Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill. I will pick up where Deputy Neville left off and speak about older people, in particular older men, who are being given no option as companies change models. We see it not alone in the midlands but all over the country as companies close and restructure. They are the target for redundancy but they still have so much to give. There is a need for a special effort in that regard. We must talk much more about it, as it is not talked about enough. I support any initiative the Minister will take in the area.

I ask the Minister to keep under review throughout 2020 the inability to give the full €5 this year because of the danger of a no-deal Brexit scenario. If we get through 2020 with some kind of long-term deal in place we should re-examine the measure. Most people will have some small increase in income during 2020 but, unfortunately, pensioners and those on social welfare will not have an increase.

I welcome the very targeted increases in specific areas. The Minister has been committed to such an approach for some time. They will make a difference. I acknowledge that the Minister has brought a sense of practicality to the role, which is evident in a number of initiatives. That was not necessarily the case with some of her predecessors.

While we have had disagreements on this in the past, I acknowledge the Minister's role in assessing the pension review and the 2012 changes. We are making some progress but not enough. Many people are still being left short of money that they were expecting at this stage of their life. However, I acknowledge that the Minister has brought a particular focus to the issue within the Department. The difficulty is that a lot of people are arriving into the situation now still unaware that they are affected by the changes. People are coming to retirement age now who do not realise that the change happened in 2012 and it is now affecting them. Many people are coming up to pension age budgeting for a certain figure and finding that it is a lot less. A whole new cohort is coming in every year and people are incredibly frustrated. They share the frustrations of those who went before them. They took time out for family reasons and other reasons to support the State, be it to look after children or parents and now they are being penalised by the State for having done that. That is something the Minister needs to keep a focus on because I suspect that if she was not there, her officials would hope it would go away. I welcome the Minister's focus but we will keep on her case in regard to the issue as well.

Given that the amount of weekly payments has fallen and given that the numbers are falling, I ask the Minister to consider assigning extra people into the appeals section. At this stage appeals are still taking six or nine months and it is incredibly difficult for people who may be waiting on a payment. The notion that they can go to the community welfare service does not work for quite a number of them because they may not have access to it. They may not want to do that, or they may not have the wherewithal to do it. We must address certain appeals, for example, for carer's allowance or the domiciliary care allowance, to ensure they can be addressed more quickly and efficiently than is currently the case. I refer in particular to people who find themselves in a difficult situation. I am aware of a number of cases where carers are expected to give up their job before they get a decision, which leaves a gap that could mean they are potentially left for weeks and even months without an income. Consequently, they will not make the decision to give up their job.

One then finds that the person people want to care for is using general hospitals, primary care services and even home help services when somebody is willing and able to care for him or her at home. The restriction of having to give up a job or wait for an appeal to be heard causes issues in that regard. I ask the Minister to look at that issue, with particular reference to carer's allowance and the domiciliary care allowance, with a specific initiative related to appeals. The move from carer's benefit to carer's assistance means that the process still does not look at mortgage or rental payments which will knock many out. Mortgage payments account for a substantial part of people's incomes, people who do not have a choice but to make either mortgage payments or pay rent. We need to apply flexibility in that regard. If there is to be a particular focus in the Department this year, it needs to be on carers. Some initiatives are welcome. The Minister has increased the working allowance, a measure I welcome.

Too often the Government operates in different silos, with the Department of Health doing one thing and the Departments of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Education and Skills doing others, with no co-ordination between them. I make this point every year and it is not political. The system has been designed to frustrate those who most need it to help them, whether they are carers or parents of children with special educational needs. We need to break down those silos and make difficult journeys much easier. The State should help to make a difficult journey much easier, except that there are all of these barriers in place which are age related and stupid and need a practical focus. If we do anything in 2020, we should focus on how we can help carers. The work they do is phenomenal and saves the State a lot of money in the health service and other areas such as education. The entire State apparatus should come together with an all-of-government focus on carers in 2020 to look at the blockages the State can remove to make the lives and journeys of carers easier, whether they are caring for older people or children with special needs. At least, that would show that the State recognised the role they were playing.

We had hoped to raise the issue of community employment scheme supervisors. I gather from some correspondence we received on Friday that there seems to be a difficulty in the talks. It has been communicated by the unions that the information was not shared at the appropriate time. I would appreciate it if the Minister looked at this issue because I know that she has taken an interest in it. Supervisors of community employment schemes do a considerable service for the State in providing skills, passing on talent and giving opportunities to people who might otherwise not have them. It comes back to what Deputy Neville said. Many participating in schemes are people who the market, for want of a better word, has left behind. We are giving them a chance to use their skills and talents. How can we expect supervisors to do this when at the end of their career and contribution, all they receive is a common State pension that everybody else receives without giving of his or her time the talents and the benefits of his or her work experience? There has been a Labour Court recommendation and a Dáil vote on the matter. I received a reply to a parliamentary question from the Minister this morning, that she is looking at the Workplace Relations Commission's recommendation. I ask her to look at what happened last week that led to the communication from the union. I am conscious of the need not to become involved in negotiations, but the communication came directly from the union involved.

I know that the Minister is familiar with men's sheds which are funded through the Minister, Deputy Ring's Department, the Department of Health and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. We need to find a home for them. Given the work they do in providing skills and community support, I think that home is the Minister's Department. I know that many people want the issues related to housing to be moved to her Department. The support and skills provided at men's sheds are significant in keeping people out of health services, keeping them involved in society and supporting communities. Many who come off schemes and many who are working come to the men's shed. There is a role for them in the context of the provision of social protection. Men's sheds are doing this in a way that was never envisaged and in a way community employment schemes used to do so. I encourage the Minister to be proprietorial by taking ownership of men's sheds and making sure she is given a budget to allow them to grow to achieve their potential.

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