I thank the Deputy. Up to now, all contracts for local employment services were issued for a single 12-month period and rolled over on an annual basis. Many of these contracts have been in place with very little change since the early 1990s. Good governance and national and EU procurement rules require that my Department does not continue this practice of simply rolling over contracts for employment services. For this reason, in order to ensure service continuity and enhance the provision of employment services, my…

I want to allay those concerns. The focus here is on the client, the unemployed person. That is the number one priority. When a person is referred to the local employment service, it is done through the Intreo services. They will decide the best pathway. It is all about client-focused services and delivering the best outcome for the client. Under this contract, the local employment service will receive 45% of the payment up-front upon the referral of a person to the service. That has been put in place because I kne…

The first request for tender is a means of expanding the services. We are not reducing any services. However, there will be learnings from the first request for tender process. If tweaks or changes are needed for the second request for tender, I will be happy to make those. I am also happy to engage with the Deputies on the matter. At the end of the day, I want to ensure we provide the best possible service for people who are long-term unemployed. Many people have been out of work since the pandemic unemployment pa…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The programme for Government includes a commitment to using the research into the cost of disability to individuals and families to properly inform the direction of future policy. My Department commissioned Indecon International Economic Consultants to carry out research into the cost of disability in Ireland. The report has now been received by my Department and it is considering it in detail. This matter is significantly wider than the income support system and it is cle…

I thank the Deputy. As he said, this is a major piece of work. Indecon believes it is the largest survey of people living with disabilities ever undertaken in Ireland. I will be engaging with the disability representative groups as part of my Department's pre-budget forum on 14 July. As I outlined in my reply, we took several positive steps in last year's budget. Of course we want to do more but, before taking the next step, I have to get feedback from the other Departments. I want to take the report the Government…

As the Deputy knows, when it comes to the budget there are many competing priorities. It is a bit early to have a discussion on it. We want to do more this year but we will consider everything. We have the benefit of the report. We will be talking to the other Departments and bring the report to the Government. I will be consulting on 14 July. I am holding a pre-budget forum and I will be consulting the various organisations, including the disability representative groups, which I have already met this year. I will…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Approximately 227,980 people received a pandemic unemployment payment this week, representing a drop of 254,000, or almost 53%, since February when approximately 482,000 people were in receipt of the payment. We expect many more people to close their PUP over the coming period. The Government has throughout the pandemic done its best to support workers affected by job losses and will continue to do so. That is why, in order to allow as much time as possible for employment …

It is important to say that we keep everything under review. Throughout the pandemic we have had to adapt our approach in line with the public health advice. We have kept the PUP open for applications for an extra week until 8 July. That means that any staff who may have gone back to work in the expectation of indoor hospitality reopening next week will have the opportunity to reapply for the PUP if they need to do that. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and others have welcomed that we have extended it. As…

I agree with the Deputy. There have been many anecdotal reports in the media about people staying on PUP and not returning to work, which we have all heard. The fact is that the numbers on the PUP fell by a quarter of a million since February. This clearly tells me that people want to get back to work as their sectors reopen and do not want to be sitting at home. I am strongly of this view. For people who are going back to work and may only have three days per week, they can apply under the short-time work scheme a…

The pandemic unemployment payment or PUP was an emergency measure introduced in the exceptional circumstances of Covid-19 to help cushion the financial impact on people temporarily laid-off work as a direct result of public health measures mandated by the Government. It has been an important support for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families through Covid-19. To date, over €8 billion has been paid out on the PUP to nearly 900,000 recipients. As part of the national economic recovery plan, the Governmen…

I wish to make it clear in the House again, because sometimes there is misinformation relating to artists and musicians, that I do not expect artists or musicians to retrain or to reskill. I wish to make that clear because I have been misquoted here before, not by the Deputy but by others. All my Department is doing is making people on the PUP aware of the various supports available to them. The Deputy mentioned people on the PUP. I have worked very closely with them. They can earn up to €960 over an eight-week per…

We also have to be fair about these schemes and look at all the people who have been on the standard jobseeker's payment since before the pandemic. As I said, I cannot have sector-specific social welfare payments. That has always been the case. To be fair, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, has worked very closely with this sector and a good deal of supports have been made available through the Government. I am happy to engage with the sector, as always, but I have been very clear that I cannot have a specific …

Partial capacity benefit is a scheme which allows a person with a reduced capacity to work to return to employment or self-employment and continue to receive a social welfare payment from my Department for a period of up to three years.  It is intended to act as a stepping stone payment to help a person with restricted capacity re-enter the labour market and establish an independent source of income. Key features of the scheme include that participation is voluntary; there is no requirement that a person must under…

The 13-week period was an administrative practice that resulted in the overpayment and this practice has now discontinued. However, the Department now contacts customers 13 weeks in advance of the end date of the payment duration period and the correspondence issued outlines the options for the customer to consider prior to the payment ceasing. Where a person completes the allowed period on partial capacity benefit, a new application can be made. The application must meet all the eligibility criteria including, in …

A wide range of supports are available to help people with disabilities to get back to work. We have the EmployAbility Service and the ability programmes. I was delighted that we were able to provide funding so that the ability programme, which was co-funded by the EU and was due to finish in June this year, could continue. I worked very closely with the group and with the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Rabbitte, to find a solution. The group is doing some very good work on the ground …

My Department is very much aware that many people from the music or arts sectors are not yet in a position to return to employment. For these people, many of whom are self-employed, the PUP continues to be an important income support. Rather than seeking to move people off this payment, I was pleased to work with the sector and to make changes to the scheme so that self-employed artists and performers can earn €960 over an eight-week period while continuing to receive the PUP. The Government also set up the arts an…

We all know that the sector has had a really difficult time as it has been shut down since March 2020. What we have done is tried to support the people involved in every way we can. When I engaged with them, they were very pleased that they can earn up to €960 and still keep the pandemic unemployment payment. That meant they could do the occasional gig and it did not affect their payment. I understand that they are in a very difficult situation. To be fair, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport, Gaeltacht …

All my Department is doing is making people on the PUP aware of the various supports that are available. There are a lot of supports and there is no point in the Government putting them in place if we do not tell people about them. It is all voluntary. If a person is confident that his or her job is coming back, that is fine, but if someone needs help, we are here to help. That is the one message I always want to get out: social protection is there to help people when they need it. That is what we do. What we are s…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I share the concern that employees should be correctly classified for social insurance, taxation and employment rights purposes and that they should be entitled to protection against victimisation if they challenge how an employer classifies them. While this latter question is primarily one for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I draw the Deputy's attention to the fact it is a criminal offence under section 252 of the Social Welfare Acts for an e…

I thank the Deputy. I intend to publish a code of practice on employment status. The purpose of the code of practice on determining employment status is to explain, in as clear and as user-friendly a way as possible, what the courts have decided constitutes an employment relationship. It is an explanatory guide and it sets out and explains the legal obligations that already exist. Workers and employers are entirely bound by these legal obligations and, even if the code did not exist, they would be bound by these le…