Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, on some of the measures introduced in this important Bill. As we all know, it gives effect to the social protection measures announced in budget 2021. As Deputy O'Dea said, it is the largest budget in the history of the Department and the country. Unfortunately, a substantial amount of the expenditure is caused by the pandemic.

I took the opportunity previously in the Chamber to compliment the officials at local level on their great response since mid-March to ensure nobody was left without support when they lost their jobs so unexpectedly because of the pandemic. Great credit is due to officials at local level. I interacted with them not only from Monday to Friday but also over the weekends. They tried to ensure every claim was processed and dealt with as quickly as possible. We should all be conscious of that. The staff were under undue pressure as well as others.

I acknowledge the pandemic unemployment payment is flexible. It is important that flexibility has been built into the scheme because, unfortunately, it may be necessary again to move the country to a higher level of restriction, which will affect business, commerce and places of employment. I hope it will not be.

Importantly, this Bill defers the proposed increase to the pension age next January. I firmly believe that the pension age should not be increased. We should bear in mind when setting the pension age the significant demands often placed on people in employment, be they in trades, on farms or in other kinds of physical work. At times, such work is very demanding on an individual. It is not acceptable that a person in his or her late 60s must still go to work. There is no justification for an increase to the pension age in the future.

I welcome the fact that there was an increase to the living alone allowance. That is important because a person living alone who depends entirely on the State pension, be it contributory or non-contributory, is under pressure all the time to make ends meet. It is important that the living alone allowance be given status. I hope it can be increased over the years to come.

This legislation provides for the bringing forward of regulations so that 65-year-olds who are required or choose to retire early can receive an early retirement allowance or pension at the same rate as the jobseeker's benefit without being required to sign on, partake in any activation measures or be available for and genuinely seeking work. All public representatives know of people who worked all their lives and who had to go to a social welfare office when they had to give up their employment at 65 years. Never before in their lives had they been to a social welfare office. It was absolutely wrong that those people had to sign up for the jobseeker's benefit. They had to leave their place of employment through no choice on their own. I am very glad the regulation is being introduced to put an end to this.

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