Results 1,521-1,540 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is a very good improvement and in fact goes back to where we were. It is back to the future. I agree with that. In fact, there is a good case that for as long as children are in full-time education, that should be paid. That is a big step. Will the Minister explain why it is 3 September rather than 1 January?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: All the other rises are from 1 January, are they not?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There are disappointed people out there, although not a lot of them. If you are-----

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I congratulate the Minister on that. How expensive is it?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is for the full year.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is out of a budget of €25 billion.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The point is taken. Does the Minister accept that is the equivalent of €64 out of €25,000, proportionately?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is proportionate to €64 out of €25,000. If you had €25,000 it would be like spending €64. If you start talking about billions, it is impossible for people to grasp the proportionality in question. As the Minister knows, no more than myself, if you come up with a saving or expenditure in a Department of €1 million, it does not save any money. It is...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I welcome it. If somebody is 18 years of age in February but they are still under 19, would they start getting paid from 3 September onwards?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: On the working family payment, people getting employment of any type is much more preferable as a system than jobseeker's allowance and all these combinations. I think the Minister knows that that interface of low-paid people is inhibiting people from working. Has analysis been done to work out what kind of costs would be associated with extending the income limits for the working family...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Have the numbers in receipt of this payment increased? Have we any idea of whether it would cost an awful lot of money if we were to increase the threshold a bit more?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I know it does but you have to subtract from the increase in the threshold the increase in the wages. I am wondering what would happen over time.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Is the number of people on the scheme increasing dramatically?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: How does that compare with when it started?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Have the numbers gone up? That is the point I am trying to get at.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It would be desirable for them to have gone up.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: All I am saying is that this is a very attractive, positive scheme that encourages work. For a long time, and well before I was in politics, this interface between welfare and work was a concern to me. Sometimes the welfare system was an inhibitor to work. This is one that always encourages people to work. The more it is the scheme of choice for people rather than jobseeker's' benefit and...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: This is what I am saying. I have a suspicion but I cannot prove it with regard to the cost of it, that as wages go up, the amount of money goes down and therefore it might not be as expensive as it looks. The more generous we are with it, the greater the incentive to take a job in the lower end.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: On looking at the little booklet the Minister has supplied to us today, which we deeply appreciate, the statistics for 2022 are a mine of information.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: If I have read the booklet right, the working family payment cost €415 million in 2016 and the scheme cost €361 million in 2022, which is the last year to feature in the booklet.