Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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30. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the new measures his Department may be considering regarding the way in which unpaid forms of work such as caring may be rewarded by the State; and the initial measures in this regard he may introduce in the next budget. [26234/17]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Following questions to the Taoiseach earlier on how we value caring work, I saw in one of the Minister's manifesto documents recently that this is one of his stated aims. I want to work out the detail of what the Minister will do, recognising, as I see it, that the current system is deeply unfair particularly for parents in the home. We support every couple in whatever parenting they do. There is an almost €4,500 difference in take-home pay between a dual income couple with an income of €50,000 between the two of them and a single-income family because our individualised tax system discriminates against single-family payments. It is the same with the new system the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, has introduced. I very much welcome it, but it introduces a further €2,000 disadvantage to anyone who may decide to raise children at home. A total of 75% of Irish children are raised by parents choosing that option but everything we do says not to do it. I am keen to see how we can reverse this trend because it is wrong.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The reply I have before me relates to the carer's allowance, but the Deputy is speaking about something much broader so I will answer the question the Deputy has put.

I am sympathetic to the argument the Deputy is making. It is important that we subsidise child care. The cost of child care is a major barrier to work for many people, men and women, but particularly lone parents. The measures coming into place from September will make a big difference and will change quite considerably the household calculations people must make. It is only a start but it is a very important start and I am very much behind what the Government is doing in this regard.

I agree it is important. It is good social policy and probably good economic policy also to facilitate the choice of parents. Some parents do choose to try to get by on one income, and often make significant sacrifices to do so, because it is their decision they would like to have a parent in the home, or a parent who is largely in the home. This is why I put in my paper recognition we need to take account of this. In my view, the best way to do this is by continuing to increase the homemaker's tax credit. There was an increase in the homemaker's tax credit in the budget just gone by, but I anticipate it could be increased progressively and substantially, as resources allow, to cover exactly with the Deputy is speaking about.

I note the enthusiasm of my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government for bringing the Green Party into Government, and perhaps this is one of the areas where Deputy Ryan and I agree.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That depends on how far the Minister goes. There was an increase in the homemaker's tax credit in the previous budget but it was buttons. Fundamentally, the message from the Government has been it will support people who care for other people's children and it will pay for it, but if people care for their own children it does not care and those people do not matter. This needs to change at scale. This cannot just be a marginal few bob here, a few bob in the next budget and a few bob promised in five or ten years' time. The reason I was interested in the line in the Minister's paper, where he stated we must value caring work, is I believe it is a quintessential central economic issue that we must change our ways. The Minister is right that it is a better economy. Elizabeth Warren has described what happens to economies which are tied into supporting only one type of option. They end up with consequences in property prices and the dual income trap about which she has written. It is bad economics as well as being fundamentally wrong.

I would very much like to see the homemaker's tax credit increased, but there would be people left out, such as lone parents, people below the tax income and single-parent families. It does not address all of the inequities that exist. To go into the detail of it, and I will not negotiate here but I want to give an idea to those parents who have an acute interest in it, what scale of change would the Minister make to the tax credit? How would the Minister address some of the inequities for those other groups, such as lone parents, single parents and people below the tax net, so they are not discriminated against?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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We do care as a Government and I certainly care. We have child benefit in Ireland, which is at the higher end of child benefit payments throughout the world. It is universal and does not make any distinction between parents who decide to parent at home or those who decide to or have to work outside the home. It is not always a decision to have two incomes. Some people have to do so because of the cost of living. When we were negotiating, alongside the former Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, the free GP care for children aged under six, I was very conscious of the impact it would have on household budgets.

The cost of increasing the homemaker's tax credit is €7 million for every €100 in the credit. I did not specify an amount in the paper I produced because, as I stated in the paper, everything is contingent on the public finances and the ability to pay. I acknowledge that a €100 increase in the homemaker's tax credit is quite small. It is very modest. What I have in mind is something much greater than this. What the Deputy is touching on, and what I need to do a lot more work on, and certainly the next Minister for Finance might be able to do some work on it, is whether the homemaker's tax credit could be made refundable. This would entirely deal with the issue the Deputy mentioned. Not having access to this type of information, I did not want to write it into the paper.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That is the right direction to take. I agree that refundable tax credits are one of the steps we must take towards a basic income type of social welfare system in which people will be free to be enterprising and do caring work, thus valuing a range of work options. I would support a move towards a system of refundable tax credits and pressure being put on the Department of Finance in that regard. I have been in that position previously and it was not easy to get it over the line. We should consider it. There are other measures the Minister might also include in the mix for inclusion in the budget. Many parents were caught out by the reductions that were applied to the one-parent family payment and the restriction to children aged seven years. If one's child was over seven years of age, one did not apply for any of the credit. Many single parents who were not able to gain any income, let alone dual income, were particularly disadvantaged. It is a target group. When considering addressing acute poverty, that is another measure we should examine.

Last but not least, I heard the Minister mention recently that he was considering increases in parental leave, maternity leave and other leave arrangements. Ireland is often mentioned with other Scandinavian countries such as Finland, Denmark and Norway which have a much better system of such leave arrangements. These arrangements must also be in the mix in order that people who wish to work would be given the capability to take longer breaks. That is another measure which would allow people at a particular time to care in the way they wished to do.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The direction of travel in terms of parental leave, if I have any influence over it, is that there should be more and a couple should be able to share it. It is important that there always be dedicated maternal leave for particular reasons, but couples should be allowed some flexibility in how they use their parental leave. If we can afford it, through a far more modern social insurance system, the payment should be pay related. It used to be a pay related benefit. Obviously, it must be balanced against the impact on labour costs. That must also be taken into account. However, some of the best employers in the country such as some of the multinationals offer the best parental leave arrangements. Facebook, for example, offers four months paid paternal leave, which is extraordinary. I am not sure if SMEs could afford to do it, but it shows that an increasing number of employers are understanding finding and keeping good staff can be linked with the benefits and terms and conditions they provide.

I spoke to many of my counterpart Ministers in the Nordic countries, as well as in Estonia and the Baltic states. What is different about many of these countries is that they have a very low birth rate and are having difficulty in sustaining their populations, which is one of the factors involved in some of the policies they are putting forward. That is not the case in Ireland.