Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

We are proceeding with auto-enrolment. The team that is dealing with this is more than happy to come before the committee. It would help to get knowledge about auto-enrolment out there and build the committee's confidence in it. The team is exceptional and I would encourage the committee to bring it before it.

Jobseeker's pay-related benefit is where we thought it would be at this stage. We are about ten or 11 weeks into it. We have a budget for it. We have a €160 million, which is part of a number of schemes. We are coming to a point where the top tier of payment will start producing and that will be a really interesting point in terms of where the labour market is because 13 weeks was based on the average length of time a jobseeker takes to get a new job. We will be coming to that point over the next four weeks and that will give us a really good indication of where it goes.

I acknowledge that school communities put significant work into the school meals programme, including boards of management, principals who have to source them and staff who must manage it. I acknowledge we would not be where we are today with school meals without school communities. I have had that feedback from parents as well. It is not about the cost savings. It is about not having to do the lunch, be it chasing them out the door at quarter to something in the morning or late at night. More important than any of that is the fact that nutrition is linked to education and there are people who are getting a hot meal who were not getting it previously. It makes such a difference in terms of their education. That is the most important link.

We are providing more than €54 million for the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. We have opened applications and supported 149,000 families last year. The majority of them will automatically be reapplied for. There are no major problems in terms of form filling. We will begin paying the money on 14 July to probably about 113,000 families. I have to get Cabinet approval before some changes. I want to enhance it and I hope to have that next week. I will revert to the committee on that.

Regarding parental benefit-----