Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this important Bill. Many elements are necessary, in particular in the areas of fraud and control, recovery of overpayments, and entitlement to family income supplement. Deputy Byrne spoke eloquently on the reason the latter is important and why it is a necessary measure. Other areas addressed include the extension of social insurance cover and pensions. In my brief contribution I wish to focus on the last two areas.

Extending social insurance cover to assist spouses and civil partners of self-employed contributors is very welcome. We talk about widening the national effects of the economic recovery that is now under way into the towns and villages throughout the country and the need to grow the domestic economy. We can only do that by incentivising new businesses, helping small businesses that are struggling to stay in business or in some cases to grow. Small businesses are net job creators in the domestic economy as opposed to the larger companies that come here which provide welcome employment and a financial stimulus. Small businesses create jobs in communities around the country. As a result, self-employed people are the lifeblood of the economy. It is only right that the social protection net would apply to self-employed people and their partners as is the case for employed people.

Perhaps we should not seek strict equality in that regard because the financial risks for the self-employed person are so much greater personally and financially in the event of failure. One could ask whether we should tip the balance in the other direction and encourage self-employed people to take risks because the potential gains for the economy are great. We should assure people who seek to contribute that the State will be there to provide support where that is needed and to protect people if they fail. We are trying to use State resources as an insurance guarantee in order that should people take the risk but not be successful the State will be there for them. The intention is that they would take a risk and that we would all benefit as a result.

The legislation is an important step, in particular when one considers the increasing number of women starting up businesses employing themselves and others. In the work I have done in the past three years I have been fortunate to meet many people, especially in the technology space, who are starting up new companies. I am amazed at the number of women involved in starting new businesses,especially given that traditionally women were not associated with the technology sector. I have also encountered people at business fairs and expos who are seeking to start businesses. Given that it is so important to the economy, in everything we do as a Government we should seek to use the resources of the State as a form of guarantee in terms of a social protection net to help people. We must let them know it is there should they not be successful so that they will take a risk and we can all then benefit from that.

The second area on which I wish to focus is pensions. The Bill provides for an amendment to the Pensions Act on the notification the authority may make to trustees of schemes. In so far as the wider context of pensions is concerned, I welcome all the efforts the Department has made in that regard. We recently debated Second Stage of the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill which related to the double insolvency of pension funds but there is much more to do. I have raised the matter on a number of occasions in the Chamber and I have also raised it in the Committee of Public Accounts, as has the Minister of State, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, who is present, when he was a member of the committee. The looming pensions crisis is significant and if it were not for the financial disaster we encountered in the past decade and from which we are still recovering, it would be the crisis we are discussing in the Chamber on a regular basis. The matter cannot be solved overnight but the work to resolve the situation needs to start today as a matter of urgency because we are dealing with a long-term problem.

Part of the problem is that the pensions issue covers a number of Departments and I fear that as a result it might fall between administrative stools. There has been some talk from the industry and others who are interested in the sector of the need for a Minister of State exclusively committed to pensions in the public sector and the private sector and the problems they are both facing, in addition to the problems we as a country face into the next 30 years or more. I support those calls. At the moment we know from the leadership of both parties in the coalition that there will be a reshuffle at the Executive level. That has been flagged and it provides an opportunity for a new impetus in this area. It is not about new people, it is about restructuring the Executive in order to find a new focus on those important areas and potential crisis flashpoint areas that will arise over the coming decades. I urge the Minister to consider that following the enactment of the Bill.

I welcome the amendments the Minister has flagged she will table on Committee Stage to allow the secondment of gardaí to the Department of Social Protection and also to allow Irish Water to use PPS numbers. I support the call by Deputies Kyne, Byrne and O’Reilly to allow the use of the information more widely in the administration of Government.

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