinced that the Department of Social Protection is even the right place for carer's allowance. The rate is not enough, the fact that it is means-tested is problematic and I am not even sure it should be a Department of Social Protection payment because the work that carers do is really hard work.

I sometimes feel that disability is almost a disincentive to work, because disabled people are reliant on a payment, but if they take up employment they lose the payment and they lose other secondary benefits such as medical cards and so on. Again, it is something that needs to be rethought so that we have more disabled people going into the workforce but we are not taking away the stable payment that they need. There have been studies on the cost of disability and we know that the cost of living for a family with a disabled person is much higher than for a family without. Will that be part of the remit?