I welcome the Minister. I refer to matters relating to employers, PRSI and exclusions. Will the Minister explain why people who were self-employed, who were employers, whose businesses have folded and who have fallen the furthest in many cases have no right to the jobseeker’s allowance or jobseeker’s benefit?

Many such people are penniless and carry a good deal of debt at present and they have no basic source of cash. It is rather humiliating for many. I question the justice in this given that a European citizen from another country can come here and, within a short period, qualify for jobseeker’s benefit. Will the Minister explain this anomaly? What does the Minister propose to do to help our small and medium enterprise people who have fallen on hard times? Is there anything for them in the form of social welfare benefits?

Senator Walsh raised an interesting point with regard to sperm donation and a father’s responsibility in that case. I do not think that in the case cited, that father was thinking of the child to be born; he had no interest in his responsibility. I acknowledge the point about the child needing to know his or her medical history but the other side of the coin is where birth fathers, whose child was being given up for adoption, chose not to have their name on the child’s birth certificate. Under the Hague Convention, fathers will be asked if they want to have their name recorded on the birth certificate. Ireland will be compliant with the Hague Convention this year when the Adoption Bill becomes law but prospective adoptive parents have been assessed under that for 15 to 18 years. We need to legislate for the child and this Bill is not the place to do so. We did not have this debate in the Adoption Bill. This issue should be raised in the context of the constitutional amendment on the rights of the child.

The Minister knows I have spoken in the House on the Civil Registration Act with regard to another issue, an amendment of the Act to deal with deaths abroad of Irish citizens and whose deaths are not registered in the State. I know the Minister has met with some of the families in question who are constituents of ours. I ask the Minister to say what progress has been made with regard to amending the legislation. This affects the many hundreds of deaths of people who die abroad who may only have been outside the country for a short time for a holiday or during the summer. One pressing reason may not have been mentioned in the debate so far and this is the potential abuse of Irish passports. For example, when a death is not registered in Ireland, the person’s passport is still live and if that passport is stolen

I am glad the Minister touched on the issue of abuse. It is estimated that approximately 10% of social welfare payments fall into that category. That is a significant amount of money, considering that we are paying out a sum of €20 billion. Even if the figure was only 5%, the sum involved would amount to €1 billion

It would be well worth following the money considering the size of the national deficit and the need to find savings of €3 billion. Does the Minister think the measures he is taking are adequate? Also, what has he done about the scandal during the ash cloud crisis with regard to the social welfare payments not collected during those weeks?

Will the self-employed people who fall on hard times still qualify for jobseeker’s allowance, even if their accounts are outstanding and taxes are due to the Revenue, given that they do not have the money to pay Revenue because the business has done so badly? As the Minister correctly said, they are in trouble in the current year but they have to submit accounts for the previous year and they do not have the money to pay tax.