Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. Following on from Senator Craughwell, I note that one is always trying to strike a fair balance within the available resources. It is not an easy thing to do. Given the circumstances in terms of increases from limited resources, it was as fair as the Minister could possibly provide.

I very much welcome the fact that the self-employed now have access to the invalidity pension. It was always a deficiency of the system that the invalidity pension did not apply the self-employed. It is probably something we should look at further, including even the name of it. Many of those who qualify for invalidity pension are young and, as such, it is a different type of payment, the name of which does not always reflect its true nature. I welcome also the fact that the self-employed now qualify for the optical, dental and hearing benefits that are currently available to employees under the treatment benefit scheme. However, I have raised many times the issue of jobseeker's benefit for the self-employed. I was self-employed myself for 12 years. I know what it is about and the risks and challenges involved. We need to find a safety net for people who are self-employed and run into difficult times.

If a self-employed person's business fails, he or she is entitled to claim jobseeker's allowance and in some case, people get it. However, if one has any sort of assets at all, one may not qualify. It is not necessarily that it is all or nothing. One could come up with a jobseeker's benefit scheme that was perhaps introduced incrementally over time. Perhaps someone could qualify for that for three months. Currently, it is six months or nine months for a person who is on PAYE. Where someone with a young family is self-employed and his or her business goes to the wall, it would be useful if he or she could attend the local labour exchange and claim jobseeker's benefit for one, two or three months rather than having to go in and be means assessed, which could take a considerable period of time, and then having to go to the local community welfare officer to get supplementary welfare allowance. It is the sheer heartache involved and it is something that needs to be looked at.

I welcome the measures for lone parents. The independent evaluation under section 12 which is to be completed within nine months is a critical review. As a group, lone parents have experienced very difficult and challenging times. We all deal with them in our constituency offices. They are trying to do the best they can for their children and a lot of them get caught in the poverty trap. We must look at ways and means to ensure they can get back into employment as quickly as possible with whatever supports we can provide. They are a group I have huge time for. We need careful consideration and a major debate around that whole area.

Another group I want to touch on raises an issue that comes up quite often and which I have flagged before. I refer to married women in their mid-60s who are looking to qualify for the old-age pension in their own right. Many of them are not qualifying. The contributions requirement went from 260 to 520 in the last number of years. Many of these women had to give up work because they were working in the public service or elsewhere. It is a group we need to look at. The homemaker's scheme was introduced a number of years ago, but there may be further refinement needed so that this group qualifies for a pension in their own right.

I welcome the change from class K to class S for councillors. It makes eminent sense and should probably have been done years ago. For the 4% they were paying, they were getting no benefit whatsoever. They are now being moved to class S and will get a benefit in terms of an old-age pension. There are now many full-time councillors, which is something that must be acknowledged. I commend the Bill to the House and ask the Minister to consider some of those matters for the future.