Sinn Féin Deputies are doing a disservice to those 480 people who get up every day, go to work every day and do their best to help people across this country. The evidence from the OECD report clearly shows that individuals who were supported by JobPath were more likely to enter employment, remain in employment for longer and have higher earnings from employment. I encourage the Sinn Féin Deputies to speak to their party colleague in Northern Ireland, the Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey, MLA, who clearly r…

My priority is about delivering the best possible employment service for the people who need our help and ensuring we do so on a sound legal basis. I think it is important in the context or this motion to note two important facts that are central to an informed and accurate discussion. First, LES and job club services are not delivered directly by the State. The decision to establish LES and job club services on an externally contracted basis is not a new decision but was in fact taken 25 years ago. These services …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government is committed to supporting households to control and meet energy costs through a combination of monetary supports, as well as investment to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock. My Department provides a range of supports to assist people with their fuel costs. Fuel allowance is currently paid to over 369,000 at an estimated annual cost of €323 million in 2021. As part of the overall welfare budget package of €600 million in increases which I se…

For those outside of social welfare supports, the Government launched a comprehensive strategy in 2016 to combat energy poverty following extensive public consultation. This strategy was spearheaded by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who has responsibility in that area. The strategy sets out the Government's commitment to protecting vulnerable households from energy poverty through a combination of supports, investment in schemes to improve energy efficiency and ener…

We are spending over €323 million on the fuel allowance and €195 million on the gas and electricity allowance. That is a considerable amount of money. For those who have problems, as I said, there is an exceptional needs payment available under the supplementary welfare allowance from the community welfare officer for heating costs. The fund is uncapped. As it is demand-led, it can run to €5 million, €10 million or €20 million. We pay where a need is identified. I cannot get into individual cases but that fund is t…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The social insurance contribution-based jobseeker's benefit and the means-tested jobseeker's allowance provide income support for people who have lost their jobs and are unable to find full-time employment. The rate of jobseeker's benefit is graduated accorded to an applicant's previous average earnings and graduated rates are applied where the person's average reckonable weekly earnings are less than €300. Recipients with average weekly earnings of less than this amount w…

Some 80% of people on jobseeker's benefit receive the full rate of €203. This amount will increase to €208 in January following the budget changes. The position is clear, in that, if someone has been working a sufficient number of hours and has the required number of PRSI contributions, he or she will get the full payment rate. If anyone is on a reduced rate, it is because he or she was working a limited amount beforehand, meaning that he or she had not built up the requisite PRSI record. For example, he or she cou…

To clarify, I will look at a pay-related support for people who are made unemployed. This is something to which we must give consideration. Such a scheme is the right thing to do, but it will take some time to design that system. We will take the lessons from the PUP. I am committed to developing a pay-related benefit whereby someone gets a percentage of his or her earnings upon losing a job. This would help to avoid the income cliff edge. When I worked in the credit union, I saw how people's incomes dropped sudden…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Almost €9 billion has been spent on the PUP since its introduction, demonstrating the Government's commitment to workers. The number of PUP recipients has fallen dramatically from a peak of more than 605,000 last year to approximately 57,000 this week. This represents a drop of over 90%, highlighting that the majority of people have returned to work. The introduction of an earlier closing time in the night-time industry and the other measures announced by the Government la…

I appreciate the Deputy's comments, especially about the live entertainment sector. It is important to say that we are in a much better position now than previously. Music is now allowed at weddings. Indeed, I was at a wedding last Sunday and was delighted to see three different sets of musicians playing. In total, there were nine people employed at that one wedding for the day. I was heartened to see that, to be honest. Music is still allowed in pubs and concerts can take place. However, it is going to take time t…

We have the pathways to work strategy to help people to get back to work and to help those who want to upskill or reskill. Supports are there for people and a lot of investment has gone into pathways to work through the further education system and through my Department. We want to work with people and we want to help them because it is not an easy time for them. In terms of the PUP, it was very much needed in March 2020. The Department had to process thousands upon thousands of applications as quickly as possible …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. My Department is now at an advanced stage in its first phase of a two-phase procurement of new employment services. This procurement process follows extensive engagement by my Department with existing service partners over the last number of years. The new regional employment service model will extend high quality employment services across the State, deliver enhanced governance arrangements, ensure contracts are on a sound legal footing and provide successful tenderers wi…

I appreciate the joint committee's strong interest in employment services and its engagement with me and my officials as it considered its findings. However, I note that there are some inaccuracies in the committee's report, in that evidence from witnesses to the committee that is not factually accurate is repeated. One example is the claim that my Department had not engaged with SIPTU prior to 17 September 2021 but my Department first met SIPTU on this issue in 2019 and had other meetings with the union in advance…

No.

I understand the Deputy's concerns. I reassure her that I have done everything I can to ensure the importance of social value and community linkages are reflected in the procurement process. We have engaged extensively with the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, yet we hear that some of its members seem not to have received the information that we have given. The one issue we must remember is that the jobseeker is at the heart of the process. It is the person who is long-term unemployed. Such people are number …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As the Deputy will be aware, this country faced an unprecedented shock to the labour market because of the pandemic, with more than 1.7 million claims for support and 871,500 people claiming at least one pandemic unemployment payment since the payment was introduced in March 2020. The equivalent figure for those who claimed at least one PUP payment residing in County Wicklow is 25,730. Following the easing of public health restrictions in recent months, our economy has wit…

We did have a number of measures. Self-employed people on the PUP can earn up to €960 every eight weeks and it will not affect their payment. I acknowledge what the Deputy said regarding those in the music industry. It has been a very difficult time for them but, thankfully, weddings are still taking place. One venue I heard about has a wedding every single day for the month of November and well into December. That is good for musicians because weddings can have two or three different genres of band or musicians at…

I agree with Deputy Matthews that we need to do that. We have the pathways to work strategy and we are working on it. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, is committed to providing 50,000 additional education and training places, supporting the delivery of actions set out in the apprenticeship action plan and supporting 50,000 long-term unemployed into further education and training by 2025. My Department is expanding the capacity of public employment servi…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are currently approximately 1.012 million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2021 is €95 million. It is important to note that, in general, access to free travel passes for those aged under 66 is linked to a person being in receipt of a certain primary social protection payment, such as disabili…

I appreciate the point the Deputy is making. I have a friend with epilepsy. They are off the road at the minute. As the Deputy said, if someone loses their licence due to a seizure caused by epilepsy, it really is awful for them and I understand that. The problem I have, which the Department officials have clearly pointed out to me, is that the free travel pass is very much based on the social welfare payment a person is in receipt of. It is not based on a person's condition or illness. As the Deputy knows, the soc…