Seanad debates

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

7:20 pm

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I certainly hope that the review of the apprenticeship scheme being carried out by the Minister for Education and Skills will become one of the opportunities.

The mortgage interest supplement was also raised by many Senators. In recent years during this crisis, the Department of Social Protection has spent €319 million on mortgage interest supplement. I would like to outline two cases by way of example. In the first case, the family have a mortgage interest supplement for six years on a loan of roughly €250,000, which after six years is still €250,000. The Department of Social Protection will have paid €54,000 in mortgage interest supplement. The problem is that the banks have been laughing all the way to the bank. That money is paid directly to the bank and not to the individual couple. In many cases, the scheme severely restricts their capacity to go back to work to take fully paid employment because they will lose the supplement. The place for these arrangements to work out is between the bank and the individual through the mortgage resolution process. I want to assure Members that we will do this over a four-year period, but it is important to help families caught with mortgage interest support.

In the second case, the Department has paid €66,000 in mortgage interest to a bank over seven years, with no outcome in the reduction of the loan arrangement or any other resolution arrangement by the bank. What I hope to see is banks entering a resolution process so that people can then get on with their lives, keep their family home, and in the case of people on mortgage interest supplement, return to full employment. The scheme, as it has operated, has not done that, but this will be phased out over a four-year period to take account of the different situations.

This year, the Department will pay €44 million for the telephone coverage, mostly to the biggest provider in the field, which is Eircom. There is a challenge for everybody here, including those in business. The Eircom package costs roughly €27 per month. The biggest charge on an older person's telephone bill is that standing charge of €27 per month, of which the Department of Social Protection pays €9.50. This is an extraordinarily high standing charge for the fixed line. The actual call costs on an older person's bill are between €4 and €7 per month. A number of telephone providers have already come forward to offer older people enhanced deals. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government provides €250 per year, but it is conditional on having a land line. Technology is advancing and this is becoming more mobile. I saw one of the companies offering a very attractive package of €40 per month, which included the land line, a mobile, calls through both systems, a fairly extensive television package and small broadband package. There are ways in which much better offers can be made to people on a social welfare incomes.

Many detailed questions were asked about the youth guarantee. When I became chairperson of the EU Employment and Social Policy Council, I made it a priority to get the youth framework agreed. We managed to do that even though people felt that the EU would not, as an institution, be able to do it. We will now have an agreement by the end of the year among the member states as to what this will envisage. We have already hugely increased the number of places available on a variety of schemes in the Department. Deputies from outside Dublin will be familiar with the Momentum courses, which are being offered to people who are unemployed for more than one year in specific areas with strong employment possibilities like digital skills. As was raised by Senators Bacik and van Turnhout, I am happy to come back at a later stage to discuss the youth guarantee in some detail. We do not have all the details at the moment. Senior officials from the Department will be at the joint committee on Thursday to outline how the work is going ahead.

We have to agree this with our European partners, but I hope to see a package provided ultimately, because the EU will supply matching funding to Ireland under the European social fund. It is the first time in a long time that Europe has done this. I hope it is a return to a more socially orientated Europe that is not just about bankers. The Irish draw-down will be around €32 million per annum. There is matching funding involved, and while there is much paperwork involved - a number of Senators have a lot of experience of this kind of funding - it is a very positive move for Europe as a whole. In the recent statistics, our rate of youth unemployment happily moved downward from a very high 31% to about 28%. That is slow progress, but it is progress nonetheless and it is going in the right direction.

I know there are different views among Senators about maternity benefits. We have one of the longest periods of State payments of maternity benefit at 26 weeks, when the European request is for 14 weeks. Countries like France and the Netherlands, which have very strong social support systems, actually provide support for 16 weeks. The Irish social welfare system, in the context of the loss of 250,000 jobs after the crash, has maintained a very strong level of payment. The maternity payment remains one of the highest payments in our social welfare system for one of the longest periods of weeks that is available. I am happy to say that many employers pay staff nearly full wages when their employees have gone on maternity leave. Senator Bacik pointed out that solicitors and the Law Society have reached an agreement to keep people at their full rate of payment.

Senator Norris raised the issue of homelessness.

The Department of Social Protection's role regarding homelessness is to support homeless people through income maintenance. Homeless people have an entitlement to the full range of social welfare schemes, including supplementary welfare allowances and associated settlements. The Department works through the homeless persons unit and the asylum seekers and new communities unit. Where a young person is leaving care we have specific arrangements, formerly with the Department of Health and more recently with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

With regard to the bereavement grant, as Senator Mooney showed in his example, there is a contrast between the cost of funerals in different parts of the country. It ranges from €3,000 to €10,000, which is very striking. I do not know the reason for that, but it certainly merits an inquiry. There is a range of supports-----

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