Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There has been some public discussion about the impact of Covid-19 on the most marginalised and socially excluded in society.

This has relevance to my remit in overseeing the Government's roadmap for social inclusion. However, this is a global pandemic so one has to acknowledge the global inequalities that the pandemic has brought to light.

In some respects the virus does not discriminate. The rate of virus fatalities is actually highest in some of the richest countries in the world, such as Italy, the USA, Belgium and our near neighbours, the UK. It is when we look at global vaccine access that the issue of inequality comes more to the fore. Let there be no mistake about it; Ireland is certainly on the list of "haves" rather than "have nots" when it comes to global vaccine access. The odds are that when the vaccine has been rolled out in Ireland, there will still be people in developing countries who will not have access to it. I commend and support Ireland’s involvement in and support of the COVAX initiative to offset this likely pattern, as well as our other contributions to global efforts.

As regards Ireland’s vaccine strategy, it is important to acknowledge that it is based on the principle of equity and is clinically driven. This is not the case in every country. In Ireland, access to the vaccine does not depend on one's income, background or where one is from. When looking at the impact of Covid on the most socially excluded in Ireland, there are three realms or areas to look at, namely, vaccine access, infection rates and fatalities and the secondary impact of the public health measures. For vaccine access, the principle of equity is central, along with being clinically driven.

Infection rates are more complex and need further examination. Health workers, among whom there is a high number of ethnic minorities, suffer by far the highest infection rates of any profession. I thank them profoundly for their service and their ongoing daily struggle. In terms of fatalities our oldest citizens are hardest hit, almost regardless of background, but so are those with underlying health conditions. It is in this group that the issue of inequality emerges. While some health conditions are due to the genetic luck of the draw, many stem from health inequality. As regards the national roadmap for social inclusion and Department of Health commitments within it, there are some key commitments relating to Sláintecare, GP access and a health inclusion policy that need to be implemented. On the topic of health inequality, I acknowledge the speech of Senator Eileen Flynn in the Seanad earlier this week when she spoke about the extreme health inequalities faced by Travellers.

The third area to look at when assessing the impact of Covid-19 on the most marginalised is the secondary impact of public health measures. It is in this realm that there is work to do and where more needs will emerge over time. These include access to education for poorer students, students with additional needs and migrant students with English language support needs, as well as people who need disability services and other groups. There have also been some positive outcomes in the area of inclusion from the secondary impacts of public health restrictions. Conditions in Irish prisons have improved and homelessness has gone down by 25%, although this progress is precarious. It is also important to reiterate how the Government has acted to help prevent poverty and social exclusion with the huge intervention of the pandemic unemployment payment.

I chair the interdepartmental social inclusion roadmap steering group, which monitors implementation of its commitments across Departments. While this roadmap was developed and adopted in advance of the imposition of public health restrictions arising from the pandemic, these commitments remain even more valid as we deal with the challenge of the impact of Covid on our society. Ahead of the second meeting of the steering group in March, I will be asking all Departments to consider this added dimension of pandemic impacts when reporting on progress in implementing the roadmap.

The annual Social Inclusion Forum is also scheduled for March and my Department is arranging to hold it remotely this year. The community and voluntary sectors were consulted when selecting the topics for discussion at this year’s forum. It is notable that there was an eagerness to keep focus on pre-Covid issues of exclusion, which are of course ongoing. The forum and the processes leading up to it, including regional workshops to prepare for it, give people who are directly affected by poverty and social exclusion and those who work for them a voice in the development of the policies that directly affect them, as well as in the ways policies are implemented.

Community employment is a key area of my brief, although I will have to cut my remarks on it short because time is pushing on. I acknowledge the work done by community employment schemes across the country. We are all aware of the value of these projects, both to individual participants and to the community. Some of these projects continued to provide essential services, where possible, in compliance with public health restrictions over the past months. However, in common with most other organisations and businesses, some have had to restrict or suspend activities. Nevertheless, the Department has continued to fund these schemes and will keep doing so by extending the assignment period for participants as necessary. Given the impact of the pandemic and the necessary public health restrictions, some community employment sponsors have also faced challenges in maintaining the normal level of participation on community employment projects during the pandemic. This has resulted in vacancies on a number of schemes which, although not an issue for most schemes given the relatively low level of activity generally, is posing challenges for some.

Accordingly, in order to support community employment and Tús projects to restore and maintain continuity of service provision to local communities, all community employment participants whose contracts would have come to an end since the imposition of level 5 restrictions last October have been given an extension, at least until the end of March 2021. There are 5,000 such contract extensions and if necessary, these extensions will continue past 31 March. There will be no sudden cliff edge or date on which all contracts will come to an end. Whenever we get to the stage of returning to normal, the phasing out of community employment contracts can be done on a staggered basis at a local level to ensure key services can continue. In doing this I am mindful that a key purpose of community employment and Tús schemes is to support long-term unemployed people by providing them with an opportunity to gain work experience and develop skills while delivering services to their local communities. Accordingly, in order to ensure a fair distribution of community employment and Tús opportunities, we will be prioritising a return to normal jobseeker referral processes once restrictions are lifted. We will also be introducing 3,000 additional places, as provided for under the July jobs stimulus and are actively engaging with sponsors towards this end. When providing community employment training places, we need to prioritise those who can be furthest from the labour market, such as members of the Traveller and Roma communities, those in receipt of a disability-related payment and people recovering from addiction. We need to focus in particular on those jobseekers who have been on the live register since before the original Covid emergency in March last year.

I acknowledge the staff of the Department across the country who are also front-line workers and who have been taking risks for the good of others and for our battle against Covid. I acknowledge and appreciate them.

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