Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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282. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the main policy achievements of her Department since 27 June 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27969/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department has delivered significant improvements since June 2020. At that time, the country was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and this Department introduced the Pandemic Unemployment Payment a few months previously in response to the unprecedented disruption to the labour market caused by Covid-19. Some 29.7 million PUP payments issued at a value of over €9.2 billion while 880,000 people received payment under the scheme. PUP recipients transitioned to standard jobseeker terms and the scheme was closed on 31^st May 2022.

In February 2021, in line with the Programme for Government commitment, a Benefit Payment for 65-year-olds was introduced. This provides a benefit payment, based on an individual’s PRSI record, for employed or self-employed people who retire aged 65.

At the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis in 2022, my Department was at the forefront in providing support to those Ukrainians fleeing from the conflict. By the end of May 2024, PPSNs issued to some 107,337 Ukrainian people, while income supports are currently being paid to 39,000 adults. It is estimated that about 20,000 Ukrainians are in employment and that a further 20,000 have left the country.

Legislation came into effect on 4^th June 2024 which provides that child maintenance payments will be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments; the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirement is removed from One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment. These are significant policy changes which will be of great benefit to lone parents.

Pay-Related Benefit legislation is currently going through the Oireachtas. It will link a person’s jobseeker’s payment to their previous earnings and is the norm in European countries.

Auto-enrolment will transform the occupational pension landscape. This legislation is almost enacted and will be an important milestone as people reach their retirement years.

Successive Social Protection Budgets in 2022 and 2023 were significantly larger than previous years and introduced increases and additional supports across all core social welfare payments.

The Social Protection budget for 2024 was the largest in the history of the State. Budget 2024 provided almost €2.3 billion in measures to assist households with the cost of living. This includes across-the-board increases of €12 per week in all core payments and was combined with a series of lump sum payments for carers, people with disabilities, working families as well as those living alone on low incomes.

In December 2023, a Christmas Bonus was paid to 1.3 million welfare recipients and for the first time, this was followed by a January Cost of Living Bonus.

I also introduced changes to the State Pension (Contributory) from January 2024. These changes included improved access to PRSI-based pensions provision for long-term carers and will see carers receive the equivalent of paid contributions for caring periods of over 20 years to cover gaps in their contribution record needed to obtain the State Pension (Contributory). This acknowledges the important role family carers play in Irish society.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.