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

I thank all Deputies for their contributions.

Like all Members, each week I meet people in my constituency office and discuss with them the issues that impact their lives. I fully recognise the importance of our social protection system. As a former credit union manager, I know too well the real-life examples of people who, when they fall on hard time, need the support of the Department of Social Protection. The decisions that I have made as Minister and the decisions I will continue to make will be guided on how we can support those who need our help the most.

I have secured the largest social welfare budget package in more than 14 years. I have managed to do that in the context of unprecedented spending taking place to support people during the pandemic. Of course, I cannot do everything in one budget, and no Minister can. That is the reality of being in Government. The purpose of this Bill is to make real improvements within the resources we have available to make the social welfare system work better for people who are unemployed, our pensioners, our carers, people with disabilities, lone parents and those who live alone. A number of specific issues were raised. I will try to go through them as quickly as I can. This is my second budget Bill as Minister for Social Protection and I have seen first-hand the extraordinary effort the staff of this Department made when faced with a crisis. Their first thought is always of the person who needs our support and of providing a high-quality service to that person. I know that many Deputies have acknowledged that this evening. I want to thank them for those comments, because what the staff has done, and what they have continued to do during the pandemic, has been extraordinary.

I am going to try and cover some of the issues that have been raised. Deputy Naughten raised the issue of undocumented workers. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, announced a new scheme for them earlier and I welcome that announcement. It is important that we recognise the many people who are undocumented and who are paying their taxes. We want to make sure that they continue to get the supports that the rest of us get. I want to work with the Minister of Justice to do that as well. Comments were made about community welfare officers. They have on many occasions helped out those who are undocumented and they gave them the support that they needed. I support the community welfare officers. Indeed, I can confidently say that they know what is going on in our communities and in the communities in which they work. They work very hard. From my experience of dealing with them, I have always found them to be fair. Somebody said, “firm at times, but very fair”. I support them in the work that they do.

An issue was raised about the community employment, CE, schemes. I was glad to say at the committee earlier in the week that the Minister for Housing, Government and Local Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, and I will bring proposals to Government shortly to change the age from 62 to 60, for people who want to stay on the CE scheme. If people are aged over 60 and on a CE scheme, they can stay on it if they choose to do so. We will make changes to the referrals process so that more people are referred from INTREO to the schemes. We want to make sure that they get their fair share of the referrals. Finally, and most important, I will introduce changes so that where a scheme genuinely cannot fill a vacancy after advertising, the supervisors will be allowed to keep the existing CE worker in place, provided that person is happy to stay on. These schemes are not for people to stay on indefinitely, but that flexibility is needed because the scheme serves two purposes. First and foremost, it is a job activation scheme, but it also provides a wonderful social service in our communities. We need to support that as well.

Deputy Calleary mentioned CE scheme supervisors and their pensions. At the start of April, an agreement was reached with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on proposals to resolve this long-standing issue. These proposals include a financial package. We are working on that. My officials continue to progress this as a matter of priority. I hope these discussions will come to a conclusion.

On the minimum essential standards of living, MESL, report, my Department has supported the work of the Vincentian Partnership on the MESL for a number of years. Indeed, budget measures such as the higher qualified child increases for older children and the living alone allowance have been a direct result of that research. To raise all social welfare rates to the MESL would cost approximately €2.78 billion. Incrementally, we want to improve these rates.

On the fuel allowance, which has been raised by a number of Deputies, it is an unusual step for any social welfare measure to take effect on budget day. I do not know if it ever happened previously, but we increased the fuel allowance from the day the budget was announced. We have changed the means test. The means test threshold has been increased by €20. That has also applied from budget day. Sometimes we are not able to apply these changes immediately because they have to be worked into the IT systems and it takes time to do that. As Deputies will be aware, earlier this year, we had that awful cyberattack on the HSE. When we build systems, we have to make sure that they are robust. It takes that wee bit longer to make some of the changes. However, I was glad that we were able to apply the fuel allowance changes straight away. Most people will agree that we need to tackle the root cause of the problem, which is energy efficiency. A total of €202 million announced in the budget by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, for the better energy warmer homes scheme. Let me put it this way: we keep all these supports under review and we are looking at how we can further reduce fuel costs for people on it. The Ministers for Environment, Climate and Communications, Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform are examining this issue.

Many issues were mentioned and I am trying to cover them. On the working age payment and the jobseekers’ rate, the best way to combat youth unemployment is to incentivise young jobseekers to access further education and training, FET, to obtain sustainable full-time employment. Through my Department's INTREO service, young jobseekers can access education and training supports, such as the back to education allowance, the vocational training opportunities scheme, Youthreach and SOLAS programmes. Earlier independent research carried out by Maynooth University found that age-related rates are a positive policy response to prevent long-term welfare dependency. As part of the pathways to work scheme, we have a number of measures, including ring-fencing at least 4,000 places on the work placement experience programme for young people, increasing the JobPlus youth age limit from 25 to 30 and providing 50,000 FET places. Reduced rates of jobseeker's allowance do not apply to jobseekers under the aged under 25 who have qualified children, or those who are in the care of the HSE immediately before they turned 18. There are some exemptions, therefore, in this regard.

The issue of carers' payments was brought up again. The significant changes to the carer's means test were the first changes for many years. They were strongly welcomed by carers' groups, who represent family carers throughout the country. Last year, I increased the carer's support grant by €150 to bring it to €1,850. This is the highest level this grant has ever been.

The issue of carers was brought up with me last year so I was glad I was able make those changes.

Deputy Kerrane raised the matter of the State pension for carers. The Commission on Pensions has made proposals to support carers with the award of a contributory State pension if they are long-term carers, that is, if they have been caring for more than 20 years. The recommendation is that the Exchequer will pay to cover any gaps in their contribution history in respect of time spent caring, in order to assist them in receiving a full State pension. I will work with my officials over the coming months to examine each recommendation the commission has brought forward. The matter is now with the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands.

I had better not keep the House any later or I will be in trouble. I will continue to work with all Members of this House, with the joint committee and with organisations representing our most vulnerable groups to continue making improvements to the social protection system, in order to alleviate poverty, support people to get into sustainable employment and provide a social safety net to people throughout the country and throughout their lives. That is what this Department is about. We are here to help people when they need it most and there are different times in our lives when we need that helping hand. I look forward to passing this Bill over the coming weeks with the support of both Houses so that people can feel the benefits of these measures in January.

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