Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak to this important Bill, which has been designed to give legislative effect to a range of social welfare measures announced in the budget. I thank the Minister for doing her level best to help to deal with a protracted problem in County Tipperary. The Bill provides for several technical changes to the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 to ensure the application of income disregards for persons engaged in fostering. The Bill also provides for an amendment to the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 to provide that where the Minister of the day is not in a position to implement the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission, as is the case as a consequence of the uncertainty associated with Brexit, he or she may subsequently issue an order for the year or part of the year to which the commission's recommendations relate. That is very good and I wish the Minister well with it because we are in uncharted waters with Brexit and an election coming up across the water. It is nice that the Minister will have that latitude and be able to make recommendations in that area. The Bill provides for an amendment to the National Training Fund Act 2000 to provide for a 0.1% increase, from 0.9% to 1%, in the National Training Fund levy payable by employers. That, of course, is a broad outline of the Bill as provided in the explanatory memorandum.

It cannot, however, capture the huge sense of disappointment the announcement created on budget day. Groups such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and family carers were bitterly let down in the poverty-proofing measures not addressed on the day. I wear the badge of carers here because they do so much good work and have felt saddened that they have been left behind in the past ten years. They provide so many hours of care. In my county there are many child carers, young people who should be in school or at college but who are caring for their siblings or parents, which is very sad. These groups, with a recovery taking place in the economy, expected to receive some little bit.

I acknowledge that, in terms of the rates of jobseeker's allowance, section 4 provides that "the reduced rate of Jobseeker's Allowance for claimants aged 18 to 24 will no longer apply where the claimant lives independently and is in receipt of housing supports". I agree wholeheartedly with this change. The position was very hard for young people in that cohort. I know the reasons the provision was brought forward, but still it was very hard on them and their families not to receive the full rate. It was discriminatory and I compliment the Minister on changing the provision. The Bill states: "The full rate of Jobseeker's Allowance will be paid to these persons with effect from 1 January 2020". That is ana fáilte ar fad and very much to be welcomed. As Social Justice Ireland has pointed out, adequate social welfare payments are required to prevent poverty. That is very true, as the Minister knows. She works in her constituency and hears it all the time in her clinics when dealing with families. SJI states: "Without the social welfare system 43.8 per cent of the Irish population would have been living in poverty in 2017. Such an underlying poverty rate suggests a deeply unequal distribution of direct income". That continues to be the position to this day. In 2017 there were just over 760,000 people in Ireland living below the poverty line, of whom approximately 230,000 were children. Some progress has been made which has to be welcomed, but it is not happening at the pace we would like.

From data I have received from the Minister's Department, I know that more than 5,000 people in County Tipperary have received exceptional and urgent needs payments, totalling €1.8 million, this year alone. That is a huge sum, for which I thank community welfare officers as we used to call them. I do not know what they are called now, but years ago they were called relieving officers. They have had some awful names during the years, but nonetheless they are a great bunch of people who do work very hard. Sometimes they hear tall tales and have to make an assessment and sometimes they are mistreated and abused when they should not be as they have a hard job to do and do a good job, for which I thank them and in which I support them. This highlights the fact that people cannot live on what they have or in most cases meet their basic needs. There can be exceptional needs, as the Minister knows, being a family person, because of climatic occurrences or run of the mill accidents in a household, with damage being caused to equipment, which is unavoidable. Community welfare officers need to have flexibility in that regard.

We learn today from daft.iethat rents across the country have risen by 5.2% in the past year and that the average monthly rent is now €1,403. The average month rent in my county of Tipperary is almost €900 which, relatively speaking, represents a year on year change of 8.7%. The cost of rent is driving families into poverty. They will not be able to cope with a further increase. I am not one to stand up here, unlike others, and demonise and attack all landlords as there are many good landlords. Many have only one house which they might have inherited or bought and they have an exceptional relationship with their tenants. There is a policy, on the left especially, of haranguing and barracking landlords, but if we hunt them out of the industry altogether, there will be no one to provide accommodation. We have to strike a balance. We have to have respect and it is both ways between the tenant and the landlord. There are some bad tenants and also some bad landlords. Therefore, we need to get our priorities right. We cannot keep demonising landlords because they do their best to provide accommodation where the State is unable to do so.

In March I asked the Minister to investigate the reason the number of social welfare recipients who had had their payments cut was reduced on foot of recommendations made by Turas Nua where the figure exceeded €10,500. I have had many a battle with the Minister over Turas Nua which I have described as Turas Uafásach and tá fhios ar an Aire cad é sin. It is an awful journey and I know of some horrific cases, as does Deputy Michael Healy-Rae and many more rural Deputies. I was pleased early in the year when we found that it would not accept any new referral and would be stood down in December. Now, however, I find that it will not. The Minister has given it a reprieve for another year. It probably has some good points, but during the years I have certainly met people who have had some very bad experiences. They were terrified and horrified and literally had not been treated with the respect and dignity they should have been as adults and young people in attending for interviews. Many of the staff in Turas Nua are also quite young and inexperienced and are only doing what they have been told, but it has led to many difficulties and affected some people's mental health, as the Minister knows. People were not able to cope. I would, therefore, like the Minister to look at this issue again in view of what I have said about Turas Nua. Many rural Deputies have many stories about people who do not have access to transport and are unable to make their way to the offices. It is a more of a case of Turas Uafásach.

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