John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I wish to warn the speaker after me that I will not use all of my allocated seven minutes.

I wish to speak on a matter which affects participants on the community employment scheme and which was raised by them with me in my constituency of Waterford. I had hoped the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Cullen, would be here and it is unfortunate that he is not. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, will pass on what I say.

The matter I wish to raise indicates the lack of joined-up thinking between Departments, in this instance as it affects people in lower income brackets. I could more simply state a fairly silly mistake was pointed out to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, and he has chosen to ignore it and not correct it. I will now point it out to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs in the expectation that he has a slightly less indignant attitude towards people on community employment schemes.

In this year's budget, an increase was given by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to participants in the community employment scheme with an adult dependant. The increase was €20 and it raised the amount for a participant with an adult dependant in the community employment scheme programme from €333.50 to €353.50. This sounds fine, except for the fact that unwittingly the €20 increase pushed this category of participants into the PRSI bracket and, in doing so, almost half of the increase was taken back in PRSI. Immediately and effectively, a €20 increase did not exist.

The threshold is €352; anything over this and community employment participants must pay PRSI contributions. A disregard is made with regard to the first €127 for employees. The balance is then calculated for PRSI purposes at 4%. In this case, it amounts to €9.06, which means the €20 increase is reduced to €10.94. If the budget increase had been €18.50, these employees would not have passed the threshold of €352 and would have enjoyed the full benefit of the increase.

We all make mistakes and as individuals we acknowledge them and deal with them. However, in this case, the Government has an alternative attitude. I wish to outline the response I received from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, when I raised this matter in a parliamentary question. The reply acknowledges the error. However, in the final paragraph the Minister states the aim of the community employment scheme remains as an active labour market programme with the emphasis on progression into employment — this is the good bit — where the employee would in any event be obliged to pay a PRSI contribution. The Minister accepts a mistake has been made but he is loath to admit it.

We hear many clichés in the Chamber and a few, such as smug, smarmy and arrogant, could be used to describe the response I received from the Minister, Deputy Martin. While I could not be bothered getting into that, I would like a reasonable response from the Minister for Social and Family Affairs on this matter. No one will starve over this as we are only talking about €10. However, at the very least, participants in community employment schemes deserve a ministerial response that does not insult their intelligence.

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