Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom tús a chur le mo ráiteas le fáiltiú roimh an Aire. I welcome the Minister. Like Senator Currie, I wish to indicate that I will not be here for her response as I have another event to attend but I will read back the transcript of what she says.

I welcome the Bill in the first instance. There are a number of positive elements in this legislation. Of course, I welcome increases to payments for some of the most hard-pressed families. There are a few issues I would like to raise on Second Stage with the Minister on behalf of Sinn Féin. No doubt the Minister will be familiar with them, given her engagements with our spokesperson, Deputy Kerrane. As welcome as the core payment increases are, it is important to note they are not enough to lift people out of poverty. There are close to 40 different social welfare payments. The social protection system in this State has a lot of variety. In all likelihood, everyone in the State will receive some form of social welfare payment at some point in their lives such as child, illness or maternity benefit, disability allowance, jobseeker's allowance and so on. Wide and varied as the system may be, it is only as good as the adequacy of the payment rates.

The Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice has been calling for a working-age payment based on the minimum essential standard of living and we support this call. The consumer price index rose by 9.2% between October 2021 and October 2022. Even after these increases, people will still be chasing their tails as the cost-of-living crisis continues month after month. Social welfare rates are still not being set against anything evidence-based. We know and accept that the minimum essential standard of living cannot be achieved overnight. It would be a significant expense on the Exchequer, but as access to healthcare and childcare improve, the minimum essential standard of living will reduce. This will mean payments do not keep having to increase. At the end of the day, what should the social welfare system be for but to protect people from poverty?

Energy poverty is growing and hugely concerning for everyone. Unfortunately, the Government has been burying its head in the sand on energy poverty. In early 2021, we published the results of a survey that Deputy Kerrane conducted about people's experiences of energy poverty. She did this, in part, to highlight how poor the Government's own data collection is on energy poverty. Even before the inflation induced by the war in Ukraine kicked in, there were staggering levels of suffering. Our party is now conducting another survey. Instead of investigating the matter, the Government would rather see no evil and hear no evil. It is important to remember that when the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, published its report on energy poverty numbers at the start of the summer, it was not the Government that commissioned that research, but it was private philanthropists. Sinn Féin produced legislation that would ensure the Government would monitor and report levels of energy poverty. I encourage the Minister to consider the provisions on that in this Bill.

We need an energy poverty strategy. The previous strategy was allowed to lapse in 2019 and we have seen nothing since. Changes were made to the fuel allowance for older people, which is important. It will make a significant difference for many older households and it is most welcome. The Minister could have linked the working family payment to the fuel allowance, given that they are provided to low-income households. We also called for a discretionary fund to help those who are struggling but are not eligible. This is a missed opportunity by Government in that people are struggling with the cost of heating their homes but find no supports available to them.

We need to look at other issues, including reports on rates based on the minimum essential standard of living; on extending the provision of the disability allowance to agents in the case of the bereavement of a child; and on including apprenticeships as education for social welfare payments. These are modest, reasonable and doable requests. I have no doubt my colleagues in the Seanad will engage with the Minister and her officials in a positive way as this Bill progresses through the House.