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

I thank the Deputy. On the humanitarian scheme, a person's contribution depends on the means they have. The Deputy has a specific case that is similar to somebody having a huge amount of overtime. This Naval Service member is no longer deployed, so they do not have that income. If the Deputy sends details of that case on to me, I will be happy to look at it. In any of these things, it is done on a case-by-case basis. If we see a real need, we will try to be as flexible as we can. In fairness to the community welfare officers, they have been very good at that.

I got agreement at Cabinet yesterday to proceed with the pay-related benefit. I have to draw up the heads of Bill and publish them. I hope to get that done before the end of the year and bring the legislation through the Oireachtas early next year. The €5 million we have is to introduce the benefit in December 2024. It is going to take a while by the time we get the legislation through and we move it on. The plan is to introduce it at the end of next year and it will be fully up and running in January 2025. That means anybody new who is laid off from the day on which we enact it will get the higher rate of payment. Unfortunately, for those on existing payments, we cannot start transitioning them over. What we plan to do is for the first three months a person is made redundant they will get €450 or up to a maximum of 60% of their salary. For the next three months they are off they will get €375 up to a maximum of 55% and for the last three months they get €300 up to a maximum of 50%. It means when someone is made redundant we are able to cushion that sudden income drop.

This is something I feel very strongly about, because I worked in a credit union and when the downturn came many people who had worked all their lives, and this benefit is for people who have long-term contributions and worked all their lives, were suddenly sitting in front of me having realised they were only going to get a small amount. It was under €200 at the time and mind you me, there are a lot of things that flash in front of your eyes when you think you cannot pay your bills. This benefit is being introduced for the simple reason that we can cushion that blow for the first three months, reduce that for the next three and again for the last three. In fairness to the Deputy, he recommended at the committee that we keep it open for nine months rather than the six months we looked at in the straw man. We have staged it accordingly. We put it out for consultation and good ideas came back. As I have said, I never had a monopoly on good ideas and if we get them we will implement them as best we can. That is the reason there is a €5 million in the Vote. It will be much bigger next year.