Ms Louise Lennon:

On the cost-of-living measures, I agree with Mr. Hyland that they were very useful at the time. They did reduce the rate of poverty a bit but we need to start looking at long-term investment in social welfare payments and start lifting people out of poverty. The committee engaged with some of our colleagues from the community and voluntary pillar last week and they spoke about the minimum essential standard of living basket of goods. We would also recommend that social welfare payments be benchmarked against that basket of goods instead of the consumer price index, CPI, because it is more reflective of people on low income and their living standards. We are looking for an increase in core welfare rates but, as I mentioned in my opening statement, for people in rural areas long-term investment in transport and other services is also hugely important.

Meals on wheels was mentioned earlier and there are still lots of gaps in the provision of services. We have 308 providers involved in our network but 33% of them do not get any funding from the HSE. They are wholly voluntary or they try to get funding from elsewhere. Approximately 35% of providers are running a waiting list because they cannot meet the demand. I know that Mr. Hyland's organisation provides a lot of meals in Cavan. It filled the gap that was there, especially during Covid when it was set up. New services are being set up but it is very difficult for them to meet the demand. It is a national problem. It is not just a rural issue but is nationwide.

On the RSS and community employment schemes, a lot of the community services like community childcare and community education rely on those schemes to provide services. When someone finishes on a scheme it is very difficult to find a replacement, especially now when we are supposedly at full employment. Mr. O'Donnell mentioned the review of the RSS and the recommendations on extending it to rural dwellers through a pilot scheme. However, there does not seem to be any movement on any of those recommendations, another of which was allowing someone who has been on a community employment scheme for more than six years and who is aged over 50 to move on to the RSS to fill those gaps that are there.