Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I genuinely would like to be standing here welcoming an increase in the basic welfare payments. I cannot do so, however, because the budgets for 2020 and 2021 provided no increase in those payments. Given inflation, they were, in effect, a cut in the payments and a continuation of the austerity affecting the most vulnerable in our society. Before the pandemic, 630,000 people in Ireland lived below the poverty line, including 165,000 children. A key component in reducing poverty is our social welfare system. Without social transfers, as the Minister knows, it is estimated that one in four of the population would be at risk of poverty.

Basic, core welfare payments are crucial, which is why the pre-budget submission from the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands called for an increase equivalent to the cost of living increase. Social Justice Ireland and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul called for a €10 increase as part of a strategy to align welfare payments with the minimum standard of living index by 2026. The €5 increase across the board will only, in effect, keep pace with inflation, which is estimated to be 3% in 2021 and 2.5% in 2022. It does not compensate for the failure to increase core benefits in the previous two budgets. The failure effectively to tackle high levels of poverty comes with a significant cost. The Hidden Cost of Poverty report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul puts that cost at €4.5 billion a year, which is more than the combined annual budgets for the housing, justice, transport and agriculture sectors.

I want to make a brief point about the fuel allowance increase. I have calculated that at the number of weeks it is payable multiplied by €33, the payment will put €900-plus in people's pockets to pay towards their fuel over the winter period. Daragh Cassidy of the price comparison site, bonkers.ie, has said that some suppliers have announced price hikes that will add up to €800 a year to energy bills. What the allowance is doing, in effect, is paying for the price hike in fossil fuels. The people in receipt of the allowance are getting the money to pay the price increase but will still have to find the money out of their income for the basic cost of their yearly fuel expenditure. The increase will not really benefit them in any way. The Minister will say the fuel allowance is there to help with the cost of fuel, not to cover the full cost, which I accept. However, we now have a situation where the €33 a week will only cover the cost of the increase over a year of €800.

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, as many of my colleagues have acknowledged. In a radio interview this morning, six disability and mental health organisations came together as an umbrella group and called for the Indecon report on the cost of disability to be published. I really would like to hear the Minister's response to that request. The point has been made that the report was delivered to the Minister but has not been released to the public. We know the hidden cost of disability is high but we do not know the details of it. That is the whole reason the Indecon report was commissioned, in order that we could track it and look at policies on how to tackle it. John Dolan of the Disability Federation of Ireland said this morning that such a report was first mooted in 1996. It is 2021 now and we still have not seen it, which I certainly would like to do. Will the Minister tell us when she will produce that report? Another speaker this morning, Dr. James Casey of Independent Living Movement Ireland said it was nice to see the lights coming on for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities but what people need is equality based on human rights. He wants to see the report to be able to make that judgment.

I want to add my voice to the calls for a halt to the process of tendering for the for-profit model of local employment schemes and job clubs. The Minister did not oppose the motion in this regard by Sinn Féin earlier this week. She should act on the proposals set out in that motion rather than just burying it somewhere in the annals of Leinster House. I would like a commitment from her that she will follow up on it.

I welcome the changes in the carer's payment provided for in the Bill. However, I want to raise again the anomaly I have encountered in the case of a woman who has been working up to her 65th birthday, is on the full carer's payment and applied for the payment for people aged 65 but was refused it on the basis that she is not entitled to two payments. When she reaches 66, she was told, she will be entitled to payment. The Minister responded to my parliamentary question on this issue and she also said at the meeting we had the other day that she acknowledges this situation, which only affects a small number of people. I ask her to examine the matter urgently. Not so long ago, there was a situation where a young woman on disability allowance got a grant for further education, which affected her disability payment. The Minister rightly stepped in and made sure the payment was maintained, because it should not have been affected. I ask her to look at the case I have outlined and to backdate the payments for this woman and anybody else who is affected to reflect an entitlement to the age 65 benefit plus the half-rate carer's payment.

Finally, I want to comment on an issue being discussed at present at the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. I refer to the sustainability of the State pension given the demographic changes resulting from an ageing population. The Social Insurance Fund, which pays for the State pension and basic welfare payments, is funded by PRSI contributions from employers and employees. While employees' PRSI contributions are slightly above the EU average, those of employers are 50% below that average. If employers' PRSI were set at the EU average, approximately €8 billion-plus would be paid into the Social Insurance Fund every year. That would be a huge step forward in ensuring the sustainability of the State pension and increasing core payments based on the minimum standard of living index.

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