Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Initially, I wish to echo the calls of previous speakers regarding the PUP. I take some solace from the Minister's words that the Government has not been found wanting and, to be fair, that has been the case regarding the PUP, the wage subsidy scheme and other schemes that have been rolled out.

I take some comfort from that, but I echo Deputy O'Dea Comments that people require certainty. I suppose it is hard to give certainty in the middle of a global pandemic, but where it can be given, it should be. The sooner we can make a decision on this aspect or indicate to the public what we intend to do, the better. It would give people great comfort.

I acknowledge the work of social welfare staff across the country. In Cork city, as Deputy Burke alluded to earlier, those staff have been doing Trojan work and their interaction with my office has been brilliant. I acknowledge that good work. I came here today with one question on a specific issue, but I think it might have broader connotations for other people in similar situations. It concerns people who may be in receipt of carer's allowance or who may be caring for somebody with a physical or mental disability or special needs at home, as mentioned earlier, or somebody looking after an elderly parent. The difficulty we have is that many of those people also work part-time jobs as well as being in receipt of carer's allowance etc.

I have come across several cases of people working part-time in care homes and nursing homes in situations where they have been front-line workers during this pandemic. The difficulty they now find themselves in, depending on the week or the month and as the virus has progressed, is that demand for such staff and services has increased and decreased and these people have sometimes found themselves working far beyond the 18.5 hours permissible under the social welfare entitlement they may be in receipt of. Ordinarily, they might not be allowed to exceed those 18.5 hours. In certain circumstances where the virus knocked out members of staff in a setting or if people had gone to work for the HSE, however, those people have now found themselves working beyond those permissible hours.

Some of those people are now receiving letters from Revenue looking for them to be reassessed. Whether I might be regarded as asking for clemency, consideration or exemptions, whatever way we want to describe it, I think their situation needs to be looked on favourably, where possible. As I said, those people put their shoulders to the wheel as the pandemic progressed. In many situations, if they had refused to work beyond their permitted 18.5 hours many nursing homes would have been understaffed or without staff. I ask the Minister to respond to that aspect of this situation and I ask if any consideration is being given to people in those circumstances.

I will leave the Minister with the last two minutes. I will take just 40 more seconds to say that, as the Minister knows, I spent much of my career teaching. At every opportunity, I have raised the free meals scheme in schools and listening to the opening remarks I am glad the scheme is to be extended throughout the length of the pandemic. That is welcome, but will the Minister consider extending that scheme, or reviewing it, for continuation even beyond Covid-19? The scheme now operates in schools, particularly DEIS schools, but deprivation is not specific to DEIS schools. It can be in all schools. In the 15 years I was teaching, I saw many children coming into school who would not have had a breakfast or a lunch but for getting those meals in school. We are in 2021 and there are many different households out there and many different people with different means. We must assess, as they are doing across the water in the UK, the possibility of rolling out the free meals scheme to all schools.

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