Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the staff in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in my constituency, Limerick County, particularly those in the Newcastle West and Kilmallock offices and the Dominick Street office in Limerick city. Some 22,000 people in Limerick are in receipt of the PUP. There needs were dealt with very efficiently and the staff were really good. They got back to people and were great at interacting with my office and, I am sure, other offices but there are some anomalies. There are some individuals with outstanding issues and arrears that need to be paid. I ask the Minister to consider drafting in more staff to the relevant offices to deal with the outstanding arrears that are due.

The maternity leave issue is a genuine and major one that has been raised with me by a number of women in my constituency. The exclusion of women from the temporary wage subsidy scheme is really discriminatory and unfair. Women on maternity leave are coping with new additions to their families and they face all the challenges that go with that.

They cannot get out and about because of the lockdown restrictions, enrol their children in crèches or go to parent-and-toddler group meetings. Many of them are dealing with medical issues. As we know, some people give birth by caesarean section and have all the other complications that go with that. We really have to move to amend the temporary wage subsidy scheme. The Minister will know - I think everybody in this House knows - that the scheme discriminates against women who were not receiving payments from their employers during their maternity leave. That has a disproportionate impact on people who were in lower-paid and more vulnerable jobs. I would like to hear a commitment from the Minister that this will be addressed as soon as possible to achieve fairness for these people.

I also wish to raise the issue of the over 66s. It is a huge issue in my constituency, in Limerick. Many people aged 66 and over have been in touch with me. They feel this is ageist, which it is, and discriminatory. The issue has to be addressed because if we are as a society to encourage people to remain in the workplace longer and to contribute to society, this sends out entirely the wrong message. I think this question has been asked of the Minister and her Department. Do we have any handle on the number of people in this cohort who have been locked out of the pandemic unemployment payment? A response would go a long way towards informing the debate and the argument we are having about this.

Finally, the restart grants were announced during the week. I know this is not directly under the Minister's directorate, but it is linked to it because if we have no employers, there will be no jobs for people to go back to. The fact that for a business to avail of the restart grant of up to €10,000, it has to be paying commercial rates immediately excludes sole traders, microbusinesses and start-ups. Any type of business that is not paying commercial rates is locked out of this scheme. If a business is locked out, it may not be able to restart and will not re-engage and re-employ its staff who may have been laid off. There is a real issue here that the Minister and the Government need to look at, and I would like if she would address that.

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