We need to look at this more widely to improve the situation for all people with disabilities. Of course I want to do more. As part of the cost of disability report, my Department is looking at the whole area of disability payments and at how we can make the system fairer. One of the recommendations in that report is to move away from the flat rate of €208 towards a tiered payment system. For example, somebody who has a profound disability and might never be able to work would get a higher payment than somebody wit…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I welcome the recent publication of the 2021 survey on income and living conditions, which shows improvements across all key national poverty indicators. The data once again show that our social protection system performs strongly in protecting our most vulnerable citizens. Social transfers have reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate from 38.6% to 11.6%. This represents a 70% reduction on the at-risk-of-poverty rate in 2021. Ireland is consistently one of the best performing EU cou…

We try to target the resources where they have the most impact. However, if we increased the rates to meet the MESL, it would cost €2.4 billion more in one year for working-age payments. That would be lot of money. It would be a considerable increase. We have taken measures to address the cost of living. For example, €100 is being paid out this week for the fuel allowance on top of the €125 lump sum in March, and that allowance was increased by €5 per week in the budget. When one adds all those together, it is up b…

We have to acknowledge there are a number of different measures in the survey. Two of them have increased but everything else has reduced, whether it is consistent poverty, at risk of poverty, deprivation rates or social transfers. As I mentioned, Covid-19 income supports reduced the risk of poverty from 19.9% to 11.6%. Consistent poverty for children reduced from 7.2% to 5.2%, while consistent poverty for lone parents reduced from 19.3% to 13.1%. However, the Deputy is correct. There is poverty among older people,…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Prior to the onset of Covid-19 in March 2020, the labour market was performing strongly and the live register, which measures people claiming standard jobseeker's payments, stood at just over 183,000. By May 2020, this number had increased to just under 226,000. At its peak, the combined total of people in receipt of jobseeker's payments or pandemic unemployment payments, PUPs, reached 820,000 in April 2020. Including the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and the temp…

It is very clear the intervention we took during Covid worked. The economy was able to bounce back and businesses got back again. The EWSS was particularly successful in keeping employees linked to their employers so when the Covid restrictions lifted they were ready to go. The PUP was absolutely essential. It is encouraging to see many, if not all, the people on the PUP are back at work. A small number have transitioned to the jobseeker's payment but that number continues to reduce. We are now in a position where …

We have increased resources in the area of PPS numbers. There is huge demand at present, which the Deputy will appreciate, since we have just issued almost 32,000 PPS numbers to Ukrainians who are coming to this country. We have increased the resources in that area. Deputy O'Dowd talked about skills shortages. I was at the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, VFI, conference last week. We know the hospitality sector is experiencing staff shortages so I was pleased to see yesterday that the VFI has launched a new bar ma…

On an ongoing basis, and as part of the normal budgetary cycle, my Department actively monitors key economic indicators and also takes account of research data, including data on the minimum essential standard of living from the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice. The social impact of budget measures is also assessed using the SWITCH model developed by the ESRI. It is through this evidence-based approach that, over the past ten years, budget measures have both exceeded inflation and have also been targeted t…

Data from SILC in 2021 are the official poverty data for Ireland. The survey was undertaken in 2021 and refers to 2020 income. I will give the Deputy a few figures from it. The rate of consistent poverty reduced from 4.7% in 2020 to 4% in 2021. The number of people at-risk of poverty reduced from 13.2% to 11.6%. The deprivation rate reduced from 14.3% to 13.8% in 2021. Social transfers resulted in a reduction in the at-risk of poverty rate from 38.6% to 11.6%. In 2021, Covid-19 income supports reduced the at-risk o…

The Government has taken significant action which I have already listed. It includes a lump sum of €125 and a further lump sum payment of €100 this week; a €200 energy credit; excise reductions on fuel; public transport fare reductions of 20%; and the retention of lower VAT levels in the hospitality sector. On top of that, we introduced the largest social welfare package in 14 years last October. All of this has been done on the back of over €9.2 billion being paid on the pandemic unemployment payment over the past…

My Department has been designing a new model of externally provided public employment services since 2019. This is required to comply with the legal obligation to ensure such services are procured through a competitive process. For almost three and half years, extensive consultation with existing providers and representative bodies, including the Irish Local Development Network and trade unions, has taken place. My Department has worked to ensure that existing providers are in a position to compete for the provisio…

I do not have the figures for the four areas in phase 1 to hand but there had been engagement and in some of the instances the staff involved took up employment with the new contract providers. We are in phase 2 and the procurement phase is ongoing, as the Deputy knows. I am not the employer, nor is my Department. I cannot come in and promise enhanced redundancy terms for anybody because that is not something that is in my gift and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform probably would not take too kindly t…

We cannot jump the gun because there are no redundancies yet. We need to await the outcome of the procurement process. Some have said that the community and voluntary sector will be wiped out due to the procurement process but we should wait and see who wins it and, as I said, it is ongoing. All contracts are extended until the end of August, unless the companies have decided not to extend themselves. If they have decided that then they will need to explain that to their employees. My Department has a primary focus…

We will take Deputy Gannon's question in the meantime.

In line with the programme for Government commitment, the Government established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues in relation to child maintenance in Ireland. The group's terms of reference were to consider and make recommendations on the following: the current treatment of child maintenance payments in my Department; the current provisions regarding liable relatives managed by my Department; and the establishment of a child maintenance agency in Ireland. As part of its work, the group con…

As I said, the report runs to a few hundred pages and the chairperson of the group was Judge Catherine Murphy. A huge amount of work was put in, they asked for extra time so that it could be given the attention it deserved and I want to thank the group for the work they put in. There are a lot of issues here; it is not just social protection but there are other issues as well that cross into the Department of Justice. I have an interest in it and I have discussed it with Deputy Kerrane. We need to ensure we get thi…

As I said in reply to Deputy Kerrane earlier, I will not leave this sitting on a shelf. This report will be acted on. I will bring a memorandum to Government with the full report and our proposed response. I want to move it along. I would like to get it to Cabinet before the summer recess. We will publish the report and the Government's response at that stage. We want to provide ample time to give it due consideration. It is a long report, considerable work went into it and I do not want to rush it. However, I will…

Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment to help meet essential, once-off expenditure that a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income. The scheme is demand-led and payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case. This ensures the payments target those most in need of assistance. S…

The exceptional needs payment and the urgent needs payment are available. They are their demand-led schemes, and if people run into difficulties, they are encouraged to apply for that payment. I have been trying to highlight it. We have introduced a number of measures to help alleviate some of the rising costs, as the Deputy has acknowledged. Nobody is excluded from applying for this payment if he or she needs it. We should be making people aware that support is available. That is the State's safety net for people …

We paid out €13.5 million in supplementary welfare payments between 1 January and the end of April this year. If the Deputies are aware of a case where somebody did not get support, I ask them to bring the details to me and I will raise the matter with my officials. I have raised this matter on a number of occasions and have been reassured that a community welfare officer is only one phone call away. We do not talk about an online option or anything else. Anyone who picks up the phone should get the support he or s…