Dáil debates
Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Ceisteanna - Questions
Cabinet Committee Meetings
4:25 pm
Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform. [32097/17]
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In early July, the Government approved the establishment of Cabinet Committee B which will primarily cover the areas of Social Policy and Public Service Reform. The new committee met for the first time on Monday, 11 September.
The committee provides a forum to ensure that relevant Departments work together to deliver on commitments in the programme for partnership Government in areas such as education, children, equality, social inclusion, supports for particular vulnerable groups and continued improvements and reform of public services.
The work of this committee will help realise the Government's ambition to provide opportunities to everyone living in Ireland of all ages and backgrounds to participate fully and benefit from a recovering economy.
Some of the particular initiatives this committee will focus on include improved child care services, implementation of the action plan for educational disadvantage - I am pleased there have been significant improvements in the number of people with disabilities and the number of people from non-traditional backgrounds entering higher education - and improving services to people with disabilities. While social welfare income supports continue to be an important part of reducing child poverty rates in Ireland, achieving real progress in this area will also require improved access to public services, particularly early years and continuing education, reducing the cost of accessing services and increasing the number of parents who are at work.
The work of the committee will complement other approaches, including bilateral meetings with Ministers to discuss and progress priority issues within their areas of responsibility.
4:35 pm
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Was the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities discussed by the Cabinet committee? It was raised earlier in Leaders' Questions. It is time we in this House give a firm date for whatever needs to be done - as this process has been going on for a very long time - and that it will be completed in order that people who have been campaigning and are dependent on this convention to vindicate their rights will know that it will be enacted by a given date. I ask the Taoiseach to give a date for the formal ratification of the convention by Ireland.
On a second matter, with respect to employment, thankfully, there has been a discernible and measurable decrease in the number of unemployed to a rate of 6.3%. I understand the Government target is to reduce it to 5.5%. I also understand there is no target beyond that. I would like the Taoiseach to focus not only the unemployment rate but the employment rate. Only 65% of our working population actually works, which is much lower than that found in many developed countries. The UK and other countries have achieved a rate of 75%. If we consider those who are not in the labour market, and therefore not counted, it is primarily women and people with disabilities. The last census found that only 30% of people with a disability were in work. That is a miserable standard which we need to address. Will we, as a State, set new standards not only to provide jobs for the working population who are registered but consider excluded individuals, particularly people with disabilities, to ensure that their right to participate in our economy is fully vindicated?
Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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A decision was taken by the previous Government not to publish standard income distribution tables from budget documentation. That was clearly because of a desire to hide the impact of budgets, which the Taoiseach has described as unfair. Can he give a clear undertaking that this data will be provided in the context of the forthcoming budget?
Separately, the Taoiseach will recall that in August the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection announced in The Irish Timesthat old age pensions would come after other payments to social welfare recipients, if increases were to be proposed. A few days later she announced in the Irish Independentthat the opposite would be the case, that old age pensions would be the number one priority and would get a substantial increase. Given the Taoiseach's policy when serving as a Minister, is it now the case that members of the Cabinet are free to make whatever statements they wish about the budget? He might indicate what the Government's priorities are in terms of the social welfare budgetary provision.
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Is the Taoiseach considering changing or inserting serious conditions and penalties in public contracts and public procurement where firms awarded contracts by the State are found not to be in compliance with the tax code, are fraudulent in their tax affairs or are, as is the case, I would argue, with some accountancy firms here encouraging tax avoidance strategies for wealthy people? I refer to some construction or consultancy firms that are awarded big State contracts and are then often found to be up to this sort of practice. For example, on foot of a question I raised in the Dáil prior to the summer recess, a raid was carried out on the building site where the regeneration of Dophin's Barn is taking place during the summer because the workers on that site had not received payslips for two months. They were working on a public contract project. That raid was carried out subsequent to my raising the issue here, but, as of the last report I heard, those workers still have not received payslips. Is that not incredible? This is a public contract for a major job and those workers are not getting payslips. I contend that is due to bogus self-employment practices, but that needs to be investigated. Any firm found guilty of that practice should never ever be awarded another public contract. Will the Taoiseach consider measures like that for firms that are awarded public contracts and then found to be up to this sort of sharp practice?
Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Cabinet committee on social policy and public service reform examine the crisis faced by young people in receipt of jobseeker's benefit, who, as a result of Government policy, have had their income sliced from €193 to €102 a week? Focus Ireland and the National Youth Council of Ireland have been highlighting the consequences of this since 2009 and have called for these discriminatory cuts to be reversed. Will the Government consider providing an increase or ask the Cabinet committee to examine this issue in order to provide an increase in payment to these young people in next month's budget?
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I would state again that no decisions on the budget or the welfare package have been made but obviously the priorities will be informed both by what is in the programme for Government and in the confidence and supply agreement with the main opposition parties. Therefore, what is in those will be prioritised but no decisions have been made.
Regarding unemployment, the target is to reduce unemployment to between 5% and 6% and to reduce long-term unemployment - there will always be a certain number of people who are in between jobs or out of work for some reason - to less than 2.5%, which is a target we can achieve but it is not one that will be easy to achieve. Those targets are updated and reviewed from time to time.
Deputy Howlin was correct in what he said. The participation rate - it is a different thing - is the number of adults who are working or involved in the workforce. Our participation rates are still relatively low by European standards and they are lower than they were the last time the economy was this strong. We want to see those increase significantly in the years ahead. The Action Plan for Jobless households, published by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, very much sets out how we can do that in terms of extending activation to more groups of people and increase participation rates.
In terms of participation rates by people with disabilities, I very much agree with other Members of the House that I want to see the number of people with disabilities who are able to take part in the workforce improve in the time ahead. A number of measures have already been taken in that respect. Only last week the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, announced €10 million in funding for pre-activation supports for people with disabilities to assist them to enter the workforce. Before I finished my term of office as Minister for Social Protection, I changed the rules around the free travel pass to provide that if a person in receipt of a disability allowance or an invalidity payment takes up employment, he or she will retain their free travel pass for five years. Also, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is changing some rules around the disability allowance because many people in receipt of that allowance fear that if they take up a job and it does not work out, they will find it hard to get that allowance again. The Department will change the rules to provide that a person can have their claim suspended for a period of time, 12 weeks or longer, to enable them to try working and if it works out for them, that is great. If it does not, they will be automatically reinstated on their disability allowance. In addition to that, we will change the income limits around medical cards for people who are on disability allowance and other disability payments. From the survey we have done, we have found that the biggest single fear people with disabilities have is that they will lose their medical card if they take up employment. We have already agreed to change the income limits for people who are on disability payments. The Minister for Health intends to legislate for that in 2018. We will also raise the target for the percentage of people with disabilities employed in the public service from 3% to 6%.
4 o’clock
I am delighted to see the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection in the House because her Department is almost at the figure of 6%, but other Departments and agencies are not doing quite so well. One of the things we discussed at the Cabinet committee was having a bespoke recruitment campaign or bespoke access to positions for people with disabilities because if somebody who has a disability goes up in an interview against somebody who does not, he or she will be at a disadvantage. Perhaps what we should do is have dedicated positions or a dedicated entry route for people with disabilities. They were the things that we discussed and on which we agreed to make progress at the Cabinet committee. The main discussion was about the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I have explained the reason for the delay in that regard.
On the young jobseekers issue, it is welcome that the number of young people who are unemployed is falling rapidly and much faster than the general level of unemployment, which is extremely encouraging. In Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for example, the jobseeker's payment for young people is £50 or £60 which is unbelievably low and it is not the case that welfare rates are set in London. One of the changes we have made is that any young jobseeker who does anything else will receive the full adult payment. If he or she take a place on a community employment, Tús or Gateway scheme or goes back to education or if he or she is a carer, he or she will receive the full adult payment.
4:45 pm
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach did not answer my question.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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That is the answer.
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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About public procurement and public contracts.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We are out of time.