Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to make some remarks on this Bill, some of which others have made but which I will reiterate. The reform aspect of this Bill is long overdue and I compliment the Minister on introducing it. I do not know whether he would like to be associated with Lloyd George as a reformer, but he was the last person to engage in major reform of this area. The pensions aspect of the Bill is also long overdue.

Among the many important statements the Minister made is "payments alone will not solve our social problems, that is why we must go behind the payments and tackle the causes". We must never be complacent or self-congratulatory about what we do in the social welfare area. Much has been done and the targets are ambitious, which is right. There is a danger when talking about social welfare that we automatically mention poverty.

I agree with the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Brian Lenihan, that the budget has had significant redistributive effects, as many recognise. An elderly constituent of mine told me recently that he could not afford to live anywhere other than Ireland because the supports for the elderly were so comprehensive and good that he would not attempt living anywhere else.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs is among the most progressive, reforming and radical Departments. I have had the pleasure of listening to the insights of many members of the Department's staff over several years and hope they continue the reforming work in which they are engaged.

There are several significant aspects of the Bill but in the interest of using my time productively I will skip over some of the remarks that might have been made earlier to focus on those that interest me.

The Bill aims to ensure that older people, especially those who are most vulnerable, have decent pensions and security in their later years. It also allows for those reaching pension age but who wish to continue working to be encouraged to do so and to be appropriately remunerated for their work.

I draw the Minister's attention to anomalies which still remain, including a matter not directly within his area of responsibility. Those on community employment schemes are precluded from continuing those schemes after the age of 66 years because they have then reached pension age. I am aware of a number of organisations, especially those dealing with elderly people, disability groups in my constituency and the senior citizens' parliament, which campaign in this area. The retention of certain social welfare entitlements while continuing on schemes such as community welfare schemes, needs to be examined. The combining of non-contributory pension payments for those over 66, other than carer's allowance, into a standard and enhanced contributory pension scheme is a good idea.

The introduction of the child care supplement is an important measure. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has confirmed that those who participate in childminding will benefit from PRSI and other payments. This was a concern expressed to me by the National Women's Council. This has important knock-on effects in terms of maternity benefit and I compliment the Minister.

The Minister is aware of my concern about the short timeframe being allowed for the changeover to the swipe card system. A person changing to the use of electronic collection of their benefits will be forced to collect the benefits between Thursday and the following Tuesday, which is four working days. Not many of us are so organised that we can manage to collect something within four working days. I ask the Minister to undertake further examination of that issue. It has been suggested to me that it was previously possible to allow three months to elapse before the collection of payments. Such a length of time may no longer be required but a number of additional weeks would be appropriate.

The Minister has intentions to introduce further reforms in the area of services to lone parents on which I compliment him. I urge him to be progressive and radical in that area. Apart from enduring more than the usual hardships of parents, lone parents endure deprivation which others do not. As a teacher I know that many of them left school early and involuntarily in many cases. I compliment the Minister's Department on the initiatives introduced over the years, such as the back to education allowance and the vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS. These schemes have proved to be very beneficial in taking people out of poverty and providing them with opportunities for employment and further education. I ask the Minister not to restrict the availability of the back to education allowance because education is the one way of providing greater opportunities for people.

The child dependant allowance is a hardy annual which I raise every year. This allowance is not part of this Bill but I advocate at every opportunity on behalf of that payment. It has not been increased in a number of years. Even though we have had discussions on it, I have not been able to persuade the Minister or his Department of the need to look again at the child dependant allowance. I suggest there are strong arguments for retaining and increasing it. I ask the Minister to use the opportunity in the next budget to do so.

The Pensions Ombudsman reported on construction industry employees. For whatever reason, people working in the building industry are tempted to play fast and loose with the system of taxation and PRSI and this seems to be endemic in the industry. One and two-person operations are being made to register as sub-contractors and self-employed. It is unrealistic to expect such workers to be able to manage accounts and make VAT returns and fulfil the responsibilities of self-employment. A great number of these workers are generally young and, like professional footballers their high earning capacity is short. They are tempted to think there is no life after 40. I ask the Minister to consider closing off as many loopholes as possible to ensure exploitation cannot take place.

The living alone allowance has not been increased in a long time. It is difficult to convince departmental officials that this payment should be increased. There are unique reasons this allowance ought to be increased and it remains to us to persuade people. I ask the Minister to examine this payment. I compliment the Minister on his campaigning zeal in this area and look forward to co-operating with him in further radical measures.

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