Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

32. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to extend the treatment benefit scheme to employed and self-employed persons; if he has conducted an analysis of the cost of extending the treatments available under this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25710/17]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Minister will be aware, treatment benefits were hit particularly hard in the cuts during the recession. My question is self-explanatory. What improvements does the Minister intend to introduce with regard to treatment benefits?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As outlined in the programme for Government and announced in budget 2017, I have extended eligibility to the treatment benefit scheme to include the self-employed, who were not previously covered.

From 27 March, self-employed contributors with sufficient PRSI contributions at class S, or class S combined with other previously reckonable classes of PRSI, are entitled to a range of treatment benefits. Currently, this covers a free annual dental exam, a free optical exam once every two years and a grant of up to €500, or 50%, towards the cost of a hearing aid. The treatments available under the optical and dental schemes will be extended further from October 2017 to include the previously available provision of glasses, as required every two years and a once-yearly dental scale and polish, or periodontal cleaning. It is estimated that some 450,000 self-employed contributors, including their dependent spouses, will be eligible for treatment benefit for the first time as a result of this change.

Almost 500,000 treatment benefit claims were received in 2016, and it is anticipated that there will be a significant increase in demand when the benefits available under the scheme are extended in October. The increased cost is estimated at €51.5 million in a full year. Financial provision for this anticipated increase in demand has been made in the Estimates budget for this and coming years. Any further extension to the benefits available under the treatment benefit scheme would have to considered in a budgetary context.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The scheme was extended to self-employed people from 27 March, which I accept, and the benefits for both the self-employed and employees will be extended under the scheme from October next. That has already been provided for. The Minister is engaged in his own election campaign at present and I notice that his manifesto refers to a further extension of the treatment benefit scheme. I presume that means a further extension on top of what has been provided already. Could the Minister clarify that? What exactly had he in mind?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

What I have found really heartening about the current contest under way in my party is the number of people talking about ideas and the number of people talking about my ideas and who have read my paper.

I am very grateful that Deputy Willie O'Dea took the time out to do so. He asked a pertinent question. It is, of course, an ideas paper, which is what it says on the cover. It is not a manifesto. The kind of ideas I have in mind include the restoration of some of the other treatment benefits that were abolished in the past. For example, people had a grant-in-aid towards other dental treatments, such as fillings, which was very common in the past. Another idea is better parental leave, which I think we would all support provided the Social Insurance Fund can sustain it.

I have a particular issue with sick pay. People who are in the private sector at the moment have to be out sick for five days before they get any sick pay. If one is on a modest income and is a private sector worker, losing a week's pay when one is sick is a bad hit. It could be months before it is caught up on. One thing I would like to see considered, which is done in other countries, is people having some of their medical bills refunded through social insurance. In France, for example, if one goes to see the GP, one gets a certain amount back from its equivalent of the Social Insurance Fund. Those are the kinds of ideas I have in mind.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I understand that invalidity pensions for the self-employed will be starting in December next. Can the Minister outline what the cost will be for that for a full year? What is the position on self-employed people who lose their businesses and want to claim jobseeker's benefit? The Minister indicated that he might introduce that scheme on a voluntary basis, as we have suggested. Has he given any further thought to that? Perhaps I should not have referred to the term "manifesto". The paper is about his ideas. How much are those ideas going to translate into reality?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I do not have the invalidity pension figure off the top of my head, but if I remember correctly, in the budget negotiations, we were estimating that it could cost as much as €80 million in a full year. I do not believe that is going to be the case but I respect the fact that my officials tend to be cautious when it comes to these calculations. Often, they perhaps estimate that things cost more than they will. They may turn out to be right on this occasion but I have a small bet with one of my officials on that. I might not be able to claim it until Christmas next year.

The question of jobseeker's benefit is under examination. What I have in mind is something very similar to the Deputy's own proposals, which is something voluntary through volunteering to pay a higher rate of PRSI in return for some form of jobseeker's benefit. For lots of reasons, including administrative reasons, the earliest we could introduce that would be towards the end of next year. However, it is better late than never.

I believe my ideas are very real because I am proposing that we do not fully abolish the USC and that we merge it with PRSI into a new social insurance payment. In return for that, we will give people real benefits. People resent the USC because they associate it with the recession and austerity. The know that they do not get any defined benefits from it in return. Social insurance is something that is very different. It is where people pay into the system and in return for paying into the system, they receive benefits. That is something I strongly support.