Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is €12 million that is being accrued against the Social Insurance Fund. Why is there the additional administration in the Social Insurance Fund and not across the rest of the Department? The way this is being presented gives the impression that the additional €12 million is to facilitate the additional payments on the run-in to Christmas. If there is that additional cost in the Social Insurance Fund, why is there not an additional cost outside of it? The Minister may not have that detail today but perhaps she could come back to the committee with the note on it. We do not want to see the Social Insurance Fund being seen as a soft touch in relation to administration and 5% seems to be a very high level. The Minister may not have that level of detail today but I would appreciate it if she could come back to the committee to flesh that out in detail.

There is one other issue I want to bring to the Minister's attention, which is the participation rates of one-parent families. I am aware that the Department is looking at this specifically and that there is a pilot in the north east of the country in relation to this at the moment. We have sought a detailed briefing from the Department on that commendable initiative. The Western Development Commission and the Department of Rural and Community Development were before the committee to discuss digital hubs. Thankfully, as broadband is being rolled out, there is less demand for digital hubs to access high-speed broadband. Hopefully that service will become obsolete in the not too distant future. The Minister's Department is looking at how we can redevelop those digital hubs for other purposes. One of the suggestions I put to them is that across the economy, not just domestically but globally, there is a huge shortage of staff in the whole area of cybersecurity. That type of work is flexible.

It can be done remotely and at different times of the day. It can be serviced in different markets, not just the domestic market in Europe and Ireland but also in North America and the Middle East. It would be ideally suited to women, and it is mainly women who are in receipt of one-parent family payments. It could bring additional high-value income into those households. The digital hubs could be used to provide those recipients with the skills training to take up some of this employment.

Microsoft has been running a similar programme in Norway with migrant women. I think there is an opportunity for the Minister wearing her hat as the Minister for Social Protection and her hat as the Minister for Community and Rural Development, along with the Minister, Deputy Harris, to join up the dots, use the digital hubs and target an underemployed element within our workforce, giving them the opportunity to get into high-value employment rather than just low-value, minimum-wage employment. It is not just the income benefit for that particular household; this has long-term social impacts within that household, and the research will show that. There is an opportunity here to join up the dots with regard to that. I ask the Minister to take it away and consider it. The committee and I will come back to her further on it as well.

I echo the comments of the Minister and colleagues here. On behalf of the Oireachtas, I acknowledge the work done by the Minister’s Department officials, right from the Intreo offices through the whole Department and up to Secretary General level. We have always said it. If other Government Departments could manage their engagement with the public and Members of the Oireachtas in the manner that the Department of Social Protection does, it would be far better for the public service as a whole.

Finally, I acknowledge in the Public Gallery the presence of two transition year students, Rachel Cunniffe from Dundalk and Cillian O’Donovan from Dublin. They are with us in the Oireachtas this week, seeing what happens here first hand and looking at the whole Estimates process. They are both very welcome.

With that, go raibh maith agaibh go léir. We will now suspend for five minutes before the committee considers the Supplementary Estimate with the Minister for Rural and Community Development.