Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This year is my second as Minister for Social Protection and for Rural and Community Development. It was also my first and probably last budget as Minister for Justice, and I look forward to welcoming the Minister, Deputy McEntee, back in November. If I have time, I will touch on the progress we have made across those three Departments.

This year represented the largest social welfare package in any budget for the past 14 years. That we could introduce a package of this scale on the back of over €9 billion being paid via the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, over the past 18 months demonstrates our clear commitment to supporting the most vulnerable in society. We have provided over €558 million for new social welfare measures in 2022 and I also secured Government approval to make the Christmas bonus double payment at an estimated cost of €313 million. This means the total social welfare package announced is in the region of €870 million. This will allow us to increase core social welfare payments and pensions by €5. It is important that this increase will take effect from January and not March or April, as was the practice in previous years.

For every €5 increase in core payments, there will also be proportionate increases in qualified adult payments, meaning the increase in some households will be somewhere between €8.30 and €9.50 per week. For households in receipt of two primary payments, such as a contributory pension, the increase will be at least a tenner.

In addition to the first across-the-board increases in core payments for three years, I am very pleased to secure agreement for a targeted package of measures worth €185 million to support our most vulnerable. This includes major changes to the carer's allowance means test, particularly for couples. I have engaged with carers and listened to their concerns, and I am proud to be the first Minister in 14 years not just to make changes to the carer's allowance means test but to make changes that are significant and far-reaching. This will ensure thousands more carers will qualify for a payment and, equally important, it will ensure many others currently on a reduced rate will qualify for a higher payment.

Last year I increased the carer's support grant to its highest level of €1,850. This year I have increased the weekly carer payment and significantly reformed the means test in a reform that has been long-awaited. I have also made changes so the domiciliary care allowance and carer's allowance will continue to be paid for six months when a child is in hospital. However, I wish to make clear tonight that my work for carers is not done and next year, my priority will be to ensure that long-term carers are provided with pensions. We cannot always do everything we want in one budget but over the course of three budgets, I am determined to leave a social protection system that works better for carers and recognises the major work they do.

This budget supports low-income families and I have once again increased the qualified child payment, which has been proven to help reduce poverty. I have also increased the income thresholds for the working family payment, thereby ensuring more families will be brought into the scheme, while those already in receipt of the payment will get an additional sum of approximately €6 per week. I also am conscious of school costs for families, which is why I have increased the back to school clothing and footwear allowance by €10. I am once again expanding the hot school meals programme, with over 300 schools now set to benefit. That is a tenfold increase since I became Minister last year.

I am also pleased we are once again in a position to increase parent's leave from five weeks to seven weeks for each parent. These additional two weeks' of leave and benefit will apply during the first two years of a child's life, or in the case of adoption within two years of the placement of the child with the family. I was also very keen to support lone parents with this budget, which is why I have addressed the unfairness in the system so that in future, the same income thresholds for the back to school allowance will apply for both lone parents and couples. This change will benefit more than 1,700 lone parents. In addition I have increased the one-parent family payment by €5.

I am very conscious that employment rates for people with disabilities in Ireland are too low, which is why I have introduced a series of measures to support people with disabilities in employment. This includes changes to the disability allowance means test and an increase in the wage subsidy scheme for people with disabilities to €6.30 per hour. Grants such as the workplace equipment adaptation grant will now be available through the employability service. Meanwhile, the new regulations known as "Catherine's law", which were introduced earlier in the year in respect of PhD scholarships, will be extended to people on the blind pension. This represents a significant package of targeted social protection measures to help people with disabilities into the workforce.

The main Opposition party did not propose increasing the fuel allowance by a single, solitary cent in its alternative budget but the Government has introduced a €5 increase to support those most at risk of fuel poverty. In addition, we have increased the means threshold from €100 to €120, or a 20% increase, whereas Sinn Féin in its alternative budget only proposed a 10% increase. We have also reduced the time spent on the jobseeker's payment that qualifies a person for fuel allowance from 15 months to 12 months. These changes will bring thousands more people into the net and ensure they qualify for the payment.

We have also increased the living alone allowance to €22, up from just €9 in 2019, which will support older people and those with disabilities who live by themselves. Together with the significant steps on retrofitting being introduced by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, there is a major suite of measures to help reduce energy costs for our most vulnerable.

I am to pleased to introduce changes to the treatment benefit scheme, meaning more young workers will be able to avail of support for dental and eye care. I have also introduced a new grant of up to €500 for the purchase of wigs to support people with alopecia and those undergoing chemotherapy. I know this will mean a lot to those women and men who suffer sudden hair loss, which can have a major impact on their confidence and mental health.

This is, by any reasonable analysis, a very significant social protection budget, the largest in 14 years. Of course, we can never do everything we want.

Budgets are about making choices. The reality is if we had done more on across-the-board increases, which some people called for, there would be no room for some of the other important measures we introduced, such as support for our carers, people with disabilities, lone parents and those who live alone. We have tried to strike a balance and most fair-minded people will agree we have achieved that.

Our Rural Future is a new policy that is making a big impact. Every member of this House will be familiar with schemes such as town and village renewal, CLÁR, outdoor recreation and the rural regeneration and development fund. These programmes are hugely popular and are making a real, lasting and positive difference in rural communities throughout the country. I am pleased, as part of the national development plan, NDP, and the budget process, to have secured increases for all our rural schemes in 2022. In addition, I will provide funding for town regeneration officers in local authorities throughout the country so they can co-ordinate and utilise these funding streams, and others across the Government, to ensure they are delivering maximum impact in our rural towns and villages.

The one positive from the pandemic is the return of our young people to rural Ireland as a result of remote working. As we continue to develop our national hub network, connected hubs, I am pleased to have secured additional funding for next year, which will allow us to introduce further incentives to attract remote workers to rural Ireland. I am also pleased to have secured additional funding for rural recreation officers who will help to drive forward the expanded national walks scheme, which I recently announced. I also intend to launch a new funding scheme for community centres early in the new year, a scheme I expect there will be major demand for.

On justice, next year An Garda Síochána will celebrate 100 years since its foundation. We will mark this milestone in an appropriate manner throughout next year but it is fitting that by the end of 2022, and as a result of this budget, An Garda Síochána will be stronger than it has ever been. The recruitment of 800 new gardaí and 400 Garda staff members means we will meet and beat our target of a 15,000-strong Garda Síochána by the end of next year. This reflects this Government's commitment to tackling crime, strengthening our national security and transforming policing.

This week, we also marked 25 years since the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. The CAB has been hugely effective in hitting organised criminals and their networks where it hurts: by seizing their ill-gotten gains for the good of our people. In recognition of its success and the success of other State agencies I am pleased to announce the establishment of the community safety innovation fund. This fund will reflect the success of the CAB and others by funding local projects to improve community safety.

As the Minister, Deputy McEntee, said in the Justice Plan 2021:

[F]uture generations will look back on the scourge of domestic, sexual and gender based violence and ask why [was it] tolerated as a lesser form of crime or abuse for so long. That period is over.

This Government is determined to tackle a crime and a culture that, for far too long, has been a blight on our society. Working together across Government we will help victims and punish perpetrators. A €13 million justice package in budget 2022 will help us do that.

Budget 2022 cannot be looked at through the narrow prism of one individual measure. It must be considered in the round, taking account of the positive changes happening across all Departments. I am confident the increased funding across my three Departments will make a real difference to our most vulnerable, to those living in rural communities and, indeed, to ensuring those communities are safer places to live, work and raise a family.

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