The State pension is the bedrock of the pension system in Ireland. It is extremely effective at ensuring that our pensioners do not experience poverty. This Government is committed to ensuring that this remains the case for current pensioners, those nearing State pension age and today’s young workers, including those who are only starting their careers. One of the landmark reforms to the State pension system I announced last September is a ten-year phased transition to the total contributions approach and the aboli…

As the Deputy knows, when this Government was formed we established the Pensions Commission to look at the whole area of pensions. Countries all over the world are grappling with how to meet pension costs into the future; one only has to look at what happened in France a few weeks ago. After the Pensions Commission completed its work, I secured Government approval for a range of measures on pensions. We are keeping the State pension age at 66 so anybody who wants to retire at this age will be able to do that. In or…

There could be a case where somebody did not pay any PRSI - was self-employed or for whatever reason - who then started paying PRSI ten years before their pension age and then got a full pension. I do not think that is fair. The total contributions approach will do what it says on the tin. A person's pension will be based on the number of contributions he or she paid in. It is going to happen gradually so over a ten-year period, the yearly average approach will be gradually weaned out and that minimises the impact …

I thank the Deputy for raising this. My Department currently provides employment services for people with disabilities through 23 EmployAbility-contracted service providers across the State. My officials have commenced a procurement process to update current EmployAbility services to comply with legal advice from the Attorney General and Chief State Solicitor’s office and to meet the Department’s objective of shifting emphasis from financial monitoring of service providers to focusing on service quality for clients…

I have very little choice here because the legal advice from the Attorney General and the Chief State Solicitor’s office is that we are in breach of procurement law and these services have to go out to tender. I want to put the Deputy’s mind at ease. I recall last year every time the Deputy’s predecessor, Deputy Kerrane, and I came in here for parliamentary questions, Deputy Kerrane said the existing providers would lose out under the new tender process for the local area employment service. She said they would be …

As I said, I spoke to one of the providers last week. He had been against it and had said it would not work and he genuinely said to me it is working. The providers have more money as well, and that is helpful in making sure they provide the service. I am meeting the chairs of every EmployAbility company on Thursday morning. I want to hear what their concerns are and how we can work with them to address those concerns. There is clear legal advice so we have to do something but I want to make sure we get it right. M…

Child benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children who are in full-time education or who have a disability until their 18th birthday. It is currently paid to more than 650,000 families in respect of more than 1.2 million children with an estimated expenditure of in excess of €2.1 billion in 2023. Last September, as part of budget measures, a number of supports were introduced specifically for families with children…

I take on board what Deputy McAuliffe is saying. Keeping a child in full-time education is a very expensive task. I fully understand it and I do know about it. Child benefit is one of the only tools at my disposal in the Department of Social Protection to support working families. We had the double child benefit payment in December and we will have the €100 lump sum payment on the child benefit payment at the start of June. I will be in the Seanad tomorrow for the next Stage of the legislation for that in order to …

I note the Minister, Deputy Harris, has reduced the student fees. To go back to the issue of the child benefit, I really would like to do something for those families where the child is still at secondary school. As has been said, many children are now not starting school until they are five. Then, if they do transition year, there could be some people who miss out because the child will turn 18 when they are in sixth year or at the start of it. I will certainly look at it but it will be a matter for the budget. Li…

I thank the Deputy. I need that. I accept that child benefit is a universal payment. I acknowledge some people are against that concept. Yet, I can say as someone who worked in a credit union, there were a lot more hard-working, middle-income families who depended on child benefit than there are millionaires. Child benefit is one of the ways that I, as Minister for Social Protection, can support working families and I am glad to be able to do that.

The school meals programme provides funding towards food services for some 1,600 schools and organisations, benefiting 260,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Budget 2023 provided €94.4 million for the programme. The Government recently approved an additional €14.5 …

We have been working with the school meals providers. There are a number of different providers who tender through the process. We increased the rates they are paid because they had not increased in many years. The rates they receive have been increased from 1 January this year. We are in constant contact with them. I am satisfied that we can roll this out to the DEIS schools and meet the target for this year. With regard to next year, we are putting out a call now to non-DEIS primary schools that may be interested…

I support absolutely the hot school meals programme. The Deputy mentioned the quality. We have a committee that monitors and checks the quality. We make sure the children receive good, healthy food and schools must reapply for funding in advance of each school year. They are required to submit detailed records. Expenditure on all healthy food items is deducted from the following year’s funding allocation. The most important thing is good quality and good food. When I went to a boys' primary school in Artane to anno…

When my Department received the notification of collective redundancy from the company concerned, the employer relations division of my Department made contact with the company and provided information on income, redundancy entitlements and employment supports for their impacted employees. This communication contained a video presentation to be shared with its staff. A team from the Department is available to meet with the workforce, virtually or in person, to ensure speedy access to income supports and to support …

My Department is happy to meet with the employees. We will appoint a contact person to whom the employees can speak directly. It is very difficult for people when they get word they are losing their job. It is not a nice place for anybody to be. I understand the concerns of the staff. They are worried about how they will be able to pay their bills. The team is available to help them through the social welfare system, try to match their skill set with other jobs and help them to find new jobs. The Redundancy Payment…

Policy and legislative responsibilities for the redundancy and insolvency schemes fall within the remit of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment but if the Deputy has particular instances she wishes to bring to me, I am happy to have them checked out. As she stated, when a person loses his or her job, it is not a nice place to be. The employees in question are vulnerable and both the Deputy and I will want to ensure they get the full entitlements they are due on foot of the redundancy. If there are spec…

Section 87 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 legislates for the occupational injuries benefit scheme for persons injured by an accident at work or caused by a prescribed disease due to the nature of their employment. The occupational injuries benefit scheme is a compensation and income support provided by my Department and, as Minister, I have the power to prescribe diseases under the scheme. Covid-19 is not currently a prescribed disease or illness. Section 87(2) of the Act states that a disease or inju…

I have consulted with the two relevant Ministers on this matter, namely, the Ministers for Health and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. We have received a response from both Ministers. My officials are currently considering those responses. I will meet with the Ministers in due course to discuss the issue further with them. Social welfare is only a small part of this. It is a cross-Government issue that will require further work and consideration. The response to the pandemic was whole-of-government. This issue wil…

As the Deputy knows, my Department provides a suite of income supports to those who cannot work due to illness or disability. It is important to note eligibility for these payments is generally not dependent on the type of illness or disability but the extent to which it impairs or restricts their ability to work. However, I am considering whether to include Covid-19 as a prescribed disease under the occupational injuries benefit scheme. As I said, I am consulting with the other two relevant Ministers and a whole-o…

I thank the Deputy. The programme for Government and the economic recovery plan include commitments to consider a pay-related jobseeker's benefit scheme. This would bring Ireland in line with the majority of other EU member states. The core rationale for the introduction of a pay-related benefit is twofold. First, to recognise and cushion people against the income shock that arises on loss of employment and, second, to provide a tangible return to people who make social insurance contributions. The need for such a …