Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Reforming the social welfare system so that expenditure in social welfare is targeted to those who are most in need and to those who have contributed to the system is one of the key challenges facing this country. Maintaining citizens and taxpayers confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the system is vital. Social welfare is a social contract between the citizen and the State. People contribute to the social welfare system during their working lives. They are supported by the State when younger and in school and education. They are supported again when older and retired or throughout their working life if they have a specific disability or need.

For those who are unemployed, social welfare should be, in the popular phrase, "a hand-up, not simply a hand-out". It is important that as a society we do not accept a situation where a young person in their teens or 20s drifts on to social welfare and a year becomes two years and then a decade or more. As Minister I want to emphasise the value of work and the value of opportunity. In every society being financially independent through employment is critically important for adults, particularly for young adults.

That is why, as Minister, I am today introducing a national internship scheme which offers qualifying people the opportunity to get valuable work experience for six to nine months and break the catch-22, where people who have found themselves surprisingly unemployed as a result of the financial crash and the collapse of the construction sector cannot get a job because they have no experience and cannot get experience because they cannot get a job. We have to reform the system so that work does indeed pay and that is why today's Bill provides for the restoration of the minimum wage by €1 per hour from 1 July.

The purpose of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011 is to provide for changes to the social welfare code, to the Pensions Act and to a number of other enactments. The measures contained in this Bill can be grouped into four broad categories: changes to give effect to three of the measures announced in the jobs initiative; a phased increase in the State pension age to 68 years by 2028, in line with the national pensions framework; implementation of Article 17 of Directive 2003/41/EC on the Activities and Supervision of Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision; and a number of other changes to the social welfare code and to the Comhairle Act 2000.

The Government places significant importance on building an environment for the creation and retention of sustainable jobs. Keeping people in work as well getting people into work through positive activation measures is essential. In last month's jobs initiative we took the first steps towards enhancing the functioning of the labour market to better facilitate the return to work of those who are currently unemployed.

This Bill gives effect to three of these measures. First, we are restoring the national minimum wage to its previous level of €8.65 an hour from 1 July. Second, we are halving the lower rate of employer's PRSI contribution from 8.5% to 4.25% from 2 July this year until the end of 2013.

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