Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Deputies from both Government and Opposition who contributed so thoughtfully to the debate. I want to start by mentioning today's latest employment figures from the CSO, which Deputies on all sides referred to. The figures show employment grew by 20,500 in the first quarter of the year. It is important to remind people that in the three years after the bank guarantee, and the disaster that brought on the country, 250,000 jobs were lost so although people might say that 20,500 figure should multiplied by a factor of ten, which is my ambition, nevertheless, this initial growth in employment is extremely important. Also according to the CSO, unemployment has fallen below 300,000 for the first time since 2010, from 14.1% to 13.7%. That figure of 300,000 is a lot of men and women and the figure is still unacceptably high. Every one of those has a personal story about not being able to find work, to contribute and to be financially independent. The numbers, however, are going in the right direction and it is a significant improvement that will be seen internationally as statistically significant as well.

The Government is making firm progress in its goals of fixing the economy and getting people back to work. The Department is now spending more than €1 billion per year on employment support. Today's figures show the Pathways to Work strategy is making a strong contribution to people returning to work, education, training and work experience. There are some 85,000 people involved in those areas.

The reforms I am introducing in the one parent family payment are a vital element of the strategy. Deputy Ó Snodaigh asked why I am proceeding with those reforms. Despite significant levels of State spending over the years on one parent families - Deputy Broughan and Deputy O'Dea both know about this from their constituencies - those families continue to experience significantly higher rates of consistent poverty. in comparison to the population generally. Why do children from such families have worse outcomes in educational achievement? Other countries that have the sort of system we are moving to have much better outcomes for the life chances for parents and children. The best route out of poverty is through paid employment. This is why I am proceeding with these reforms. The Government believes that supporting lone parents to participate in education, training and the workforce, once their children have reached an appropriate age, will help them on the pathway back to work.

Work, however, especially full-time work, may not be an option for parents of young children. For that reason, it is crucial that lone parents are helped in a compassionate, supportive and effective way to transition to the labour market. The changes to the jobseeker's scheme contained in this Bill achieve this by recognising the difficulty of parenting alone and will ease the transition of former one parent family payment recipients with children of primary school age on to a jobseeker's payment while fully recognising and balancing their caring responsibilities for young children.

In other words, lone parents will get the full support of the Department's activation services to help them on the pathway back to work, but in a manner that recognises the reality of their circumstances. This progressive pathway back to work would not be available to lone parents if the Government had followed the advice of some on the Opposition benches who at times in the debate over the past two years backed themselves into a corner in wanting no reform of the lone parent system or social welfare in general. Members' sentiments may be admirable, but it does not help recipients to keep them locked out of having successful working lives.

I remain convinced that we need the best possible child care and early education system in this country to help all families. In the context of the debates of recent days, the Department has, through community employment, roughly 1,700 people supported in child care situations. As Members will be aware, the experience in the community-based crèches for children is of a high quality, and since I came into the Department, I have worked intensively to develop and expand the education and training path for those involved, through community employment. It is important that staff are trained. In that regard, for instance, we will be looking at FETAC level 5 as the standard outcome of those during their period with a community employment scheme. In fact, as time passes, we will be progressing that to higher levels. I am aware that Deputy Ryan, among others, has a number of community child care facilities in his constituency. I am also aware how important these are as a community resource as well as an opportunity for people to get involved in work in an important area of caring for children and to get serious and progressive qualifications that enable them to get well-paid employment and to look after children properly.

On the issue of pensions, I was glad to hear the welcoming comments for the Pensions Council and the reform of the governance structure of the Pensions Board. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh acknowledged, this will strengthen consumer protection and give consumers increased confidence in the system. The work I commissioned on pension charges shows that many small schemes charge high fees and often consumers are not as knowledgeable as they ought to be about what pension charges are being incurred on their account. This can mean vastly reduced pensions on retirement, and it is important to engage consumers.

Pension coverage is a critical issue and it is essential that citizens have sufficient income on which to live in retirement. This is the primary concern expressed by the OECD, specifically in its recommendations on a national supplementary pension scheme, in a recent review of the Irish pension system, which I published in April. Increasing numbers of employers and employees are relying simply on the State pension, and Deputy O'Dea referred to that. We must expand coverage. Other countries have done that successfully. In that regard, I will be bringing proposals to Government in due course.

On Deputy O'Dea's comments on defined benefit, I am well aware of the persistent funding problems of such schemes. Deputy O'Dea also has direct experience of this, given that the problems date back to 2000-2001 when he was in Government. I say that, not to make a political football of the issue because it is important to hundreds of thousands of people-----

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