Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the measures in the budget that were helpful. It has been a very challenging year, as we know, for everyone from the cradle to the grave but especially for older people, those of pension age and, in light of the work they do, family carers. Indeed, research carried out a year ago found that there are hundreds of children - children who should be at school or out playing and enjoying themselves - who are obliged to care for a sick relative, for example, a parent. That is a very unfortunate situation.

I want to start by complimenting the Minister on the Christmas bonus being paid today. Goodness knows, we need a bit of Christmas cheer. I certainly welcome that because it is necessary. Our old people - we are all heading that way - made great sacrifices and worked very hard and they need to be treated fairly and with a bit of respect. The increase, albeit small, in the fuel allowance has us going in the right direction. It is certainly a help. I say that in the context of the Bill.

The Bill provides that a self-employed PUP recipient can engage in limited work and earn up to €480 over a rolling period of four weeks while continuing to receive the PUP.

That is vital because many of those people are loyal to their customers and their customers are loyal to them. There is a great bond and relationship between them. They were afraid to go out to do work in case they would lose their PUP. For a plumber, it might have been a boiler that needed to be serviced or a burst pipe to be fixed. Carpenters, kitchen makers and cabinet makers would be called to do some work in a customer's house. It could be outdoors work, such as on a farm, where a milking machine repair man would have to call out. The loyalty is there and thank God for it. There should be more done for those people but what is there is a start. Tús maith, leath na hoibre. As I said, the bond is there between the self-employed person and the customer. Most self-employed people have a loyal customer base. Electricians, for example, will provide a service even when they are called out on Christmas Day. That can happen.

I want to thank the social welfare officers for the work they do. I am thinking of Leo Coffey and his team in Cahir and the teams in Clonmel and Tipperary. We deal with them all over the country, in Waterford and in the regions. This year especially, they have pulled out all the stops and they have been marvellous. I want to say that because they have a difficult job but they have been very helpful to my office and to me. The interest of the customer is always put first and they do their best for people.

Section 5 reduces the number of waiting days for illness benefit, which I welcome. People used to have to wait six days but it is being halved to three. That is very welcome. It is not often I would praise the Minister but I am praising her in this case. I do sometimes give praise. I praise the bridges I go over, as the Minister knows. It was kind of ironic that during the two-hour Private Members' debate we had a while ago, the speaker before me - I think it was a Deputy from Deputy Naughten's group - thanked the Minister for staying for the whole debate, which does not happen normally. Lo and behold, I got onto my feet agus rith sí amach as an Chamber. Chuaigh sí suas an staighre and she was gone, like snow off a ditch. She told me the day after that she had to take a phone call, but I was fierce disappointed that when I got up, she left. I was complaining that I would report her to my in-laws. I have a lot of them in Cavan-Monaghan, but I did not do so after all. It is very important that the Ministers listen to all groups. We all have something relevant to say, I hope, with the Ceann Comhairle's permission.

There are some good provisions in the Bill. As I said, the arrangements for a number of payments is welcome. However, the provision for carers is very disappointing. Section 11 provides for an increase of €150 in the carer's support grant, raising the payment to €1,850, which is the highest level it has ever been at. I certainly welcome that increase. However, the grant often does not even go towards a holiday, break or anything like it. There might be some work that has to be done in the house or a bill that has to be paid and it will go towards that. I welcome the increase, which is very important in these tough times. The carer's support grant is an annual payment for carers who look after people, giving them full-time care and attention. There are many of them and the grant is paid annually in a single lump sum. That is welcome.

The situation regarding carers in general, however, is that they are the poor relation. I always wear the carer's badge. Chaill mé an ceann a bhí agam. I do not have it at the moment because I need to get a new one. It is very important that we support carers in the work they do. No money would pay for it really. They want to do that work and they are willing, ready and able to do it, but their contribution must be recognised. I congratulate and thank Councillor Richie Molloy, a colleague of mine and manager of a carers group in south Tipperary. He and the staff in his office do tremendous work. Catherine Cox, the regional officer for Family Carers Ireland, also does great work. They ask all the time that a carers charter be introduced and put on a firm foundation in law. That has not been done. We have nice talk and pious platitudes but we do not look after carers as we should. The hospitals would be completely overrun if we did not have carers. There is a danger as well of people becoming ill themselves. They work hard 24-7 and goodness knows they need a break.

There is also a huge problem at the moment in trying to get people to provide home help hours. Even if people get approval for home help hours from the HSE, the personnel are not available. Many of them have been forced into private employment. I salute all the home helps, public and private, who go into people's homes. They bring joy and hope as well as bringing messages. They go above and beyond the caring work they provide. It is unfair at times the limited amount of time they have in people's homes. They would barely be in the door before they have to go again. The home help service is a marvellous connection with the outside world for people who are confined to the house for many different reasons.

Carers need to be supported but they are not. During the Minister's term in office, I hope she will meet and engage with them when she can. I hope she will try to embrace what they do because they do it so well and so willingly. She must try to eradicate the need for child carers, that is, the young people forced to care for sick parents or other relatives. They must be supported. They should be in school, out kicking ball, going to dances or whatever they like best. They should be able to enjoy their life and live it to the full, not be under the burden of being a family carer. It is important that I raise the situation of carers during this debate.

Regarding the PRSI arrangements for self-employed people, I am delighted that there is a slight change in this vital provision. It was badly needed because it was very unfair that they could not get any illness benefit. Efforts have been made there because they are the people we will depend on to recover our economy, set up businesses, pay their taxes and generate employment for others.

Finally, I want to raise the whole situation regarding the PUP and the blackguarding, as I call it, of pensioners. There are many people aged over 66, some of them publicans, who did not get a shilling from the PUP scheme. All they wanted, and all I and many other Deputies and support groups have called for, is to give them the balance or difference between the pension and the Covid payment. I know many pensioners who are pub owners. Their pubs have to be heated and the utility bills and all the different bills that come in the door all the time must be paid. They are entitled to support. Many of them are self-employed bus or truck drivers or musicians. They could not get any supports because they are getting the old age pension. Publicans are in a desperate state. Some of them have told me that only for the small savings they have in the bank - this was months ago - they would have gone under. The restrictions have continued and they are still closed and the customers are still locked out.

Their situation must be examined with a view to giving them some payment. We need to support them and be fair to them. When the €350 payment was introduced, I advised against giving it to people who were only working seven, eight or ten hours a week. I wanted payment to be assessed on the previous month's PRSI returns and people paid for the relevant number of hours. All of the money used for that will have to be paid back. That is in contrast with the over-66s, who did not get anything. They feel very aggrieved and that they have been neglected and abandoned, which should not be the case. They are entitled to a fair crack of the whip and to be respected. As I said, even when the doors are closed, it costs money to keep a pub, with insurance costs and all the other bills. Those costs did not come down. The owners will not have any VAT returns now but they had year-end returns to pay and the heating and lighting. Their utility bills are massive. It is unbelievable. If one has Sky, broadband and all the other things, they all have to be maintained. It is very hard to do that on an old age pension and without any customers, especially when those customers were denied the right to go to the pub. Publicans did not put out their customers. The Government decided to close the doors of the pubs.

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