Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also feel it is very important to send a message to the staff of the Department of Social Protection that underscores how appreciative we are as a nation of their tremendous work and commitment over the past ten months. While they are not directly on the battlefield, as such, they are very essential front-line workers and they responded tremendously to a national emergency, pulling out all of the stops. We are fortunate to have a large social protection office in Longford town, under principal officers, Christine Gilligan and Brian Molloy, and the team there provided an exceptional service across a number of sections. It would be extremely remiss of me not to acknowledge their dedication and commitment in the face of the Covid-19 crisis over the past ten months.

As others have said, the Covid-19 support payments have been a critical lifeline for many and it was important that payments were released as quickly as possible. However, there are a number of ongoing issues, which I hope the Minister can resolve. Some people are still trying to rectify back pay issues. I appreciate that there was a considerable backlog of applications and additional staff were brought in. Tremendous inroads have been made in addressing the backlog but there are still some outstanding cases. I would like the Minister to provide a firm date for the resolution of back pay issues from 2020.

I have issues with the decision to back tax the PUP. As others said, when it was introduced it was not a social welfare payment in the strictest sense as it was very much an emergency payment and a lifeline. The benefit for the Government and the Exchequer of taxing both the PUP and the wage subsidy scheme is questionable. It has been a divisive move that has angered a lot of people. Nobody wished Covid on the country and nobody wanted to stop working because of Covid. We should take a sense-check on this and assess it. Certainly, in terms of what Revenue is saying, the net benefit from this tax is minimal. It was a retrograde step and while I appreciate that it is not fully within the remit of the Department of Social Protection, I urge the Minister to raise it at Cabinet level and review the decision. Workers have made significant sacrifices and we owe it to them to respond to that.

Others have mentioned the over-66s and I wish to refer to one small group within that cohort who have been adversely affected by Covid. I speak of people who turned 66 in 2020 and were due to get their State pension. One of my constituents turned 66 two weeks after registering for the PUP and another lady had a seven-week wait. In both instances they did not qualify for the PUP because they were going to get a pension later in the year but had no income for several weeks. While it may be a small number of people and involve a small amount, there is a principle at stake and I ask the Minister to examine this.

I have previously communicated with her on the issue of the inclusion of all families in receipt of the working family payment in the Christmas bonus scheme. This issue came to a head again last Christmas. The Government correctly decided to include Covid payment recipients in the Christmas bonus scheme. As it stands, some recipients of the working family payment got the Christmas bonus as it was paid concurrently with other social welfare payments such as the one-family payment but a small number were excluded and I would ask the Minister to examine this as well.

A large number of people engaged with the Department for the first time in their lives in the last year. It has been a hugely difficult time for them. The road to recovery is going to be very difficult and I do not see a situation where the tap is turned off on the Covid payments. As we seek to help businesses to reopen and communities to rebuild, these payments will be needed in one form or another.

In conjunction with the Department of Finance and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Minister will have to retain some level of payment to help businesses and workers return to normality, particularly in our most marginalised and rural locations.

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