Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Acting Chairman. Important business awaits me across the road but I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, on his appointment. I have known the Minister for many years and, particularly in his last role as Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, he introduced a number of initiatives with the intention of improving the quality of life for people in rural Ireland, encouraging people to return to the workplace and ensuring rural people have the same access to services as their urban counterparts. I welcome the transfer of the rural social scheme to the Department of Social Protection and I hope the Minister will bring his common sense with him to his new role.

I will address the good parts first and be critical later. The rural social scheme was one of the best measures ever introduced because it gave people opportunities on two levels. People who were unemployed for years or never had an opportunity to join the workforce were enabled to participate while benefiting their communities. It did not undermine the work programmes of the OPW or local authorities and a great number of projects would never have been completed but for the rural social scheme. Taxpayers are getting great value for the money they invest in the scheme and, in light of the number of unemployed people in this country, I encourage the Minister to seek further funding in order to expand it. Community employment schemes have also been transferred to the Department.

In these extraordinary and difficult times, I urge the Minister and his officials to explore ways of allowing people to rejoin the workforce, whether through community employment, the back-to-education scheme or the rural social scheme. Rules and regulations should not hold people back. Several of my constituents will not qualify for the back-to-education scheme until next October or December but they want to start college in September. They do not qualify because they have not been unemployed for sufficient time but they are being debarred for another year. I recognise it is not easy to change the rules halfway through the lifetime of a scheme but we are in extraordinary times and discretion should be applied.

I recently wrote to the Department regarding a girl who applied for two jobs, one of which was on a community employment scheme. She had a Garda clearance certificate and all the necessary qualifications but because of the notional value of the property she owned, she was unable to qualify for a social welfare payment. She will qualify for social welfare shortly if her circumstances do not change because she is unable to sell her property and the State will have to support her. If she cannot get assistance from the Department of Social Protection, she will have to seek the help of the community welfare officer. Would it not be preferable to investigate ways of allowing this person, who is depending on her savings to survive, into a community employment scheme rather than force her into a social welfare trap further down the road? If she had qualified for the scheme, she may have done valuable work in the community over a period of years. An employer will often offer employment to people who find themselves in such circumstances. Will the Minister examine this matter because there is nothing worse for families?

I know the family in question well. Both parents work and the couple have children at college. Their business collapsed as a result of the economic climate and they did not expect that they would have to apply for social welfare. The Minister and Acting Chairman, Deputy Charlie O'Connor, as practising politicians, will have experience of similar cases. A large number of those who visit our clinics have never been in a politician's office or social welfare office and do not know their rights and to what benefits they are entitled. They never sought benefits but now need to draw them down because they do not have a job and are under tremendous pressure. I ask the Minister to facilitate such people.

I raise the issue of those who believe community welfare officers have made the wrong decision in their case. I ask the Minister and his officials to address the appeals mechanism. It is wrong to deprive people of benefits and have them wait eight or nine months to have their appeal heard. Will the Minister ensure measures are taken to speed up the appeals process? I am pleased to note he appears to be indicating that such measures are included in the Bill. I hope the necessary resources and manpower will be provided to address this issue. It is wrong that incorrect judgments are made in cases where individuals believe they are entitled to a social welfare payment.

I am impressed by the number of decisions the social welfare appeals office has overturned in recent years. I compliment it on adopting an independent view, taking on board all the facts and making the correct decisions in most cases. I hope the Minister will provide the resources needed to ensure delays in the appeals mechanism are addressed.

I have discussed the proposal on the rural social scheme and wish to discuss work training. While I want work training to be effective, there is a small group of individuals who, for one reason or another, are not employable. I ask the Minister to send out a message to community welfare officers that this group must not be targeted on the ground that they are unable to take up training. These are lovely, decent people of simple nature, many of whom come to my office, who are unable to work. That is the way life is for them.

While I have been critical of the manner in which the Department treats some people, it was a highly efficient operation until recently. I believe matters will improve again now that the industrial relations dispute has been called off. I am aware that departmental staff are under tremendous pressure, work hard and take a compassionate and reasonable approach. I compliment them because they treat most people properly. I hope that will continue in this black economic period. For this reason, community welfare officers must treat the small group of people who are not employable in a proper manner. They must not remove €35 or €40 from their social welfare benefits on a pretext. We do not want more appeals or visits to our clinics.

The Minister has made a radical proposal on lone parents, about which I am concerned because I do not want single parents to be targeted. There is a widespread and incorrect view that lone parents do not work. Recipients of lone parent benefit are permitted to work a certain number of hours every week and many of them do. They pay taxes and make a valuable contribution to society and the tax base. I hope the message goes out loud and clear that it does not pay to be on lone parent benefit but it pays to work.

We often forget that some one parent households are headed by men who are looking after their children. Lone parents, particularly women, try to be at home when their children leave for school in the mornings and return from school in the evenings. They make a major contribution and try hard.

Something must be done about rent allowance because the current position is untenable. I have heard it said that rents are falling but that is not always the case. Landlords must live in the real world. If they continue to insist that they will not reduce the rents they charge, we must act to ensure they do and, failing that, we must enable tenants to find cheaper accommodation. In doing so, we must assist tenants rather than pressuring them.

The Minister must examine the rent allowance scheme on which we spend €600 million every year and about which I have been critical in recent years. In 75% of cases the allowance is drawn down on a fair basis. However, a percentage of recipients should not receive it. The time has come, therefore, to examine the spiralling cost of the scheme because we cannot afford to spend €600 million on it every year. This money should be spent on the health service, housing and education rather than on paying landlords, some of whom are charging exorbitant rents. I look forward to having this matter addressed on Committee Stage. As I am not my party's spokesperson, it may be one of my colleagues who takes Committee Stage.

The Department has not done a bad job on fraud in recent years. More and more people are becoming angry about people working while drawing social welfare payments. They are no longer afraid to complain to the Department which has dealt well with such complaints in recent years. Those who defraud the Department must be dealt with, particularly given the times in which we live and the scarce resources available. The resources necessary must be provided to those dealing with fraud because it takes money from all our pockets.

We have a lost generation of young people who have been out of work for the past two or three years. Some of them are in their 20s and if the current position continues, they will find themselves unemployable. The National Youth Council of Ireland has called on the Minister to be sympathetic to the plight of young jobless people. The individuals affected are unemployed through no fault of their own and need help and support. We must ensure young people do not feel deprived and depressed because we know what follows. We must encourage, assist and support them and make them feel wanted. For this reason, I ask the Minister to produce proposals to help young people find job placements and give them some hope and confidence. It is in all our interests to keep young people in the country and offer them hope. We cannot allow them to believe there is no hope. The Department must do everything in its power to give young people opportunities through retraining.

One cannot expect couples in cases where one or both partners has lost employment to keep two or three young adults in pocket money. Such couples are under extreme pressure as they try to pay mortgages and bills. We do not want people to be compromised and doing things they do not want to do, in other words, breaking the law. I am talking about breaking the law or getting involved in things. We have had that in the past with people joining organisations when there was nothing else to do. We do not want to go back to the old days.

I have a concern over rent allowance that is not easy to address. The biggest single complaint the Minister, the Cathaoirleach and I get is about anti-social behaviour in rented accommodation. Some penalty needs to be put in place. We need to deal with people who are getting rent allowance and are disturbing their next door neighbours who have bought their houses and are paying their mortgages. There are certain powers which are not being used by the State, the Garda or the local authorities. Whoever pays the piper calls the tune. If we are paying rent allowance to these people, there needs to be some accountability on community welfare officers. They cannot be allowed to hand out rent allowance to criminals and allow them to have parties and to make life a misery for other people. Somebody needs to support and help them. Given the amount of rented accommodation we have, people are frustrated and feel they have no support or backup and that there is nobody there for them. I feel a bit that way, myself, at the moment.

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