Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and the Minister. I also thank Senator Craughwell for being so brief. I will try to be as brief; I am not sure if I will be that brief. We should have renamed this "Tributes to Heather Humphreys Day" - why not? Maybe we should do that tomorrow or the next day. I congratulate her, as I did in the anteroom on the way in. I said I did not know if it should be congratulations or commiserations but I wish her very well in her, I hope, long and happy future. I do not think she will necessarily be sitting at home watching television all day. I would say she will be very active in whatever she does. I only realised at the weekend that we both entered public life around the same and we were both co-opted in the big co-option at the end of 2003 into various different seats for TDs and Senators. Here we both are. She is bowing out after a successful career in various ministries. The first time I really encountered her was in what became known as the birds and bees legislation, which was hedge cutting. There was an awful lot of controversy about hedge cutting and what it would do inside and outside fields and on roads. I learned a lot and I am sure she probably learned a little bit as well, not just about politics but about nature. She has been through a lot of Departments and she has done great work in all of them.We are here to discuss the Social Welfare Bill, so I will be relatively brief. I acknowledge in the Minister's opening remarks the very comprehensive detail she has given not just about all the benefits but on the sections. I am not going to repeat any of those.

It is important to point out that there are ten different cost-of-living payments that will be made before Christmas and will support parents, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities. They include a €300 once-off payment to householders receiving the fuel allowance payment; two double payments of child benefit; a €200 once-off payment for pensioners and people with disabilities receiving the living alone allowance; a payment of €400 to all carers receiving the carer's support grant; a €400 disability support grant for people receiving invalidity pension, disability or blind pension; a €400 payment to families receiving the working family payment; an October cost-of-living double payment followed by the Christmas bonus double payment in December; and a €100 child support payment, formerly called the increase for a qualified child. There are loads more. It is the volume, as the Minister outlined. It is the largest social welfare package ever, which, of course, is understandable. The money is getting larger and our population is getting larger and thankfully, our population is living longer. It is wonderful that they are but it is not free. There is a cost to it.

I congratulate the Minister on all of what she has done and how she has been able to deliver in this Department and others. The Covid payment and all that went with that, in comparison to so many other countries, was phenomenal. It was genuinely significant in how much people got and for how long they got it. It really gave a safety net to an awful lot of people. Again, this is in addition to the energy credit Bill that we passed last week. I am very conscious that we need to pass and deliver this today, so I am certainly not going to use my 15 minutes.

I would raise one point with the Minister, and it will not be for her to do at this stage. I raised it with a predecessor of the Minister's, Deputy Leo Varadkar, a very long time ago. It is the class K issue. First, we call it pay-related social insurance, PRSI. Insurance means you pay something in, and if you need it, you get a benefit. Unfortunately, when I lost my seat in 2020 for a brief period, there was nothing. It was at the time of Covid. We did not qualify for Covid payments or we did not qualify for carer's benefit or anything at all - optical benefit, dental benefit or all those things. If we pay something in, we should be entitled to the benefits. If we pay in nothing, that is different. Class K was at 0% for a long time. That is fine, and if people pay nothing, they do not expect anything but if they are paying the same PRSI as everybody else, on the grounds of fairness, we should all be entitled to the same benefits. I would like one of the Minister's successors to appreciate that fact sooner rather than later because in a time when many politicians had other jobs, it may not have been an issue. They were paying other classes of PRSI and in other ways but many politicians now are full time, and it means they are losing out on pension credits and all the other benefits - optical, dental and everything. I went to the dentist recently and I got a letter back. I did not even look for the dentist. I was asked for my PRSI number, off I went, and it came back that I was not entitled to anything. I know the Minister is familiar with the issue but I would like to see it rectified for the benefit of everybody in these Houses. I have no problem paying in. I am happy to pay in but if we are paying in like everyone else, we should be entitled like everyone else.

I will conclude on that. I am not being negative but it is just something I know the Minister will bring to the attention of her successors and leave as a note on file for them. This is a fantastic social welfare Bill. I am not going to delay its passage through these Houses and I wish the Minister well with the rest of it, and in her retirement.