Dáil debates

Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements

 

8:55 pm

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae noted that other people have brought up the question of maternity leave extension. I have said it is not within my remit but I will certainly bring people's concerns to the Minister for Justice and Equality.

There was mention of seasonal workers and those who are over the age of 66. With respect, the position with those over 66 arises because the current legislation in which the pandemic unemployment payment is enshrined relates to people within the social insurance system aged 18 to 66. If any changes must be made, this House will make them. Unfortunately, I was only guided by the current law of the land. It is fair to say the Deputy knows how quickly the pandemic unemployment payment was established because of need but there was never an intention to exclude people. This is why we have been adamant that those who are over 66 would be included in the wage subsidy scheme. I feel for the two people mentioned by the Deputy but I have had hundreds of people in similar circumstances coming to me. It was important to include them in the wage subsidy scheme but it was equally important to ensure anybody who was not able to go into that would have available the newly reduced means test criteria of the supplementary welfare scheme. Some of the self-employed people could keep on their workers with the temporary wage subsidy scheme but not themselves, for example.

I genuinely hope these efforts are working. I have heard stories and some people over 66 have relatively young children in school or college and they must pay fees, for example. It is not just as simple as thinking that a person gets to 66 and he or she has no outgoings any more and will be grand with a pension. Anybody on a reduced pension should definitely apply for a non-contributory pension and if such people have no other income, they will get the full amount. It is one of the issues that has pained me most in the past couple of weeks. Much of what we have got right has been really good and it has had an impact. If there was any way I could have included people over 66 in the employment legislation, I would have done so. It was just not possible.

I might give the Deputy a copy of the letters that have gone back and forth between me and the Mandate union with respect to the Debenhams workers. They clearly explain the legal advice that the Attorney General gave me yesterday and which precludes me from interfering at this stage of the process. I put on the record of the House that we have been engaged with workers. We did a Zoom activation meeting with over 200 workers just over a week ago, which was probably the oddest experience for everybody involved. Most of the people found it very helpful and we got some lovely emails afterwards. We will work with those people to ensure they are retrained, re-energised and re-employed by somebody else. We will ensure they get their entitlement and the State will step in if necessary. Carers were always entitled to the pandemic unemployment payment and we ensured that anybody working those 18.5 hours or less was as entitled as anybody else to apply for it.

There was mention of the activation job we will have over the next couple of months. I probably will not be the person making the policy on how we activate people who will not go back to work. I can only give some solace in saying that JobPath only looks after people who are on the live register longer than 12 months. We hope that anybody who has lost a job or will lose a job in the next couple of weeks can be retrained and worked with in a period far shorter than 12 months. Those decisions will be made during the formation of the next Government and included in the programme for Government. That will not include me.

The report referred to by Deputy Nolan has been published and I am surprised people have not got a copy of it. I will make sure the Deputy gets a copy today. It is just over a year since I first met community employment supervisors in an attempt to fix that matter. Unfortunately, I was not successful in doing that but I very much hope that whoever is lucky enough to be in my position in the next Government will be successful in the matter and give them what they deserve.

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