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

One of the issues raised in some of the proposals is individualisation. My view on that is that it would be hard to individualise one mean-tested payment and not them all because that would lead to migration. However, there is a simple solution for many people who worked, albeit not for all. We have discussed it in the committee. I am talking about bringing the conditions for getting invalidity pension in line with those for the disability allowance. At the moment, the invalidity pension payment is basically an individualised payment. No matter what your partner, spouse, cohabitant or whatever else earns, you get the personal rate. If you apply for disability allowance, you have to be unfit for the work for which you are trained but, to get the invalidity pension, you have to be unfit for any type of work. It is a funny kind of distinction. If that test was applied to somebody who had a primary education and who had worked as an unskilled labourer all their life, would it mean that they should be able to go into a university and start giving lectures? They might be able to give better lectures than those currently there but that is another day's work. I do not think they would get past to do so. That is something the committee has proposed, and I would be interested in the witnesses' responses in respect of it. It would not solve all problems but it would solve some of them.

The second issue is how a partner's means are assessed. At present, it is based on a €60 disregard and 60% of the balance. It would help some people if that was ameliorated. We were discussing that earlier on. Again, we do not have to go there in one step.

There is an issue the witnesses did mention. I wonder if they have come across it. I keep coming across it. The Department of Social Protection hates self-employed people. It absolutely detests them. If I have employee income, I get a disregard and then it is 50% of the balance. If I have self-employed income, it is 100% - tough off. If I have an income of €200, I am hit much harder if I am self-employed. These are small suggestions that could be taken without totally reforming the whole system but one of the things we suggested was that this anomaly should be got rid of. I would be interested in the witnesses' view on that.

We are not really here to discuss the medical card because, as is always stated, that falls outside the remit of the committee.