I would be happy to sit down with the Deputy to discuss these schemes, which are good initiatives. If improvements are necessary, I would like to hear what they are. I will meet the Deputy with my officials to examine this issue and hear how he believes the schemes can be improved. I want the system to help people and to be fair and equitable. I do not want to see people disadvantaged.

The Deputy and I have worked on a number of issues to which we got very satisfactory resolutions. I am happy to go through these schemes with him. He will be able to give me valuable information. I want to work with people on examining issues and, where possible, improving them.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am conscious that the Covid-19 public health restrictions have added to the strain on all parents, and lone parents in particular. While my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, has lead responsibility for maintenance issues, my Department has moved swiftly to address issues that have been raised regarding maintenance for lone parents as a result of the pandemic. At the outset of the pandemic, my Department ensured that the pandemic unemployment payment could…

There will be a North-South Ministerial Council meeting on Friday and I will be happy to hear from my counterpart in Northern Ireland as to how its child maintenance agency works. I thank the Deputy for that suggestion. This is a complex issue. As the Deputy knows, parents have a responsibility to pay maintenance for their children. However, some do not pay. I saw that at first hand when I worked as a manager of a credit union, where parents - mainly women - were down at the breadline because they could not get the…

The review group will examine the treatment within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection of child maintenance payments, the current provisions relating to liable relatives regarding child maintenance, and the establishment of a child maintenance agency. There are very experienced people on the group and I look forward to receiving their report in due course.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The system of social assistance supports provides payments based on an income need. The means test plays a critical role in determining whether an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency such as disability, unemployment or caring. This ensures that the recipient has a verifiable income need and that resources are targeted at those who need them most. The means test takes account of the income that a person or couple has in terms of cash, property o…

I hear what the Deputy is saying. There are disregards there, as I have pointed out. The first €50,000 of the €100,000 is disregarded and the next amount is done on a sliding scale. The disability allowance covers a wide range of recipients. I will have to speak to my officials about this. I take the point the Deputy is making. The matter would need a fairly in-depth analysis as to what we can do in this space.

I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his new position and wish him well. This is the first time I have been in the Seanad since he was elevated.

I am happy to talk to the Deputy about this issue. I take the point. There are always going to be cases and it is important that we look at the system to make sure we are not leaving anybody out or causing difficulties for people. Would the Acting Chairman mind if I made a short statement to the House on the pandemic unemployment payment, with the permission of Deputy Carroll MacNeill?

I thank the Senators for their good wishes and contributions. I will first clarify a matter. Sometimes, we forget that we are still in the middle of a pandemic and it is important that we follow public health advice. Today, I announced that I would be changing the regulations to allow people on unemployment payments to travel to countries on the green list for two weeks and still retain their benefits. Everything else remains the same. People can travel abroad for essential reasons such as a family bereavement, ess…

I thank the Acting Chairman. The pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, was introduced to support people who lost their jobs overnight as a result of Covid-19. It was a solidarity payment to protect people's income at a time of national crisis. I strongly believe that any person who breached that solidarity by claiming a payment they were not entitled to because they were no longer living in the country should have their payment stopped. Of the 2,500 PUP claims that have been stopped since March, the vast majority of …

The vast majority of these people were not going on holidays. They were leaving the country. Once someone lives outside this country, he or she is not entitled to the payments. There are a small number of people who may have travelled abroad while genuinely unaware of the criteria. We will review those cases. Self-employed people eligible for the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment, including those in the arts and entertainment sector, have been assessed based on the returns they made to the Revenue Commissioner…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. This year, the eligibility criteria for back to school clothing and footwear allowance have been extended to include the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment as a qualifying payment for the allowance. Recipients of this payment will also need to satisfy all the other qualifying conditions to qualify. The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when c…

The scheme opened to new applicants on 6 July 2020. To date, a further 21,500 applications have been received. Payments of €1.25 million have already been made to 2,900 families in respect of 6,200 qualified children from the applications received to date. Anybody can apply for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance on-line at www.welfare.ie. To apply online they must have a public services card and a verified my.Gov.ie account. It is an important support for parents because, as we know, the return to s…

I thank the Deputies for these questions. I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 47 together. The enterprise support grant is being extended to assist eligible self-employed individuals who are exiting the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment or jobseeker's schemes after 25 June 2020 to restart their business which was closed due to the impact of the pandemic. The grant of up to €1,000 will be payable to self-employed microenterprises which employ fewer than ten people, have an annual turnover of less than €1 mi…

Officials from my Department are currently developing the systems and the application process for this grant. Applicants will be asked to send their application form to their local Intreo centre to be processed for payment. Details on applying for the grant will be released early in August along with the grant application form. All details on the grant will be available on www.gov.ie .

I referred to our payments in euro.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Compared with other countries in the OECD, the proportion of employees in Ireland with supplementary pension cover is low, with just over 50% of the working population having an occupational or personal pension.  This rate reduces to 35% when the private sector is considered in isolation.  As a consequence of this low supplementary pension coverage rate, many retirees may suffer an unwanted reduction in living standards when they retire. To address this low coverage rate,…

It will only be information that is necessary and proportionate that we will look for. That is for sure. People will get their paid contributions for the full duration of the time they are on the pandemic unemployment payment. There is no doubt about that. The legislation does allow us to share information with Revenue. We have to do this. What I meant was that we will not share information with anybody else. My officials assure me we do not share information with any other agency, such as the Dublin Airport Author…

A Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023 provided for the development and implementation of the auto-enrolment retirement scheme by 2022. This Government recognises the exceptional strain that both employers and employees are now under as a result of the Covid-19 emergency. The Government will, therefore, seek to gradually deliver the AE scheme, which will include a phased roll-out of contributions over a ten-year period. A phased introduction of the system is believed to be achievable in the current situation. It i…