I engaged extensively with the disability organisations, which involved many meetings. I will continue to do that. As part of budget 2024, I introduced significant supports for people with disabilities, including a €400 once-off payment for disability allowance, blind pension, invalidity pension and carer's support grant recipients in November 2023 to address the high cost of living, a €200 lump-sum living allowance payment, a €300 lump-sum fuel allowance, a Christmas bonus and a double payment to all persons in re…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am very aware of the importance of employment for disabled people. My Department has a number of supports available to assist them. Through our nationwide network of Intreo centres, we provide a case-managed employment service for jobseekers with disabilities. The person works with an employment personal adviser with a view to agreeing a suitable personal progression plan to access the full range of employment supports available. The Department contracts specialist emplo…

I launched the work and access programme in the Hodson Bay Hotel. It was very encouraging to see the number of people working in the hotel who had taken up the scheme. It has made a difference to many people's lives. It is a great scheme. I commend the employers who have engaged actively with it, the Hodson Bay Hotel being a prime example. An income disregard of €165 per week is applied, with tapering of earnings between €165 and €375. A person can earn a maximum of €505.10 per week and keep a portion of his or her…

The carer's allowance scheme is the main means by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. In 2024, expenditure on the scheme is estimated to be more than €1.1 billion. Since my appointment as Minister, I have made a number of significant improvements to the means test for carer's allowance. In June 2022, the income disregards were increased from €332.50 to €350 for a single person and from €665 to €750 for carers with a spouse or partner. The capital and savings disregard for the ca…

I absolutely recognise and value the work of our carers. My Department will spend in excess of €1.7 billion this year on support payments to carers. Carers have been a key priority for me as Minister for Social Protection. I acknowledge the support I have had from Family Carers Ireland to make changes such as the new pension contributions for long-term carers from the start of January. There is a strong interest in that. As I outlined in my initial reply, there are already a large number of carers, mainly women, wh…

If the means test is abolished completely, many more people will apply for the payment. The officials have estimated that and have given me those figures. I take them in good faith. I can get further details on them. It is important to note that, only since June of this year, I increased the limits again such that a couple can earn up to €900 per week and have €50,000 in savings and still qualify for the full carer's allowance payment. The reality, however, is that no matter where I draw the line, there will always…

The social welfare appeals office is an office of the Department that is responsible for determining appeals against decisions relating to social welfare entitlements. The office is administered by the Chief Appeals Officer. The Chief Appeals Officer and her team of appeals officials are independent in their decision-making functions. As Minister, I need to be conscious of the independence of the office, its functions and the decisions it makes. The question at issue in the appeal referenced by the Deputy was wheth…

As I understand it, the person received a decision in November 2020 in which it was determined the person had been working as an employee. The employer then appealed that decision and that appeal was successful. Following that, the person sent further information to the appeals office. Based on that additional information and the outcome of the Karshan judgment, the chief appeals officer now intends to carry out a section 318 review of this specific case. The person concerned will be contacted by the appeals office…

I do not decide on any of them.

As the Deputy is aware, the appeals office is independent of the Minister. The chief appeals officer has the power under section 318 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 to revise a decision where it appears to him or her that the original appeal decision was incorrect. Given the decision of the Supreme Court in respect of the Karshan judgment, the chief appeals officer has now decided the appropriate course of action in this case is to carry out a section 318 review. I cannot tell the Deputy what the outco…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The social welfare appeals office is an office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The office is administered by the chief appeals officer. The chief appeals officer and her team of appeals officers are independent in their decision-making functions. As Minister, I need to be conscious of the independence of the office, its functions and the decisions it makes. De…

I do not have a copy of what the Deputy is quoting from, but if the Deputy wishes to send it on, I will be happy to look at it. I am informed by the chief appeals officer the social welfare appeals office does not rely on test cases to determine the employment status of all workers in a sector. Any individual making an appeal always has the opportunity to have the evidence in his or her case presented to and considered by an appeals officer. Every case is considered on its own merits. As I said in my initial reply,…

I acknowledge Deputy Tully's question. I recognise the good work the national advocacy service does. I understand that, in the interests of resolving the dispute as quickly as possible, the Citizens Information Board has written to the Labour Court confirming its acceptance of the recommendations but seeking clarity as to the appropriate comparable grades in implementing them. The situation has moved on from the point the Deputy has described. I urge all parties to get back to the table and to reach agreement to re…

So are Shannonside and Northern Sound.

I thank the Senator for raising the issue. Unfortunately, I will not be accepting the amendment. The PRSI rate increases for the next years are set out in the Bill and they are evenly spread among employees, employers and the self-employed. I am satisfied that they achieve a fair balance between addressing the long-term sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund without unduly impinging on the incomes of workers and the cost of doing business in Ireland.

I will not be accepting this amendment. I have made the point on many occasions that it is bad practice to put the preparation of reports in primary legislation. We had a comprehensive actuarial review of the Social Insurance Fund and we also had the report from the Pensions Commission. The bottom line is that the Social Insurance Fund is not sustainable in the long term if we do not take action. That is absolutely clear and we do not need any more reports to tell us that. The Government has agreed, and this Bill p…

While I thank the Senators for their amendments relating to engagement with prescribed schemes, programmes or courses, I do not accept them. These sections replicate those in place for other jobseeker's schemes. They are exactly the same as what is in place already and we are going to apply them to the jobseeker's pay-related benefit. I do not intend to amend the proposed or existing legislation in relation to these vitally important provisions. They are already tried and tested and we should not be deviating from …

Rather, it is about helping people. My Department is here to help people. It takes a common-sense approach. We are trying to help people to get back into the workforce. There are a lot of schemes. There is a requirement under jobseeker's benefit as it stands to be genuinely seeking work. That requirement is just being repeated for the jobseeker's pay-related benefit. We have 50,000 people on the live register who are signed up to personal progression plans. We are working with them and trying to help them to get ba…

If people are going on work experience or are on a work placement programme, it is because they want to reskill and go into a different area. The rules around the jobseeker’s benefit are being transposed into the jobseeker’s pay-related benefit legislation. The conditions are the same. The aim is to help people to get back to work. If they cannot get another job in the area in which they once worked, the aim is to reskill and get back to work as quickly as possible. That is the point. It is about helping people and…

This Bill replicates the existing requirements concerning our jobseeker’s payments. It does nothing more or less. The activation is a positive intervention in place to prevent jobseekers from drifting farther away from the labour market. It is widely used across the EU and OECD countries. It is essential that recipients of the pay-related benefit be supported through the activation process in the exact same way that recipients of the jobseeker’s benefit and jobseeker’s allowance have been. That is why I cannot acce…