Vol. 847 No. 2
6. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his Department has been consulted in respect of the review of the free travel pass; if the limit in respect of expenditure on the scheme expired at the end of the troika programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29675/14]
Is the Minister personally involved in the review of the free travel pass scheme, the cost thereof and how it is implemented? Does the Minister support a cutback to that scheme and a reduction in the amount that is provided by the taxpayer, primarily to elderly people to enable them to use their daily bus and train pass?
In March 2012, the Ministers for Social Protection and Transport, Tourism and Sport agreed to establish an interdepartmental working group to examine and report on the operation and future development of the free travel scheme. The review has been led by the Department of Social Protection but also comprised officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the National Transport Authority and my Department.
The terms of reference included the objectives of the scheme, eligibility, the extent of service provided, data on usage of the scheme, fraud and control measures and the interaction between stakeholders in the scheme. As part of the review, meetings have been held with elderly people, carers, people with disabilities and transport operators. It is expected that the review will be concluded in the coming weeks and considered by the Government in the normal course. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection has indicated her endorsement of the scheme in recent days.
Under the terms of the national recovery plan 2011 to 2014, introduced by the previous Government, expenditure on the free travel scheme has been capped at the 2010 allocation of €77 million per annum, reflecting the tight budgetary constraints in which we are operating.
Now that the national recovery plan has concluded and the troika has left, the Minister is not bound by the €77 million cap. Will he give a commitment that the allocation will not be reduced, now that he is actually free to reduce it?
I am free not to reduce it.
The Minister referred to data on usage of the scheme. Payments to the various contractors have been set for several years. Will he take into account the fact that some of them, including the main State provider, Bus Éireann, have cut some of their routes? Bus Éireann’s Expressway routes, for example, in many constituencies, including the Minister’s, now bypass towns and use motorways instead. Several thousand people who had access to these services can no longer avail of them because they are no longer in place. While the operator has cut services, it is still receiving the full payment under the scheme. In recent days some private operators in County Donegal have spoken about not accepting the bus pass on some of their routes and withdrawing from the scheme because of the conditions the Minister has attached to it. Will the Minister ensure services are maintained and that people will have an entitlement to use their bus pass on all bus routes?
The Deputy is making a compelling case for the review under way. We need to examine all of the elements to which he referred. What is provided? Is it value for money for the State? Is there fraud? Is the scheme being availed of by the people who need it? Are they utilising it to the full? These are the questions that will be answered in the review which will be published once it is concluded. We want to maintain services. The Deputy has raised questions about routes which are more appropriate to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. I have no control over the routes operated by Bus Éireann or any other service provider.
Yes, but the Minister is part of the review which is examining usage data which include information on routes. I know it will be up to the line Department to make these decisions, but the Minister is part of the review. If he allocates €77 million to a scheme each budget day, he is entitled to know what services are being provided. Services have been reduced, but the Minister is still paying the same amount. Service providers need to be spoken to about this, especially in some of the rural areas where there may not be a train service and people rely on the bus system. This is a wider issue because of the problem of rural isolation. The National Transport Authority does not have the funding to provide local subsidised transport routes in areas where there are no major commercial services operating. This needs to be taken into account because the emphasis in the case of some of the bus companies is on moving people from city to city at the expense of those in provincial towns and rural areas.
The Deputy has made some valid points well. I hope all of these issues will be addressed in the review being led by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I do not know if the Deputy is involved on the transport committee, but he might well attend it to have a full and robust debate on this issue. Perhaps the individual service providers might be asked to attend the committee once the details are presented.
7. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will revise the public service sick leave scheme in order that absence due to pregnancy-related illness is not counted as sick leave. [29515/14]
A new public service sick leave scheme was introduced earlier this year. The Minister had the power to change regulations under that scheme. This question relates specifically to the changes in the treatment of pregnancy-related sick leave which I believe is particularly discriminatory against women because a difficult pregnancy could see a woman eating up her entire allowance and, as a result, not being able to avail of sick leave later on without incurring a significant financial penalty. Will the Minister revise this aspect of the new arrangements?
The legal position on the treatment of pregnancy-related illness, in particular the issue raised in the Deputy's question, is set out in a European Court of Justice ruling in the McKenna case. This case addressed, inter alia, the counting of sick leave for pregnancy-related illness. The court considered it was not discriminatory for pregnancy-related absences to be offset against the maximum number of days of paid sick leave to which a female employee was entitled. However, it also confirmed that, although it was not discriminatory to count the number of pregnancy-related sick leave days, a woman should still have access to the minimum payment she would have received if she had not suffered a pregnancy-related illness. In accordance with this, the new sick leave scheme provides that any pregnancy-related absence for which a female employee has been paid at the half rate will not count towards her paid sick leave limits. Pregnancy-related illnesses are also discounted in consideration for promotion and higher duty allowances. In addition, consistent with the judgment, the new sick leave scheme provides that a female employee who suffers from a pregnancy-related illness will be covered by the same sick leave provisions as other employees and will also have additional protections afforded to her in order that her pay does not fall below a certain level.
In these ways, the public service sick leave scheme recognises the distinct position of the pregnant worker and makes provision for the protection of the health and welfare of such workers. The new scheme not only implements the principles of European law in the non-discrimination against pregnant workers, it also provides additional support in the context of the new critical illness protocol. While I am keeping the new sick leave scheme under constant review, I do not intend to revise it at this early stage until I have seen how it works in practice. I have, however, committed to undertaking a formal review of the new scheme after a full year of its operation to ensure any adjustment necessary to enhance the operation of the scheme may be made. I will consider all issues raised in the course of the year as part of that review and any anomaly or unforeseen implication of the scheme will be addressed.
I am glad that there will be a review which I take it will take place in March 2015. I appreciate that there are health and safety implications and that a pregnant woman can avail of extra entitlements. The problem arises in cases in which sick leave eats into a pregnant woman’s entitlements, but later on, when she is not pregnant, she cannot avail of sick leave because her entitlement has been used up. It is precisely the people who may not have a poor record in taking sick leave who may encounter a difficult pregnancy which eats up their sick leave and who are the ones being afflicted. It has caused significant stress across the public sector. For example, I have received correspondence from a young mother in my area who had to go back to work because of the fear that her pay would be docked. Like many young couples, she is in negative equity. She has made the point that in the 12 years of her working life as a teacher she had never missed a day until she experienced a difficult pregnancy. Owing to a virus among pupils in her school, her doctor told her to stay off work for four weeks because it posed a danger to her baby. The virus returned to the school and she missed another two weeks. She also had another difficulty which meant a stay in hospital. Suddenly, one can see how her sick leave entitlement was used up. She was literally crying in writing to me. Another teacher sent me an e-mail from her hospital bed about not being able to avail of sick leave. That is where the problem lies and the issue needs to be addressed.
Pregnancy is not an illness. Obviously, people are entitled to maternity leave. If there are illnesses associated with pregnancy, they are, as I indicated, treated in a special way. The Deputy is saying someone who has a pregnancy-related illness is anxious that she might be ill for another reason later after the pregnancy. We can address when that might happen as opposed to being anxious that they are clocking up days. Pregnancy-related illness was never fully discounted in sick leave arrangements. We have looked carefully at what the European Court of Justice has stated.
We are applying best international practice to it. Ours is not only equivalent to but as good as any sick leave arrangement we have studied. We will see how this pans out. I do not think that women who are pregnant and are out of work with pregnancy-related illnesses should be anxious that somehow they might get ill again and that it might impact on them.
It is okay to say that but they are very worried because of the reduced sick leave allowance. That example I quoted means that young woman’s entire sick leave has been eaten up through this pregnancy. She will not get that sick leave back because she had not used up her sick leave before that. For the next four years she will not be entitled to paid sick leave. That is the worry. Many public sector workers have taken huge hits in their wages and the prospect of going on to half pay or no pay for a couple of days or a week or two is seriously worrying. People are taking risks, like the woman who was advised for the benefit of her pregnancy not to go to work, which she could have done otherwise. I know of another woman who said she could not afford to go on half pay as she had substantial rent and bills to pay every month. She said she was admitted to hospital with suspected pre-eclampsia and was so angry she was writing the e-mail from her hospital bed. Others have repeated that experience. That is the anomaly that needs to be worked out. It is okay to say people should not stress about it but they are stressed because they are already on the breadline.
I do not understand that particular issues would arise. Although I do not know the details of the case or the particular illnesses of the person the Deputy describes but somebody encompassed by the critical illness process has access to 12 months of paid leave on exactly the same basis as on the previous scheme, that is, 364 days of fully paid leave in a rolling year followed by six months, 182 days, on half pay.
I do not know how long somebody might be ill but the notion that someone would be out for more than a year and a half in a four year period and expect to be fully paid does not fit international norms. There is an understanding that if one is ill one cannot work and in a normal employment, in the private sector, one is supported as long as possible but there is an understanding but there is a limit to the time when somebody is out on full pay.
8. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will indicate, based on the achievement of the various economic targets set in respect of public expenditure and reform for the current year, the degree to which he expects to be in a position to encourage economic growth in the context of his preparation for budget 2015 with a view to positively impacting on the domestic economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29618/14]
This question relates to the extent to which the Minister may be in a position to narrow the gap between economic growth and debt, keeping in mind the target set for the troika but at the same time encouraging the domestic economy by generating growth and expenditure.
In setting budgetary allocations, the Government balances the requirements of bringing sustainability to the public finances, promoting and supporting economic recovery and protecting the most vulnerable in society.
The Government's overall fiscal target for next year is to reduce the general Government deficit to below 3% of GDP by the end of 2015. The scale of the adjustment required to meet this target will be decided by Government in the context of the budget, based on the most up-to-date economic and fiscal data at that time. In this regard, the most recent economic information is very encouraging.
I announced at budget time that our second three-yearly comprehensive review of expenditure would be carried out this year. This review is under way and will be a focused examination of expenditure by all Departments, taking account of Government spending priorities in order to identify areas of potential savings and efficiencies. In parallel, a separate review of capital expenditure is also being conducted with a view to realigning future investment priorities and to reset the medium-term capital envelopes for the next five years.
Targeting capital investment on projects with a high employment content can benefit local economies throughout the State. To this end, since July 2012, I have made a series of announcements in relation to additional capital investment as part of a stimulus package. These projects are spread around the country in order to create economic activity and jobs on a regional basis.
Public service reform has been a key element of the Government's strategic response to the economic crisis and is a central theme in the programme for Government. The Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016, published in January this year, contains a detailed action plan with clear timelines. Public procurement is a key area of reform. In carrying out reforms in this area, the Government is committed to ensuring that SMEs are encouraged to participate in procurement and to maximising the social benefits, such as employment and training opportunities, that can be delivered under public contracts. The implementation of measures in the public service reform plan relating to SME access to public procurement will, I am determined, facilitate growth.
I thank the Minister and congratulate him and his colleagues on their spectacular performance to date in achieving the targets they have achieved in a very difficult situation. To what extent is the Minister prepared to consider areas that might show potential for easing the burden on the domestic economy but at the same time maintaining the targets already set and committed to?
The Deputy has quite rightly encapsulated Government policy, which is to ensure we have restored the economic fortunes of the State to have a sustainable platform into the future that will attract inward investment, which we have seen in spades, with more inward investment in the past year than we have seen for a very long time. There is a jobs dividend from that, which will allow the domestic economy to recover. That is one of the most challenging next phases. We have been using whatever resources we can get our hands on, including investment from the European Investment Bank and others to have direct stimulus across the country in specific projects. We now will examine the greatly improved economic platform we have built to ensure that we have a budget introduced next year that will, I hope, not only build on the economic progress we have achieved and maintain it but will also give relief to people who are really pressed by some of the decisions that were necessary through the economic crisis.
9. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason absence due to pregnancy-related illness is counted as sick leave in the public service sick leave scheme; if he will acknowledge the discriminatory impact this has on women workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29684/14]
This subject has already been discussed. I am surprised the questions were not grouped. The kernel of this problem is that it seems strange to me that if it is not discriminatory to women given that men are not in as vulnerable a position-----
They do not get pregnant.
The Minister says that if there is a critical illness protocol in place they could be taken care of if they contract a serious illness later. If they get the flu or some other sickness but are not in hospital for two weeks surely they will be in a very difficult position because of this arrangement. Has the Minister considered introducing more flexible work practices which could address part of the problem?
There is no grouping of questions at the moment. Each Deputy gets a reply from the line Minister.
Have they been done away with?
Yes at the moment. The Ceann Comhairle decided on that.
Everybody gets their own outing now, even if it is the same question.
Everybody’s question is replied to by the line Minister.
The need to protect and support women during pregnancy and ensure that they are not discriminated against is a priority strongly reflected in the design of the new public service sick leave scheme. We brought this to the Labour Court and specifically asked it to consider additional protection for women.
The new scheme operates strictly in accordance with the European Court of Justice ruling which establishes what constitutes, and perhaps more specifically what does not constitute, discrimination in relation to the application of any sick leave provision.
Where a female employee goes sick with a pregnancy-related illness she will be treated the same as another employee until such time as she has exhausted her sick leave. At that point she will be given extra protection beyond what other employees would ordinarily get because she will not go below half pay for as long as she has a pregnancy-related illness.
Also reflecting the principles of EU law, the new sick leave scheme provides that any pregnancy-related absence for which a female employee has been paid at the half-rate will not count towards her overall sick leave limits - this is the four-year horizon instanced by Deputy Daly earlier - nor are any pregnancy-related illnesses counted in respect of eligibility for promotion and higher duty allowances.
I would also draw the Deputy's attention to the extra protections in the critical illness protocol which allow for an increase in access to paid sick leave and, by agreement with the Labour Court, provide specifically for pregnancy-related illnesses. Where a pregnancy-related illness is serious, it will be covered by that protocol. One of the criteria for awarding the protocol more generally is two consecutive weeks of hospitalisation. However, this requirement is reduced to two days for pregnancy-related illness in accordance with a determination of the Labour Court. I will provide the Deputy with the reference for that judgment.
We are not complaining about the sick leave they get while they are pregnant but about the fact it has the potential to eat into their sick leave over the four-year period ahead. The Minister may be aware that a survey carried out in Norway found that three quarters of pregnant women took sick leave from work but that this can be reduced through flexible work adjustments. Overall, 35% of women cited fatigue and sleep problems as the main reason for taking sick leave, followed closely by pelvic girdle pain and nausea or vomiting, with 32% and 23% of women suffering these symptoms respectively. The study also looked at work adjustments for pregnant women and found 60% of the 2,197 women surveyed reported having adjustments made to their working situation. On average, these women reported taking seven days less sick leave than those who went without job adjustments.
Does the Department have the potential to put in place a system where the employer is obliged to be more flexible with regard to pregnant women in order to deal with some of these problems?
The Deputy makes a very valid point and it is something I will re-examine on foot of this discussion. It has always been a point in regard to the delivery of public services that we have the maximum flexibility to allow for normal family pressures, probably better than is done in the private sector. I acknowledge much pressure has been put on that in the past few years because we have asked people to work additional hours and so on because of the financial crisis we have gone through. However, as we work our way out of that, I believe we can look specifically at the point the Deputy makes in regard to pregnant women in the public service. It is something I will look at.
It is not a simple subject. Am I right in suspecting there is a lack of information for people around this whole subject? Is this an area that could be improved?
Again, I believe the Deputy is right. There are new sick leave arrangements which we have spent a year and a half discussing with the unions and bringing through the Labour Court, and it was in the Labour Court right up to the end of last year. We then enacted specific legislation which we brought through the Houses in this regard. However, there are probably many public sector workers who are not as familiar with it as people who have been involved in the legislative process here or who have followed closely the work of the Labour Court. There is probably a job of work for both trade unions and employers in the public sector to better explain entitlements. Again, that is a point I will look at.
This is one of the issues we debated when the Minister was conceiving this scheme. No part of the Minister's answer resolves the issue that a pregnant worker would have, for example, if she falls ill, takes her sick leave and clocks up more or and more of the leave for which she is eligible, with consequences further down the line. It is a genuine concern. I hope the Minister will take account of this in the annual review because it is important to get it right.
The Minister referred to the critical illness protocol a number of times as it would relate to a pregnant woman, and he mentioned the issue of two weeks hospitalisation as against two days hospitalisation. In the course of the debate, I specifically raised the issue with the Minister of postnatal depression because that would probably be the significant after-birth illness that would afflict many women, whereas it might not necessarily involve hospitalisation at all, much less for two days. Again in regard to the critical illness protocol, Deputy Daly mentioned somebody being hospitalised for pre-eclampsia. While that would not be regarded as a critical condition, it would be routinely screened for.
I can understand how women workers of child bearing age would have real concerns in this area. It is critical it gets a very specific focus when the Minister reviews this in March.
One of the objectives we have is to allay fears and it is important that we give assurances rather than raise anxieties. I believe this will work out as a very fair scheme. We have specifically looked at the whole area of pregnancy-related illness as a unique set within the sick leave design generally. As I said in my first answer to Deputy Daly, when we have the review in 12 months time, we will probably have sufficient, if not an awful lot of, practical experience to look at any adjustments that might be necessary at that stage.
10. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the evidence successful tenderers for public contracts from outside the State have to provide to show they are compliant with our employment and taxation law and are not operating in the black economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29622/14]
The question concerns what proof successful tenderers for public contracts from outside the State have to show the awarding body to ensure they are compliant with our employment and taxation law and that they are not using workers who are operating in the black economy.
Again, this overlaps with a question I answered earlier. Public procurement procedures require all applicants to meet certain standards when applying for public contracts. In this regard, applicants are required to make declarations in regard to their financial standing, their legal standing and payment of taxes and social contributions. The criteria upon which contracting authorities may exclude applicants from the award procedure of public contracts are set out in public procurement regulations and directives. Before an applicant is excluded, the applicant may make a case in mitigation and, as I said earlier, this must be considered by the contracting authority.
It is a condition of award of all public contracts above €10,000 that the successful applicant provides to a contracting authority either a current tax clearance certificate or demonstrates a satisfactory level of subcontractor tax compliance in the case of the construction, forestry or meat processing sectors, which are subject to relevant contracts tax. The same tax clearance requirement applies to all non-resident contractors being awarded a public contract.
The management of the tendering process for a public contract is a matter for each contracting authority. It is the responsibility of each contracting authority to ensure that tenderers comply with all the requirements of the process.
It is during the tendering application process that they are required to show these proofs. However, what steps are available to bodies after the contractor has been appointed in terms of monitoring ongoing work, particularly in regard to the subcontracting of elements of the contract? I believe that, to a certain extent, a blind eye is turned to this because the awarding of contracts is generally on the most competitive price. Given the costs of doing business are lower outside this jurisdiction, it is very difficult for tendering companies resident here to be successful on price alone.
Will the Minister expand on what role the public body can play after the tender has been awarded and while construction is ongoing in order to police this measure? I believe this needs to be stepped up.
As I indicated earlier to Deputy Fleming, it is the legal responsibility of the contracting authority - if it is a school, the Department of Education and Skills, or if it is a road, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the NRA - to ensure that all legal requirements are complied with.
The Deputy raised the case of subcontractors. In any public contract valued at greater than €10,000, inclusive of VAT, which is not a huge contract, it would be a condition of the award of the main contract that all subcontractors employed on the projects must produce a tax reference number where a payment exceeds €650.
Records of tax reference numbers must be kept by the contractor and must be available for inspection by the Revenue Commissioners. Where payments exceed €2,600 in any 12-month period, the subcontractor is required to produce a current tax clearance certificate. Payments under a contract are at all times conditional on compliance with all the contract requirements set out.
The management of the tendering process is a matter for each contracting body. The Deputy has again instanced his concerns about some contracts. If he has concerns about non-compliance with normal legal requirements in respect of any contract awarded in this State, I would like to hear from him and I will ensure they are investigated.
I am generally concerned about how this is policed and enforced. For many years, contractors had to be compliant with the construction industry pension scheme. I do not know about national bodies, but local authorities turned a blind eye to it because they were getting the contractors at the most competitive price. I raised it with Donegal County Council a number of years ago. When it started forcing contractors to comply, companies registered one employee and got a letter of compliance from the Construction Industry Federation saying that they were part of a pension scheme, which got over the difficulty for them. It is an ongoing problem that needs to be looked at. For example, if an authority has had a difficulty with a contractor in the past, could it exclude the contractor from future contracts? Could it adopt that position and would it be defensible?
The Deputy raised a number of questions. I will deal with the last one first. There are set criteria for excluding somebody from the tendering process but, obviously, fair procedure must apply, because excluding somebody from being able to apply for a public contract is a significant penalty and the contractor would have recourse to the courts to vindicate its rights to do that. I can forward the criteria for preventing a contractor from applying to the Deputy. In the past two years I have established the Office of Government Procurement because much general procurement in the public service happened in an ad hoc fashion. We now have a much clearer and more transparent procurement mechanism. I do not know which committee the Deputy is a member of, but if it is one that deals with procurement generally, it might be useful to have the new Government procurement officer explain the procedures and possibly answer questions about anything that needs to be tightened either in the contract documentation or in the contract monitoring that might be of use.
11. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the steps he is taking to implement the recommendations in the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht report on Shannon flooding published in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29518/14]
Two years ago, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht sat down and agreed a set of eight key priorities to address the flooding issues on the River Shannon. While some progress has been made, it has been very limited. One of the key recommendations in that report was that the OPW be given statutory authority to operate as the lead agency on the River Shannon and that all other organisations should directly consult with it in respect of the Shannon and seek its approval before they take any action. Could the Minister update us?
I thank the Deputy for his question. The report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht on Shannon flooding dealt with and included recommendations on a number of issues within the areas of responsibilities of a range of Government Departments and State bodies. The OPW responded to the committee by way of a written reply in September 2012 in respect of the specific matters within the OPW's area of responsibility. The main area addressed in the reply related to the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management, CFRAM, programme and how the OPW is addressing flood risk on the River Shannon in the context of that programme. The committee report was forwarded to the technical consultants undertaking the Shannon CFRAM study on behalf of the OPW for consideration in the context of the study.
The OPW's core strategy for addressing flood risk in the Shannon basin is the River Shannon CFRAM study. I am advised that good progress continues to be made on the project. A total of 66 locations along the Shannon have been identified for further assessment under the study. The output of this important project will be an integrated plan of specific measures to address in a comprehensive and sustainable way the significant flood risk factors in the Shannon basin.
Operational control of water flows and levels on the Shannon is the responsibility of both the ESB and Waterways Ireland. In order to address ongoing concerns that the existing water level control regime may be a contributory factor in early summer flooding in the Callows, these bodies have agreed a new interim control regime for the regulation of water levels. Under this interim regime, the ESB agreed to a trial lowering of the spring and early summer target levels in Lough Ree to reduce somewhat the risk of summer flooding, particularly in the Shannon Callows area. This trial commenced in summer 2013 and will remain in place until the publication of the Shannon CFRAM plan. Further information on the Shannon CFRAM study is available on the Shannon CFRAM study website.
I will allow one supplementary question.
I could spend the day asking questions on this. My question concerns the Minister's comment about the pilot lowering of water levels on Lough Ree, something for which we have always argued. The fact that this has taken place is a welcome development, and I commend the former Minister of State, Brian Hayes, on taking the initiative in respect of that. However, the results of that investigation have not been published. Why is this the case? Why can we not see the impact this had last summer? Obviously, if it is remaining in place, it means there have been some positive results. Why has this become a further State secret?
I am advised that data from the exercise was collated by the hydrometric section of the OPW and forwarded to the CFRAM consultants, Jacobs Engineering, for analysis as part of the CFRAM study. I am advised that data from this exercise is available on the Shannon CFRAM and OPW websites.
And the analysis of same.
That is what they are telling me.
