Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. I am totally in agreement with him on that. There is the skill and the experience of the participant and also the extraordinary life experience they bring to the company. The company and its employees win from that person. I have seen that in companies.

I acknowledge the former Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Ó Fearghaíl, who introduced the scheme into the Oireachtas. We have all gained from that scheme. Companies gain from having a person with those life experiences, views and skills working with them. We will be promoting the wage subsidy scheme, WSS. We have very good videos of companies online through gov.ie/wss. My concern is that many companies might think it is for the big companies with massive HR departments. It is not; it is for the owner-operators and the small companies – any company.

Most means-assessed schemes have sliding scales of payment below the maximum rate. For instance, we have a half-rate carer's payment. I made the point earlier that, even though the illness benefit scheme is not perfect, we can pay a reduced rate along with other pensions as well.

I accept that the cut-off point is difficult, but without it we would not have the budget to support the most vulnerable. There are sliding scales for many schemes. It is very difficult for those who are on the wrong side of the cut-off point, but we have tried to adjust the approach in recent years. It is something we will definitely keep an eye on.