Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need to consider the matter using an Oireachtas committee with which I am happy to engage and lend my support. However, it is important that the issue has cross-party support.

Senators Ardagh, Warfield and Wall raised the issue of the pensions commission and the pension age. The pensions commission has been set up and is comprised of 11 very capable people from various backgrounds, particularly employer groups, business groups and pension experts. The commission has met three times. It has a huge body of work to do and I hope that it will be able to report to me in June. I have given the commission terms of reference to consider the State pension in its entirety because we must consider the impact that it has, both on those who retire now and especially young people who will retire at some stage in the future. Interestingly, a Deputy asked the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council last week about the possibility of reducing the pension age to 65 years. The chairman was very clear about the impact such a move would have on the young people of today, which we must bear in mind. It is important that the young people of today enjoy the same benefits as those who retire today so we need to make sure that we consider the intergenerational issue. I am satisfied that the pensions commission will consider of the different aspects and make recommendations that take account of everybody's interests both young and old.

I have considered the issue concerning payments to 65-year-olds. I will introduce regulations that will formally remove the current requirement for people to sign on. The administrative practice has been in place whereby people do not have to sign on and just fill up one application form.People do not have to sign on. They do not currently have to stand in dole queues. They do not have to be actively seeking work and they will receive a payment of €203 per week for 12 months. I am now signing off regulations that formalise the arrangement that we currently have in place that was introduced a good number of years ago. For people who had worked all of their lives, it was demeaning for them to have to apply for the jobseeker's allowance so this issue has been dealt with and the current arrangement has been in place for some time.

Many Senators mentioned the fuel allowance. It has been increased but we need to consider it in a broader sense. There are a number of supports available through the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications that will help people to make the necessary changes to make their houses more energy efficient. A lot of grants are available and we are considering the retrofit scheme as well. I am happy to engage with the Senators on the issue and I know that it has been raised here several times. The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from energy poverty through the combination of supports that I have mentioned, investment in schemes to improve energy efficiency and the energy efficiency awareness initiatives. Indeed, one of the best ways to tackle fuel poverty in the long term is to improve the energy efficiency of the dwelling house through proper building and household insulation so the warmer homes scheme, which is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, is designed to do that. I take on board the points that have been made and I will consider the fuel allowance in the context of next year's budget.

The next issue is the pandemic unemployment payment for people over 66 years. Last March, when the previous Government established the PUP, people aged over 66 years were never entitled to it because the PUP is there to provide a basic level of income for people to live on. The €350 rate is the equivalent of the jobseeker's payment plus a qualified adult. A person in receipt of a contributory pension of €248 will get a qualified adult payment of between €165 and €222. Depending on his or her partner's age that could mean a person receives up to €470 per week overall, which is well in excess of the top PUP rate of €350. Of course we would love to be able to give everybody more money but we must target our resources, which I am sure Senators will appreciate. The PUP was created to look after the people who have no income because they have lost their jobs. To date, we have spent almost €4.5 billion on PUP and it has served as a safety net for hundreds of thousands of people during the pandemic. I appreciate that there are people who receive a pension but continue to work and are still in business. The restart grant is available to them if they own their own premises.

The next issue is the means test for the carer's allowance. I wish to point out that the means test for a carer's allowance is one of the most generous in the social protection system in that €332.50 of gross weekly income is disregarded in the calculation of means for a single person. The equivalent for someone who is married, in a civil partnership or co-habitating is €665 of combined gross weekly income. This means that a couple can earn in the region of €37,500 yet qualify for the maximum rate of carer's allowance.I am informed that some 92% of the recipients of carer's allowance have no means or means of less than €760 per week.

I will address the broader issue of carers. They have had a particularly difficult year with Covid because they have not been able to avail of some of the day services or the supports that are normally available. As a recognition of that, I wanted to improve the carer's support grant. The role of the Department is to provide a basic income; it is not our job to pay people for the important job they do. In terms of carers, that also involves the Department of Health, which carries out an important role. The Department of Health has a responsibility for the national carers' strategy so there needs to be a joined-up approach. I said in the Dáil that we should consider both sectoral committees coming together to do a study on the role of carers and how we can support them in the fantastic work they do. We know some carers have a greater burden than others and we are well aware of those situations. That is something we need to have a discussion on and I am happy to engage with the committee in looking at that issue. We all realise there are those who are doing it 24-7 and those who have a less demanding role. I am happy to work on that.

We have cleared most of the arrears. There are 6,000 cases remaining and we are working to get them cleared as quickly as we can. We are hoping to have most of them done by the end of the year. The main reason arrears accumulated was all the information was not provided. We wanted to get payments to them immediately and we went back to them when we had an opportunity to get more information. That has all been processed. Last week, there was a lot of money paid out for arrears. The majority of it is done but there are some that we are working on.

JobPath was raised by Senator Warfield. The average cost for JobPath services at the moment is €870 per jobseeker for a 12-month engagement. It is important to acknowledge that JobPath is only one part of the jigsaw. We have local employment services and Intreo offices. There are approximately 200,000 people on the live register. The number on the PUP is well down this week, thank goodness. It is down by more than 42,000 on last week so there are approximately 306,000 people on the PUP. Now is not the time to take away any of those job activation measures because people need the support to reskill, take up other jobs or help them in any way we can to get back into employment. People want to get back to work. JobPath is only one part of the jigsaw and I am expanding the local employment services and job clubs and these contracts are being extended into next year. I have spoken to the local development companies because they play a big role in the local employment services. We are working with those as well.

Senator Burke raised the issue of protection for sole traders in the event of closure of their business. This area of responsibility now falls under the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. He suggested that family homes should be excluded from the clawback for redundancy payments made by the State. I am happy to take up with him on the individual case he was referring to but the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is responsible for redundancy.

Senator Boyhan commended on the Department and I thank him for his kind words. The Department is here to help people and we are not trying to put obstacles in their way. That is important to say. The Senator raised an issue related to people aged between 18 and 22 who are in full-time education. "Yes, from 1 January", is the answer to his question. He mentioned carers and I have covered that. I have covered the pensions commission as well. Senator Dolan and Senator Buttimer mentioned carers as well. This time last year we were in full employment and we were in a different world. Having said that, I am confident that 2021 will be the year of the recovery. It is important we give people hope and there is no reason it cannot be. Many supports have been paid out and I hope people will spend them locally and support their local businesses. We know the value of the local shop from when we were in the depths of this lockdown and one was able to go and get what one needed there. We should not forget about them as we move on.

Senators Currie and Cummins raised the hot school meals programme. As the Senators said, it has been expanded. I have expanded the numbers and increased the budget. There is no doubt that hot meals are important to children. As a mother of two who spent years trying to think of innovative ways to get them to eat their cold lunch and comply with the school healthy-eating policy, I assure Senators that I understand that. I even tried sending food flasks but they were too awkward to carry so that did not work either. I thought if they had something warm it would be good for them on a cold day. I understand the value of the hot school meals programme. We are expanding it and will look at it in time, in conjunction with the Department of Education.

Senator Cummins referred to the role of the Department of Social Protection and the changing of that name. It was right to change it because our role is to protect and provide a basic income for people. We will look at the disablement benefit the Senator raised and I will talk to him about that case.

Senator Murphy spoke about the entertainment industry. He is very familiar with that industry and has been supportive of it in many ways. I thank him for his comments and I was glad to be able to accept the amendment in the Dáil whereby those in the industry are allowed to earn €960 every two months before it impacts on their PUP. That has been warmly welcomed.

Senator Ahearn spoke about the increase in parental leave. That is welcome and the legislation is under way. We hope to have it in operation as soon as we can. The reason for the delay in the payment is that we have to write the computer system again. There has been a great deal of pressure on our systems in terms of adapting them quickly to pay the PUP. Then we had the Christmas bonus and then we had the arrears. We are working on that and we will get it done as soon as the legislation is through. People can still take the leave and they will get the payment once the system is up and running.

I think I have covered most things and, once again, I thank Senators for their contributions. I look forward to coming back to the Seanad on Committee Stage. At the end of the day, we are all on the same page here. We all want to alleviate poverty where we can, to support people into sustainable employment and provide a high quality service to people throughout the country and throughout their lives. As I said earlier, the staff of the Department of Social Protection have done that this year. I thank Senators again and will see them on Committee Stage.