Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Tairgim: "Go léifear an Bille an dara huair."

In the current economic and financial crisis the Government's main priorities must be to restore stability to the public finances and to deal with the jobs crisis. Tá an Rialtas bródúil as an méid atá curtha i gcríoch le dá bhliain déag anuas chun leibhéal na n-íocaíochtaí leasa shóisialaigh a mhéadú go mór, ar mhaithe na ndaoine. Le dá bhliain déag anuas, d'árdaigh muid na rátaí pinsean faoi 120%, mhéadaigh muid na híocaíochtaí dífhostaíochta 130% agus cuireadh feabhas de níos mó ná 330% ar na híocaíocthaí do shochar leanaí.

The Government is proud of its unrivalled record in increasing the level of social welfare payments. Over the last 12 years, we have increased pension rates by approximately 120%, unemployment benefits by almost 130% and child benefit payments by over 330%. The cost of living has increased by approximately 40% over the same period. We extended coverage, removed barriers and increased entitlements such that the level and extent of social support payments has been transformed beyond recognition. Continuing to reflect the trend of recent years and reaffirming Government's commitment to all those in need of support, €20.9 billion will be spent by the Government in 2010 on social welfare provision - some €500 million or 2.45% more than 2009.

Social welfare expenditure for 2011 will be considered in the context of the forthcoming budget having regard to both the needs and to the resources available to meet those needs. In an uncertain economic environment, the priority will be to ensure that the Government strategy to stabilise the financial position is advanced in order to protect those most in need in a manner which is sustainable in the years ahead.

Nuair a thosaigh mé mo chuid oibre mar Aire Coimirce Sóisialaí, chuir mé in iúl go raibh i gceist agam a bheith i m'Aire a dhéanfadh athchóiriú ar an gcóras agus ar ndóigh bhí sé sin leagtha amach ag an Taoiseach dom ó thaobh na gcúraimí a bhaineann le tacaíocht ioncaim, seirbhísí fostaíochta agus gníornhachtú oibre uile a lonnú in aon Roinn amháin agus in aon sheirbhís uile-ghnéitheach amháin. Is céim eile chun cinn san obair seo é an Bille seo. When I started my work as Minister for Social Protection, I said that I intended to be a reforming Minister and that task was set out for me by An Taoiseach in terms of integrating the functions around income support, employment services and work activation together in the one Department and in one comprehensive service. This Bill marks another step forward in that direction. I would now like to outline some of the main provisions in the Bill.

This Bill provides for the full transfer of the employment services and community services programmes of FÁS from the Minister for Education and Skills to me as Minister for Social Protection. It also provides for the integration of FÁS staff with the Department of Social Protection. This process was initiated by the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010. As Members of the House will recall that Act provided for the transfer of policy and funding responsibility for the employment and community services of FÁS from the Minister for Education and Skills to my Department. The practical arrangements to support this transfer of functions are now largely in place and it is intended to commence the relevant provisions of that Act with effect from 1 January 2011. From that date, FÁS will continue to provide employment and community services as it does now but under my direction and reporting to my Department. I should say that FÁS and my Department are already working closely together and considerable progress has already been made on a number of measures to enhance the delivery of services to people on the live register.

This Bill provides for the transfer of the relevant staff and resources such as buildings from FÁS and their full integration with the staff and structure of my Department. FÁS will also cease to have any role in the provision of employment and community employment programmes and will focus on the provision of training services. As a result the Bill will enable one of the most radical realignments of social welfare provision in the history of the State. The employment and community services of FÁS will not simply transfer but will be integrated fully with the Department to provide an end to end service to our customers. This will allow a transformational overhaul of service provision for people of working age. As well as income support, we will now focus our interventions on assisting people in finding employment and to prepare for entry into the labour market by accessing training, career advice, work experience and job placement.

My Department is already working closely with the senior management of FÁS and the Department of Education and Skills to develop a new service vision and model for the integrated Department. While still at an early stage of development the main outline of that vision is clear; it will be customer-centred and employment focused. The main objective will be to ensure that all people of working age are given the support they need to find employment as quickly as possible or to develop the skills and aptitudes required to progress towards employment by undertaking appropriate education, training or work experience. This objective will be supported by a case management approach allowing suitably trained staff to interact on a one-to-one basis with individuals on developing pathways to employment with clearly defined milestones and targets.

The integration of FÁS employment and community services with my Department marks an important step away from a passive model of income support to a proactive model which is clearly focused on progressing people to participation in the workforce. Such an approach not only makes economic sense but also allows our services to be tailored to meet the individual needs of each customer and to respect and enhance their dignity as individuals. The restructuring of these areas is part of the Taoiseach's plan to deal with job creation, work activation and income supports in a better and more cohesive way. This initiative is a tangible example of public sector reform facilitated by the Croke Park agreement.

Currently, in order to qualify for jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance, the jobseeker must fulfil a number of conditions, including being available for and genuinely seeking work. To fulfil these conditions, jobseekers must at regular intervals make a declaration that they are still unemployed, available for and actively seeking work. This is what is called the certification process or "signing on" and is currently carried out by the jobseeker going to their social welfare local office. One of the provisions I am including in this Bill will be allow certain people who receive jobseeker's allowance or jobseeker's benefit to complete the certification process by electronic means. We will be changing the current signing process in our local and branch offices to collect signatures via a digital signature pad and we are exploring the possibility of using electronic channels for certification such as online through the Internet or by using the mobile telephone. These new channels are being introduced to enable us to carry out the certification process more efficiently, while at the same time delivering better customer service and maintaining the necessary levels of control inherent in the current manual process. We are engaged in a project to examine the potential to develop an additional channel for jobseekers certification via the mobile telephone.

Before committing to full-scale deployment, the mobile telephone certification solution has to be evaluated by the Department from both a business process and technical perspective to test how it will work in practice to ensure necessary levels of security and control. Deployment will not proceed unless this solution offers a sufficient level of control in line with existing processes. The project is scheduled to conduct a live trial at end January 2011 in which a number of customers will be invited to participate. The selection of customers to be invited has not yet been finalised.

This mobile telephone facility is intended to be made available on a risk assessment basis and will have high levels of control built into it. Customers will be invited to use the channel and it will not be generally available on request.

It is anticipated that cost savings will accrue from reducing the effort required to certify jobseekers at the Department's local offices. As a result, staff resources will be freed up and will enable the Department to concentrate on client, claim, payment and control issues. Further, it is expected to reduce pressure on local office facilities and accommodation.

I am also introducing a provision in the Bill which requires that from 1 January 2011, before rent supplement can be awarded to new claimants, the landlord's tax reference number must be supplied to the Health Service Executive. Landlords of existing claimants will be requested to supply their tax reference number at the time of their next rent supplement review.

The Government wants to ensure that where tenants are in receipt of the State's rent supplement, the landlords of the premises in question are fully tax compliant. If they are tax compliant they should have no difficulty providing the reference number. The new rent supplement provisions also provide that a landlord will be obliged to provide his or her tax reference number or confirmation that he or she does not have a tax reference number in respect of each tenancy for which a rent supplement is payable.

As I indicated, where rent supplement is in payment immediately before 1 January 2011 and this supplement continues to be claimed immediately after that date in respect of the same tenancy and where the landlord has not supplied his or her tax reference number before 1 January 2011, rent supplements will continue to be paid until the review date for the supplement. At that stage, the Health Service Executive will request the landlord to supply his or her tax reference number. To avoid unnecessary hardship the Bill also allows for the further continuation of the rent supplement beyond this date to allow a reasonable time for the landlord to respond to the HSE's request to provide his or her tax registration number and also to avoid tenants being penalised by having to break an existing tenancy agreement.

A rent supplement cannot be paid beyond 31 March 2012 in any case where the landlord has failed to provide his or her tax reference number. The Bill also makes it an offence for a landlord to fail to provide the information requested.

I will now outline the main provisions of the Bill. Section 3 clarifies the provisions for the calculation of the duration of payment of illness benefit claims. Section 4 provides for the use of electronic means of making and capturing the declarations of unemployment that are required for the purposes of claiming jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker's allowance.

Section 5 clarifies the calculation of entitlement to jobseeker's allowance where weekly means comprise earnings from insurable employment. In determining a week of unemployment - three days of unemployment consecutive or not in any six consecutive days - the practice is to include a day only once in any computation where that day is part of a week of unemployment in respect of which jobseeker's allowance is paid. This section, which amends section 141 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, ensures the Act is not ambiguous as regards applying this practice.

Section 6 provides that the reduction in the basic rate of supplementary welfare allowance from 4 January 2010 for people under 25 years will not, of itself, lead to any reduction in rent or mortgage interest supplements payable to people receiving other social welfare payments.

Section 7 provides for a new condition for the rent supplement payable under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which requires that from 1 January 2011, before a claim for rent supplement can be awarded, the landlord's tax reference number must be supplied to the Health Service Executive. As certain landlords will not have such a tax reference number, for example, non-resident landlords, confirmation from the landlord to that effect is required to be supplied in such cases. This section also provides that a landlord will be obliged to provide his or her tax reference number or confirmation that he or she does not have a tax reference number in respect of each tenancy for which a rent supplement is payable.

Section 8 clarifies the position with regard to the information to be provided by or in respect of a customer registering for a personal public service, PPS, number. Section 262(3) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act currently requires that a photograph and signature be submitted for any customer registering for a personal public service number. However, it is not practical to collect these items in all cases, for example, where the customer is non-resident or deceased or in probate cases. Section 8 clarifies the position by only requiring that these items be submitted when required. The section also provides that providing additional security information will become a compulsory part of the registration process for the purposes of allocating and issuing PPS numbers.

Section 9 is a technical amendment to change references in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act and in other enactments from "public service card" to "public services card" to reflect the de facto position. There is a reference to "public service card" in the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 and this section also provides for a textual amendment to change this reference to "public services card".

Section 9 also makes a number of changes to the current provisions relating to the public service card under section 263 of the Consolidation Act and the social services payment card under section 264, including clarifying that both the social services card and the public services card can be used for the purposes of paying social welfare benefits.

Section 10 amends the rules relating to the means test for the carer's allowance scheme so as to exempt any foreign social security payments, up to the appropriate level of the Irish State contributory pension, that are paid to the carer or spouse of the carer. This section also clarifies that a general income disregard for the purposes of carer's allowance under Rule 1(5) for a single carer and Rule 4(3) for a couple will not apply to income from a social security payment, whether an Irish social welfare payment or a European Union or foreign social security payment.

Sections 11 to 19, inclusive, provide for the full transfer of the employment services and community services programmes of FÁS to the Minister for Social Protection and the integration of FÁS staffing, etc., into the Department of Social Protection and also provide for a consequential amendment to the Labour Services Act 1987.

I will table a number of amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage. I will introduce an amendment to provide for changes to social welfare legislation arising from the provisions of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. I also intend to introduce an amendment on Committee Stage which will provide for the introduction of a partial capacity scheme. The purpose of introducing a partial capacity scheme is to begin to address a critical limitation of the current social welfare code which categorises people with long-term illnesses or disabilities as either "fit for work" or "unfit for work". The focus within the welfare system on incapacity rather than capacity carries negative consequences for people with disabilities and their families who may be trapped in welfare dependency.

I will also introduce an amendment on Committee Stage to provide for the transfer to my Department of the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive, which currently administers the supplementary welfare allowance on my behalf. I will also bring forward consequential amendments to the Long Title, collective citation and commencement provisions.

Molaim an Bille don Teach and tá mé ag súil le bhur gcuid tuaraimí a chloisteáil maidir leis na míreanna atá ann sa dá lá seo atá romhainn. Go raibh míle maith agat a Cheann Chomhairle agus a Theachtaí.

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