Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is very auspicious to have a strong, capable woman in the House on St. Brigid's Day. I thank the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, for attending.

I commend the Department because nobody foresaw the pandemic. It has been a mad year. The staff of the Department have done amazing work. I am aware from sitting on the Oireachtas committee that staff have put in an unprecedented number of hours to get all the payments processed. Bureaucracy can often cause delays but when the emergency came, staff put their shoulder to the wheel. I thank the Minister and her whole Department. I am aware that she is not long in the Department but, since she took over, she has got the whip out, which is great.

I want to make a couple of points on social welfare payments. I worked in the secondary school sector and I have friends who are guidance counsellors. We want to keep the number of people on the unemployment payments down to a minimum and we always want people to be working and engaged but an issue arises over apprenticeships and trainees. People have to be on social welfare for a minimum of six months before they can apply. This has an impact on leaving certificate and applied leaving certificate students in that when they finish their schooling, they must wait until January before they are allowed to do an apprenticeship or training course. I would like this to be re-examined, for two reasons. Many of the youths' peers start college in September. It would be good for them to be able to do the same. Second, if people are on social welfare for a certain amount of time, it might be hard to come off it. We should examine this. It is definitely an issue that guidance counsellors have asked me to raise. Doing as proposed would keep people off social welfare for the long period in question. There is a shortage of apprentices and trainees. Let us therefore consider the six-month lead-in.

The new CE schemes are great, as are the Tús schemes. An issue specific to rural areas is isolation. There are farmers who may have means but who may not have a social life. They want to join CE schemes but they cannot do so. We should consider this. For mental health, it is really good to create space. CE schemes are often brilliant for people's mental health. I have had telephone calls from people saying they really want to join CE schemes but who cannot do so. Wives of farmers who are worried about their husbands' mental health are asking whether there is any way in which the Department can consider allowing them to join a scheme because it would be an outlet for them.They have the farm but there is no company on the land. The cows are great but that will only get one so far.

I wanted to get an update on remote hubs. Great work has been done on DigiClare and in other places, with WiFi hubs being set up. There was a new announcement in the budget about €5 million that I had submitted a pre-budget submission about. Will that be given to local authorities or what will happen with that?

My colleague raised the issue of the shortage of home help and of carers, yet on the other hand we have people who have applied to become carers and home helpers but they do not meet the criteria because of the means tests. Old people ring me begging for home help, as do people who have applied to become home helpers or carers, and they cannot do the job because of means tests. There is something wrong with that. If people want to help and if there are people who need the help, we need to look at that. I feel strongly about this issue. I look forward to the Minister's responses.