Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chann Comhairle for this opportunity to speak on the Bill. Its purpose is to provide for amendments to the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, the Pensions Act 1990 and the Civil Registration Act 2004. One of the main provisions of this Bill is to amend the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 to allow for the publication, on a quarterly basis, of the names and address of persons convicted in a court of social welfare fraud. Fianna Fáil does not condone welfare fraud in any shape or form, but we do not condone the perception created by the Taoiseach when he was Minister for Social Protection that there was widespread social welfare fraud in his Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All campaign. That was unfair because while some people engage in fraud most people do not set out to do that. I have dealt with cases of people who claimed social welfare not knowing they were wrong in doing so. I know of cases of people have had overpayments of €60,000 and €70,000 who genuinely did not know they were wrong, and they are trying to pay money back. The vast majority of those in receipt of a social welfare payment are genuine claimants. We will be tabling an amendment to this Bill to ensure that only those who have been convicted of intentional social welfare fraud in excess of €5,000 will have their names published.

With regard to the legislation on the public service cards, I am aware of the widespread opposition to the introduction of a compulsory identity, ID, card. There are advantages for its introduction. There are plausible arguments for and against that, but many will vigorously challenge the possible infringements on a person’s privacy. We will be seeking reassurances from the Minister that the questions raised by the Data Protection Commissioner will be addressed in full and that there is full transparency in terms of how the data is collected and, moreover, that people's personal data is properly and safely secured.

The public needs to have full confidence in the public services card and the Department needs to communicate more effectively on this issue. That is critical. In this age in which we live it is a very useful card, but people need to know what personal information it holds and who has access to it. I accept the card has been in operation for those who require social protection services since 2011 and this is not the first time a national identity card was mooted. In 2009, a report by the then Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs recommended the introduction of a national identity card to coincide with the development of a public services card. The public services card contains very sensitive data, including biometric information, a person's date of birth and their personal public service number, PPSN. The databases behind the card will link to a variety of important public services. Therefore, the databases behind the card will have highly sensitive information such as a person's address, family and medical information, etc. We need to know who will have access to this information. Thousands of people could potentially have access, which increases the chances of abuse of the data and the chances of leaks. There is also no guarantee that the data will not be transferred to outside agencies, private companies and so forth that are supplying public services.

The Bill contains a number of tidying-up measures in various areas, some of which I welcome. I welcome, in particular, in section 9 the changes being made for those in receipt of a disability allowance, the blind person’s pension and certain supplementary welfare payments to remove the rule allowing the disregard of earnings only where employment is of a rehabilitative nature. At present, those in receipt of disability allowance and the blind person's pension may have the first €120 per week of their earnings disregarded for the purposes of the means test governing eligibility for those schemes. However, such earnings are allowable provided that the employment concerned is certified as being of a rehabilitative nature. In addition, income from rehabilitative employment of between €120 and €350 per week is assessed at 50% under the means test. The report of the interdepartmental group, the Make Work Pay group for People with Disabilities, established under the comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities found that the requirement to prove that work is of a rehabilitative nature in order to avail of the earnings disregard was unnecessary and recommended dispensing with this requirement.

The Bill also provides for a number of amendments to the Pensions Act 1990, which I welcome. We need to have a serious debate on pension provision in Ireland. There is no question but that the pension system is in need of reform. The Government must get its act together and act to address many of the issues that are causing great distress for pensioners and those coming up to pension age. There are anomalies that should to be addressed and they arise as a result of the methodology used in the determination of entitlements based on contributions, mainly for women but also for men, where there is a shortfall that means that they are not entitled to the full rate of pension. Issues such as the anomalies in the calculation of the contributory pension and forcing people who have worked all of their lives to sign on for jobseeker's benefit for one year before they qualify for their pension should be addressed.

Since my election, I have continued to highlight the pension gap between men and women. The past four decades have witnessed a seismic change in women’s participation in the workforce, but they are still financially less well off than men. Changes to the contributory pension thresholds that determine how much people receive by way of a State pension have made the position far worse for women. With effect from April 2012, the number of paid contributions required to qualify for a State pension increased from 260 to 520. The measure has worked against many women who spent time out of the workforce. A new homemaker’s credit was approved at the same time which seemed to offset any potential inequality, but it was not sanctioned by the Department of Finance because of the cost involved. It is crucial that we see the promised homemaker’s credit introduced and backdated to the 1970s. The current scheme was only backdated to 1994 and limited to the care of the children up to 12 years of age.

We need to move towards a universal pensions system which would give both women and men equal access to a comprehensive pension guarantee. The payment rate must provide for a decent standard of living for all. We have a situation where many people, mainly women, are being denied a full State pension on retirement. We also have a situation where people are being forced to retire at 65 years but who cannot access their entitlement to receive a State pension until they reach 66 years. We have a looming pension crisis where the rate of supplementary pension scheme coverage in Ireland is estimated to be only 35% of the working population when the private sector is considered in isolation. Fine Gael has been in government for seven years and it is time this issue was resolved.

Financial hardship in retirement has become a real prospect for a lot of women. While much attention is paid to the gender pay gap, the problem is far more pronounced at pension age, with a pension gap between men and women of about 37%. I have been contacted by a number of women who are extremely worried about their pension entitlements. Many of them will not be entitled to receive the full pension payment because they do not have enough paid contributions and are anxious about how this will impact on their pensions. There is no doubt but that it will have a serious effect on them. These are individuals who started working and had to give up work to mind children and who then went back into the workforce. What is happening is very unfair.

The pension pay gap between men and women amounts to about €700 a month. In fact, only 16% of women receive the full State pension. To be paid at the top rate, a person will need a yearly average of 48 paid or credited contributions from 1979. This means that a generation of women are either on reduced pensions, as they do not have enough contributions to qualify for the full rate, or receive one as a qualified adult which is related to their husband’s pension and is not a payment to them in their own right. We need to move towards a universal pensions system which would give both women and men equal access to a comprehensive pension guarantee. This pension should be at a payment rate which would provide a decent standard of living for all.

I would again like to voice my concerns about eligibility for the tenant purchase scheme, specifically for those in receipt of a social welfare payment. The local authority tenant purchase scheme that came into effect in January last year deliberately makes it very difficult for anybody in receipt of a social welfare payment to purchase a house. No citizen should be excluded from the scheme that is open to social housing tenants on a minimum gross annual income of €15,000. Under the terms of the scheme, the council will place an incremental purchase charge on the house equal to the discount given, with the charge reducing to zero over time. Where a local authority house is valued at €150,000 and the applicant’s gross annual income is €18,000, a discount of 60% will be given against the purchase price and the applicant will pay €60,000. The scheme excludes tenants who are dependent on social welfare payments as their primary source of income and it has been set up in a way that deliberately makes it very difficult for anybody in receipt of social welfare payments to purchase a house, which is regrettable.

Since it was established originally by Fianna Fáil, the tenant purchase scheme has been responsible for the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the State and access should not be denied to any citizen. Home ownership is good for the families who live in the houses in question and good for the communities in which they live. Opening up a pathway to home ownership is at the very heart of Fianna Fáil policy. Ireland cannot afford to have a divided society where home ownership is confined to a few, while the rest struggle with unstable tenure and rent levels. The right to buy under the tenant purchase scheme has been an important tool in extending home ownership opportunities to low income households. The option to own a valuable long-term asset has empowered thousands of families across the country and should not be denied to any family or individual.

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