I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “Report on Parent’s Benefit for one-parent families 8. The Minister shall, within nine months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on the potential extension of entitlement for the full duration of Parent’s Benefit for one-parent families, to include a consideration of the public duty on equality and human rights and the rights of the child.”. The Minister gave some signal that s…

I thank the Minister for the response. I concur and think that is important research. I have a follow-up question to clarify the matter of the jobseeker's transitional payment. While it is not the one-parent family payment, it is the payment that many of those parenting alone are on. Does the income disregard policy that the Minister mentioned apply to the jobseeker's transitional payment too, when people are on the one-parent family payment and move to the transitional payment after the child hits a certain age? T…

On that basis, I can withdraw my amendment.

I move amendment No. 8: In page 16, after line 31, to insert the following: “PART 3 REPORTS Report on pension inequality 24. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas to include: (a) an analysis of the impacts of previous changes to contributory requirements for the State Contributory Pension in terms of the numbers of persons within each band and the comparative financial impact on each gender; (b) a gender analysis of the potential impacts …

I appreciate that and I have read the report. That is why I am concerned as there are lacunae in it. As I said, the elephant in the room relates to other areas of expenditure. Much of what the commission did was calculating how we would pay for this. The very large figure of €2.9 billion is not financially justifiable in the other part of our Exchequer's expenditure and was not examined in that regard. A 40-year contributory requirement will have more of an impact on women, although it will affect everybody. I am r…

I move amendment No. 9: In page 16, after line 31, to insert the following: “PART 3 REPORTS Report on one-parent family payment 24. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas providing an assessment of how the income disregard in respect of the one-parent family payment intersects with the rising cost of living, with due regard to the Vincentian minimum essential standard of living.”.

I move amendment No. 13: In page 16, after line 31, to insert the following: "Report on cost of disability 24. Within six months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall publish a report outlining proposed actions in response to the findings of the Indecon report on the cost of disability and proposed timelines in respect of such actions.". What are the grounds for ruling out amendment No. 10?

I will speak to amendment No. 13 before speaking to the wider section. This amendment seeks a report on a report but it is the mechanism we have when we have concerns relating to reports and we want to know what will happen with them. The Indecon report is very long-awaited and I sit on the committee dealing with disability matters. The Minister is aware that we have been pressing strongly for this. It has now been published and given there was such a long period of waiting for the report, we had given a collective…

Is this the appropriate point at which to speak to section 24?

I am a little concerned that some of my other amendments were ruled to be outside the subject matter of the Bill. I will follow up on the matter. It is not an issue for the Acting Chairperson. However, we are talking about the Social Welfare Bill and the matters provided for in social welfare legislation. I know that a couple of the areas I have highlighted are directly provided for in the Social Welfare Acts. The subject matter of the Bill is the amendment of the Social Welfare Act. It would be a poor interpretati…

I will do that. It is not a concern for the Minister but it is an important point in terms of the operation of work in this House. The issue of bogus self-employment is important. The Minister knows it has been looked at and examined. How do we now look backwards at situations where tests cases may have been used? How can those who may have been affected appeal? I know this is an appropriate topic for discussion because in the past, with the Minister's predecessor, I have submitted many amendments. By comparison, t…

While people can use the card, as the Minister acknowledged, it is important that they are not required to. It is also important that the alternative should not be unduly onerous or punitive. People should not feel disadvantaged and feel they are being given a particularly difficult route if they choose not to opt for that route. That is also very clear in the ruling from the Data Protection Commissioner. It is an issue that it will be important to follow through on in order to have that understanding among all spe…

I move: “That Seanad Éireann: notes with concern: - the ongoing global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; - the lack of equitable access to vaccines for many countries in the global south, particularly African countries; - that it is an injustice that only 5.88% of people living in Africa are fully vaccinated and only 27% of healthcare workers across Africa are fully vaccinated; - that public health experts have consistently warned that failure to reach sufficiently high vaccination levels in every part of the planet…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I sincerely thank colleagues from across the House for their engagement on this issue. I thank them for their heartfelt, genuine and intellectually rigorous contributions. So many of the points I wanted to make about why compulsory licensing does not work were made extremely well by others, including Senator Garvey. This is a crucial diplomatic failure for the European Union. I am also passionate about the European Union. I worry when I see the Union losing credibilit…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 16, to delete line 5 and substitute the following: "(6) The following limitations apply to the discretion of the Minister to commence by order the operation of provisions of this Act— (a) Chapters 1 and 3 of Part 9 shall come into operation on the establishment day, (b) Section 79 shall be excluded from any commencement order— (i) until the Minister has conducted and completed the review required of the existing NMPF under section 17 (2) , and (ii) where a MSP to replace the existing…

It is important to clarify that this amendment does not seek to delay the commencement of the Bill. It simply relates to certain sections of the Bill. It is a substantial Bill and a huge amount of work needs to be put in place, including entire new bodies that must be constructed and so forth in terms of the maritime area regulatory authority, MARA, and others. It is important to be clear that about two years of work could probably be done on the other sections of the Bill, without commencing. Section 17 is around …

Yes.

I move amendment No. 3: “In page 17, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “ “excluded consultation periods” means that the following days are not included in the counting of any public consultation provided for under this Act or required by any action or decision taken under this Act where they fall within the public consultation period proposed: (a) public holidays or bank holidays in the State; (b) the period between 24 December in any year and 2 January the following year inclusive; (c) the first tw…

I accept the Minister of State's bona fides in respect of amendment No. 3 because I know there has been movement on that. In the text of amendment No. 34, subsection (3)(b)(iii) deals with the administrative burden that is placed on the public. There should be no battle or difficulty in terms of the administrative burden that is placed on the competent authority versus the public and its participation. We need to consider how we can make that easier. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, has offere…

What about other Members who are not on the Oireachtas joint committee?