Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for their gracious decision to suspend the sitting to allow the debate to continue. I was absent earlier because I was attending a meeting of the Business Committee. This flexibility may not have been shown so readily in the past. We should be thankful for small mercies and new politics.

While the Social Welfare Bill 2016 includes a number of good measures which I very much welcome, it does not go far enough in many areas. The fiver Friday budget will do very little for many. I welcome the €5 increase in weekly social welfare payments which have been the subject of some argy-bargy. However, it is only a start in the process of giving back to those who have struggled in the past eight years, but it was downright mean to hold back the increase until March 2017. I was in touch with Independent Ministers and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, during the negotiations on the budget. While I understand money is an issue, it is harsh to have people wait for such a long time for an increase in their payments.

I am also concerned about whether the income thresholds for medical cards will be increased to reflect the €5 increase in social welfare payments or if those who receive the additional fiver per week will be at risk of losing their medical card. This is a major issue, as the €3 pension increase in last year's budget created a catch-22 for many. It would be terribly unfair if people were to lose their medical card as a result of an increase in social welfare payments. Many pensioners would prefer to hold on to their medical card than to receive an extra €5 per week if the additional income was to cause them to lose their medical card. This is a serious anomaly which must be examined and I expect the Minister to do so.

When the pension was increased by a measly €3 per week, many people also lost special dietary allowances and similar supplementary allowances. The Government gave with one hand and took away with the other. This may have been unintentional, but it is an unfair and silly quirk of the system. People would be better off forgoing an increase if it was to result in the loss of supplementary payments.

I am disappointed that the Minister did not review the means testing of income for the non-contributory pension. This issue should have been addressed because the income thresholds permitted to qualify for the non-contributory pension have not increased for some years. Many people have been prevented from obtaining a pension in their own right as a result of these thresholds. While I acknowledge the Minister cannot address everything at once, I hope he will remove this anomaly.

I am disappointed that changes have not been made to the living alone allowance scheme. I meet widows and widowers who are struggling to cope with the loss of a second income. It is bad enough experiencing the loss of a lifelong partner, but the €9 living allowance does not go far enough to bridge the gap created by the loss of a second income. If a household loses the value of a full pension as a result of a bereavement, €9 is neither here nor there. Widows and widowers have been penalised for years in the social welfare system and it is time the problem was rectified. Not only do families lose a second income, but in cases where the surviving spouse has a private pension, he or she ends up paying almost double the amount of taxation because his or her tax credits change. In such circumstances, the €9 living alone allowance simply disappears in tax. We must address the effect of the loss of a second income. Widows and widowers still have to pay the property tax, water charges and household bills and most are very conscientious about doing so. The cost of heating a home is the same for one person as it is for a couple. As I stated, €9 is neither here nor there.

Another concern raised regularly with me in recent months and years is the plans to increase the qualifying age for the State pension for employees who are forced to retire at 66 years. After working their entire lives, many people will have no option but to sign on for one year before qualifying for the State pension. I am not giving out about people signing on but pointing out that it is degrading and insulting to require people who have worked their entire lives to sign on. This issue should be addressed to ensure pensioners will not be forced to retire before they are entitled to the State pension. This means that they must join the live register and sign on every week or month, which is very hurtful for people who have always worked and paid their taxes. They should not be placed in this position.

I am most disappointed that the telephone allowance has not been restored. The loss of this allowance had a detrimental effect on the elderly and those living alone, many of whom can no longer afford to keep a telephone. Deputy Michael Collins and I have been heavily involved in Muintir na Tíre and the community alert scheme for decades. Fitting hundreds of pendant alarms is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done. The alarms are like a second person for many. However, they are useless without a landline. While a new version is available which can be used with mobile phones, it is not as useful as the pendant system because many elderly people are not accustomed to using mobile phones, the battery of a mobile phone can go flat, etc. The landline is the only source of contact for many older people who use them to call friends and family members. The removal of the telephone allowance must be reversed because telephones are vital for safety, security and companionship.

I thank the staff of MCM Security and TASK Community Care in Dublin for the friendship they offer to people who use the pendant alarms. Sometimes people activate them for no other reason than that they are lonely. A survey conducted by Muintir na Tíre found that loneliness and isolation were the reasons for 70% of calls made to the alarm call centres. As a result of the survey, we established the "Good Morning South Tipperary" call centre which contacts people who may be lonely and seeking companionship or to talk to someone. It is vital that the telephone allowance be reinstated because the new alarm systems are not working and are too expensive. Where mobile phones are used, there may not be coverage, the phone's battery could be dead or the person may not be able to find his or her device. In contrast, pendant alarms are fool-proof because people can move around the house while wearing them.

I greatly welcome the moves to extend social welfare schemes to the self-employed, particularly the extension of eligibility for invalidity pension. This is long overdue and a benefit I have campaigned for many years. It was a significant issue in the talks for the programme for Government for those Independent Members who happened to be self-employed and know self-employed workers. The self-employed do not want to be out sick. Over the years, however, I have had many self-employed people come to my clinics in tears, as they could no longer work due to illness but had little or no support. Last night, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae recounted a case of a self-employed woman crying in his office with the hunger. The self-employed are proud people who want to work and contribute. Many of them have employed many people themselves who were supported when they were laid off when the business crashed.

I have not seen any mention of extending eligibility for the illness benefit to the self-employed. I am curious to know how this will work in reality if they have to have been unable to work for one year to qualify for the invalidity pension. What supports will be available to them in the short term and for the one-year qualifying payment? This applies to farmers and the self-employed who would be affected by illness.

I am pleased that the dental treatment scheme has also been made available to the self-employed. However, we need to go further with this scheme and allow a clean, filling or extraction, as so many have been ignoring their dental health as they struggle to make ends meet. This has been shown in independent surveys.

Section 20 provides for the reintroduction of the income disregards which applied to the farm assist scheme, a most welcome provision. I also welcome the increases to the places in the rural social scheme. These were badly wanted. As Deputies Michael and Danny Healy-Rae said the 500 places are a drop in the ocean but a step in the right direction. The scheme has done significant work in communities across the country. It suited people in rural areas who were affected by seasonal employment. They were able to do maintenance work in their communities, in schools, graveyards, Tidy Towns projects, visiting the elderly and safety schemes. This scheme suited people interested in contributing to their community for a small amount of money. These are small farmers who do not want to be at home idle. Instead, they are used to hard manual work over long hours and do not shy from it.

The increase in the income disregards for the one-parent family payment is welcome. I note the one-parent family payment can be retained in certain circumstances until the child is 16 but these are limited circumstances. Will the Minister elaborate on this? The age limit of the youngest child remains at seven years of age, a measure introduced by Deputy Joan Burton when she was Minister for Social Protection. This has certainly caused significant difficulties for lone parents and should have been re-examined. This measure is also another reason why there are only seven Labour Party Members. It was outrageous for a Labour Minister to introduce such a measure.

I am deeply disappointed this budget did not do anything to improve the social welfare payments for our young people. I am all for young people going on work schemes, getting off their backsides and not sitting at home on iPhones, as the then Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton once said. We do not want to encourage young people to remain on social welfare by providing a disincentive to work. We have situations, however, where 24 year olds living independently, trying to start out in life and support themselves, but have found themselves down on their luck. We have one arm of the State telling them that €100 is sufficient to provide for their own means but another arm of the State, the medical card office, refusing to assess them as an independent person because they are in receipt of less than the €124 per week which it considers necessary to be able to live independently. One thinks of the lunatics running the asylum. I am not mocking any official but such an anomaly involving two Departments is outrageous. We need less bureaucracy and more common sense. There needs to be straight thinking and connectivity between the Departments.

I am happy the back to education allowance rates for the under-26 has been increased by €33, allowing them to claim the full allowance. I hope this will allow those who are unemployed to return to education. I continue to have concerns, however, about the qualifying times for this payment. We have those in receipt of a social welfare payment who want to go back to education but they have to remain on social welfare for up to nine months before they can qualify to get a back to education allowance. This is another silly and stupid - I hate using that word - anomaly. While it may be an unintended consequence, it needs to be rooted out.

Even though we are paying them the same rate to sit at home, we refuse to consider them for a course if they have not met the qualifying nine or 12 month period to qualify for the back to education allowance. This just does not make sense. If we do not want people falling into a welfare trap, then we must look at reducing this to at least a six-month period. If one is unfortunate enough to lose one's job in February and struggles to find new employment, one cannot be considered for the back to education allowance to start a college course in September because one will not have met the qualifying period. This does not make sense. It is loo-lah stuff. If one is lucky enough to find a few weeks' seasonal work, one will break one's claim and no longer qualify. Accordingly, one is encouraged not to take up any work, even just a few weeks' seasonal work. Deputies Michael Harty, Danny and Michael Healy-Rae have referred to this. We should have some flexibility to allow them do some hours and encourage young people to keep the sense and value of work. They are also supporting many economies in rural Ireland which need part-time, short-time and temporary workers. We need to be flexible and remember young people are not all out to cheat the system. They want to get on in life and should be encouraged. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí.

Our carers do wonderful work but received practically nothing in this year's budget. They save the State so much but many feel all they get is a slap in the face. The national carer awards will be held in Dublin on 16 November with a carer from every county. A young mother who cares for her young son, Alex, won the south Tipperary award and will go to the national awards next week. I wish all the contestants well. They are wonderful people and we can never put enough value on them. They should be supported but the carer strategy has been abandoned. I never fail to wear the carer emblem on my lapel because they save the State so much and sick people are better cared for at home.

I did not see any mention in the Social Welfare Bill of efforts to reduce the waiting times for applications and social welfare appeals. I have constituents who have had to give up work to care for their loved ones. When they applied for carer's allowance, they were shockingly refused. Almost one year later, they are still waiting for a decision to their social welfare appeal. This is just not good enough. It is stressful and hurtful. These individuals are not trying to rob the State but giving a valuable service minding their loved ones at home while saving the savage cost of a hospital bed of €1,000 a day. It is unacceptable that someone would take on the role of carer, saving the State thousands of euro and residential placements of which there are very few, yet get nothing from the State.

Our squeezed middle class is so squeezed that it is like an orange reduced to a mandarin, and a dry mandarin at that. As I said on budget day, my biggest concern is our squeezed middle who continue to be squeezed and who have benefitted little from this year's budget. They are the ones who pay into collections and support so much in the communities. These middle-income earners are the same families who must pay for everything. They pay their taxes but they will not get child care support. They pay for their school books and examinations but do not get the Student Universal Support Ireland grant. They pay for their health care and their mortgages but are abandoned. This has gone on with successive Governments over many decades. I do not expect the Minister to change it overnight but they are squeezed. This was a strong issue for myself, Deputy Michael Collins and the other Independents at the talks about the formation of a Government. We got it on the doors. These are the people who contribute but get hammered every which way. I do not know how they survive, put their kids through college and pay for doctor visits and medicines. They must be looked after.

I want to raise the issue of Turas Nua, a company appointed by Department of Social Protection to deliver JobPath services. It is a new journey but it is a bad one. It is a bad and hard road. It should be more Turas Bocht or Bóthar Bocht. This company, which also operates in England but not with great success, is intimidating people. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae spoke last night about a young fellow in Kerry who has to thumb a lift 20 miles to turn up to sign on with Turas Nua. I have had constituents traumatised by this company. It gets paid on results and there is nothing wrong with that because we need incentives. However, the Minister will have to intervene in this case.

I am not blaming individuals; the system is wrong. Social welfare officers are telling me this is very regressive. People aged 55 and 60 years are being punished and penalised. They are being told they must do IT courses, but they are not able to do them as they have never had that experience. They are willing to work on schemes, but they will not be left in place.

There is a big problem with community employment schemes. I thank the Minister for solving a problem for me earlier in the year soon after taking office. It concerned a community employment scheme, of which I am chairperson, in my village. I thank the Minister and his officials for their interest and support. The scheme has a complement of 17 places, but there are five vacancies and we cannot fill them. Turas Nua is taking candidates from us. I have said for years that there should be a national audit of the value of community employment schemes which kept communities going. When we were all busy during the Celtic tiger era, the community employment schemes did all of the work. Participants worked in graveyards, with groups taking part in the TidyTowns Ireland competition, community halls, churches, etc. They were also engaged in helping and caring for the elderly and worked in day care centres. Now one must finish after one year. A person is trained in a day care centre and when he or she gets to like the clients and they begin to like him or her, he or she is turfed out. Turas Nua is hounding people. It is a turas bocht nua. I will not say it is uafásach, which means "awful", but it is becoming awful for people and is awfully traumatic. I appeal to the Minister to consider it, as well as community employment schemes which have been vital. Many schemes, including my own, have been very successful in terms of the rate of progression back to work and setting up one's own business. That is what it is all about. People are not meant to be participating in schemes for life.

There are certain individuals who are in a difficult position. I refer to people who were participating in schemes when they reached the age of 55 years. One had no way of finding a job in a rural or an urban area, as Deputy Michael Collins knows as he is very involved in schemes. One continued until pension age. The schemes provided value, for a couple of euro extra per week. Participants were making a contribution and generated a feeling of goodness and a work ethic. They generated pride in one's county through many competitions, including the TidyTowns Ireland competition. FÁS used to run schemes, but it is now SOLAS which runs them. They generated pride and a sense of worth. A man or woman was out of the house and the person at home could carry on with his or her business. It was good for everyone. It was good for families and communities. The worth of the schemes should have been evaluated and supported and there should have been more flexibility with the numbers. As we know, unemployment is dropping. That is good, but there is a need for more flexibility as there are schemes that cannot find workers. SOLAS is on to us stating we have to have a full complement, but we cannot find workers. Positions are advertised on the website. Turas Nua will become something else if it is not dealt with.

I would like the Minister to address the position of the self-employed who contribute so much and need more flexibility. I welcomed the budgetary initiative for self-employed persons who are injured, including farmers and those engaged in a wide range of businesses. I have never had a problem saying they should make some extra PRSI payments because they would do so in order to receive some benefits. Many of them had businesses employing 10, 20 or 30 people, but then the whole lot crashed at the end of the boom, which was not their fault. All of the staff received support payments, but the employers did not get a penny. They have gone through a torrid time in the past seven or eight years. While I welcome the Minister's initiative, I would like him to explain how the invalidity period, the 12-month period, will operate. Will individuals have to wait for that long? It would be a killer if they had to do so as they cannot wait. They are proud people and will not beg. They should not be expected to do so, but they need reasonable, modest supports, not a gravy train or anything like it.

Will the Minster, please, try to knock together the heads of the officials - I do not mean physically - on social welfare benefits, medical cards especially, and also SUSI grants? There should be connectivity. We are not all operating little empires in a separate place and doing our own thing, saying, "Tough," or, "Sugar what the other people do." That is an outdated system. It was not in place at the time of the foundation of the State after the fathers of the country had fought to free it, set up our democracy and build it successfully. In recent years, however, the bureaucratic machine has grown and grown. I have said we need to rattle it. We were promised by the Taoiseach at the talks, at which the Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy Leo Varadkar, was present, that there would be considerable reform of the Civil Service, in addition to new politics, but I have not seen any of it yet. We need it. These are simple and basic things that should be done.

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