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

Thank you for your good wishes, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I welcome the opportunity to address the Seanad on Covid-19 matters and look forward to hearing the views of Members.

Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas and as Minister for Social Protection I am always open to hearing and considering how we can do things better. Since the onset of this crisis, the Government has taken a range of measures to protect public health and limit the spread of the virus and has also put in place a range of income supports that mitigate the financial impact on households and businesses.Through the various payments to individuals and employers, the Government has distributed more than €10 billion to our citizens since March 2020, demonstrating the level of Government commitment to supporting those impacted. From the outset, I want to assure everyone that as we move forward, the Government will not be found wanting in terms of supporting people affected by the pandemic.

In the time available, I will outline the range of measures my Department has put in place in recent months. The pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, and the enhanced illness benefit are my Department's main income supports which were developed and quickly mobilised in response to the pandemic. I have also introduced a range of other measures that have acted as supports for families, lone parents, the elderly and people living alone, which I will touch on in this statement. I believe it is important to again acknowledge the staff of my Department who work tirelessly to process payments and ensure our people across all ages get help in a quick and timely manner.

I will now outline the position around the PUP. Since last March when the PUP was introduced, my Department has made more than 14 million payments to more than 820,000 people at a total cost to date of more than €5.5 billion. This week, my Department issued the PUP to almost 480,000 people at a total cost of just over €144 million. Clearly, the PUP continues to act as a vital support for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families. A priority from the beginning of this pandemic has been to ensure that income still flows into the households that need it most. For this reason, a decision was taken early on to allow for the payment of the PUP concurrently with key supports for low-income and lone-parent families. These include the working family payment, one-parent family payment, jobseeker's transitional payment and the back to work family payment dividend.

Another group I have endeavoured to support during this crisis is the self-employed, who are central to reviving the economy post Covid. With the support of my Oireachtas colleagues, I introduced changes so that self-employed people can now earn up to €960 over an eight-week period, while still retaining their full PUP entitlement. This measure has been welcomed by a number of sectors, including those in the arts and entertainment sector, and the taxi industry. This, for example, provides scope for a musician to take up occasional gigs without the prospect of losing his or her PUP.

I was also pleased to secure the extension into 2021 of the Covid-19 enterprise support grant. This grant assists sole traders and small businesses, providing up to €1,000 to cover restart costs where a person transitions from the PUP back into self-employment. To date, almost 8,600 businesses have been supported under this grant at a cost of just under €8 million.

Research undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, examined the impact of Covid-19-related job losses on family incomes and found that 400,000 families have seen their disposable income fall by more than 20% in the absence of policy measures such as the PUP and the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. The ESRI also found that these measures were particularly effective in cushioning families at the lower end of the income scale from losses and, in fact, noted that some low-income families were financially better off than while in work. In its analysis of the budget changes, the ESRI also concluded that income inequality and poverty rates would have increased significantly in the absence of Covid-related policy supports such as the PUP and the TWSS.

Earlier this month, I secured Government approval for the PUP to remain in place at the current rates of payment until 31 March of this year. Obviously, given the extension of current restrictions until 5 March, we will now need to examine the future of the PUP beyond the end of March. That is a discussion I will be having with my Government colleagues over the next few weeks, taking account of where we are in terms of the trajectory of the virus and the roll-out of the vaccine programme.

I will now turn to the supports for people who contract Covid-19 or are exposed to the virus. Enhanced illness benefit, introduced early in March 2020, is paid to those who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 or who are a probable source of infection. This support is paid at the weekly rate of €350, in line with the maximum PUP rate. Since last March, more than 126,000 people have been medically certified for receipt of the Covid-19 enhanced illness benefit.The enhanced benefit encourages people to avoid going to work and to self-isolate. That is essential for a number of reasons, namely, to limit and slow down the spread of the virus, keep the number of people affected to a minimum and reduce the pressure on our health system. The support is payable for two weeks where a person is isolating as a probable source of infection of Covid-19 and up to ten weeks where a person has been diagnosed with Covid-19.

As I indicated, in addition to those core income supports, a range of other targeted measures have been put in place as part of budget 2021 to address issues that have arisen during the pandemic.  There have been increases in the qualified child payments, which benefit 419,000 children who are most in need of support.  The living alone allowance has increased by €5. This means that the value of the allowance has more than doubled over a two-year period. My Department has put in place flexibility to support lone parents where maintenance payments have been disrupted during the pandemic. In response to concerns about increased domestic violence, my Department has introduced flexibility to the rent supplement scheme in order that victims of domestic violence can get the payment for three months without a means test. The school meals programme has remained in operation throughout the pandemic, including during the summer and Christmas breaks. Funding continues to be provided by my Department to run the programme during school closures.

The fuel season was extended in 2020 by four weeks, at an additional cost of almost €37 million. Since 4 January, the weekly fuel allowance payment has increased by €3.50 per week to €28 for a period of 28 weeks. We have put arrangements in place to enable births and deaths to be registered online without the need for people to attend offices in person. As announced in budget 2021, parent's leave and parent's benefit will be extended from two weeks for each parent to five weeks. This will support parents of new babies impacted by the pandemic. My colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, is working on the necessary legislation to ensure parents can avail of this additional leave as soon as possible. 

A key role of my Department is supporting people back into employment as we move beyond the Covid-19 period. The July jobs stimulus package, designed in response to the Covid-19 crisis, comprises an investment of €200 million in skills development, work placements, training and education, recruitment subsidies, and job search and assistance measures. Measures will include the expansion of the local employment service, LES, into new areas that currently do not have such a service.  We have also secured funding for an additional 3,000 places on community employment and Tús schemes. An additional 100 job coaches will be assigned to Intreo offices across the country to help people get back to work. We have waived the waiting period for persons on the PUP who want to avail of the back to education allowance and back to work allowance schemes.  We will also be working closely with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in signposting people towards the 35,000 extra higher education places, apprenticeship schemes and other supports that are available. These and other supports will be a key focus of the new Pathways to Work strategy that is currently being developed.

Before I conclude, I take this opportunity to highlight that support is available to all who need it under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. That can include assistance towards heating or electricity costs, which is particularly relevant at this time.  I look forward to hearing Senators' contributions.