Once the application process is completed, the card will be posted within seven to ten working days. If a person is getting the appointment well in advance of the card's expiry they should be okay. I will have to take up the issue around the photograph with my officials. We want to streamline this process to allow people to go online and upload the photograph. People want to know that it is the correct photograph and that it has been taken. If it is not taken, the person can experience bother as well. As I said, we…

I take the Deputy's point. They get the notice three months in advance, which is good. At least they are getting the notification that their card is due to expire. The card was introduced in 2011 and there were a lot of first-time applications in 2012, 2013 and 2014 when many people started to use the public service card, so there are a good few extra for renewal at this point. Since the service was launched, more than 134,000 people have renewed their cards online. Some 70,000 renewals were completed in 2023. That…

The main income supports to carers provided by my Department are the carer’s allowance, the carer’s benefit, the domiciliary care allowance and the carer’s support grant. Spending on these payments is expected to amount to more than €1.7 billion this year. Since my appointment as Minister, I have made a number of improvements in the social welfare system to enhance the supports available for our carers. These have included an increase of €150 to the annual carer’s support grant, bringing it to €1,850, the highest l…

Yes.

I thank the Deputy. I have increased the threshold for the means test capital allowance for carers. I have also increased the income thresholds so that from June, a couple will be able to earn up to €900 per week and have €50,000 in savings and will still qualify for the full carer's allowance payment. The reality is that no matter where I draw the line, some people will fall on the other side of it. I do not want to see people left behind. I know women who have given up their jobs to care for children with disabil…

I thank the Deputies. As I said, the interdepartmental group has been set up. It is not a new idea that people should work together. They should work together but sometimes we get into Departments and look after what is specific to our areas when in actual fact, we need to take a much broader cross-government approach. I have worked hard with the carer's association, which has been extremely helpful. A lot has happened but more must be done. I cannot pay carers for the work they do. That would be impossible. Howeve…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I reassure Deputies that there is no tendency to refuse applications for carer's allowance or disability allowance in my Department. In fact, the majority of claims are granted at first decision. Approximately 10% of all claim decisions are appealed. Deciding officers are required under legislation to act independently and to make decisions in a fair and impartial manner and in accordance with criteria set in the legislation for the relevant scheme. Ongoing training and gui…

I thank the Deputy. He probably knows the social welfare system more than many of us in this House. He certainly has a great understanding of it and a great appreciation of the many, varied and difficult circumstances in which people find themselves. He regularly discusses this with me. I would be happy to examine the specific case. If somebody says one cannot have such a payment because one is due a back payment, that is to assume the payment is coming. I will have to check the details of the specific case. I will…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 58, 63, 65, 75, 76 and 80 together. The objective of the school meals programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and additional educational achievement. It is my overriding ambition that every child born today will be able to benefit from a hot school meal when they start school. Following the expansion of th…

Cut it off.

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. Not many measures are universally popular in this House, but the hot school meals is certainly one example. When I came into the Department, 30 schools were getting hot meals and when the expansion happens in April, more than 1,600 primary schools will receive hot meals. I am firm believer in the hot dinner in the middle of the day. You cannot beat it. I was in Artane last year and we saw the children getting their hot meals. They were sitting around the tables, cha…

It was slightly different when I was doing it because mammy got the blame for the lunches and got the job as well. Parents have enough to worry about. They are running out the door to work in the morning and when they know the child will get a good staple meal in the middle of the day, it is a huge weight off their minds. We are all busy people. It is great that we did the evaluation last year and teachers in the schools were overwhelmingly in favour of expanding the programme. For schools that did not get it in th…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 59, 77 and 107 together. Child benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16. Currently, the payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 18th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. In budget 2024, the Government decided to extend the payment of child benefit to 18-year-olds who are in full-time education or have a disability. This was one of my key priorities in the budget. With many childr…

This is something the Deputy was very keen for me to improve upon. Child benefit is one of the few tools at my disposal that I can use to support working families. As part of recent budgets, I prioritised the double payments and the lump sum payment on child benefit. As the Deputy noted, children are starting school later. Most children do not start school until they are five and then they do transition year so they are well into 18 before they are finished. I was talking to a woman the other day who told me that s…

Yes. If you are in payment, you will benefit from any of the double payments we had on child benefit last year. It is €140 per month per child and it is a welcome support to get. I know myself that child benefit covers many a bill or cost that comes into the house. When you are kitting out children for school, it does not matter whether they are 17 or 18. It will still cost the same amount of money to buy things like uniforms when you are getting them ready for school in September.

The Government committed as part of the roadmap for social inclusion to develop and consult on proposals to restructure long-term disability payments and to simplify the system. The proposals developed are set out in the Green Paper on disability reform. The intention in proposing reforms to the structure of long-term payments is twofold: first, to better insulate disabled people who cannot work from poverty by providing for higher rates of payment and second, to encourage and support higher levels of employment fo…

This Green Paper is for consultation only. Everything is up for discussion. No decisions have been made other than the payment as it currently stands will not reduce. We will take on board all the submissions we have received. Already I am getting requests to further extend the consultation period. I will give consideration to that as well because some people felt that they should get longer to consider it and make their submissions. This is an inclusive process and I want to hear all the views. People have made co…

I thank Deputy Wynne. In case there is any doubt out there, as I said earlier, we will go through all the submissions. If there are clear red lines and it comes through loud and clear that this is not what is wanted, we will go back to the drawing board. This was an opportunity to have a discussion to see how we can improve the situation for people with disabilities and we have to accept that there are different levels of disability. In fact, some people may be able to do a little bit of work. Some people can never…

I am taking Questions Nos. 61 and 96 together. The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are more than 1 million people with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on the free travel in 2024 is €104 million. The objective of the free travel scheme is to ensure older people and people with disabilities remain active within their community. Extending the eligibility of the free travel scheme to include children would…

I have extended the scheme to those who are medically unfit and they will get the free travel pass. That was important. I acknowledge the work of Epilepsy Ireland. I spoke to them on a number of occasions and they pointed out to me that people with epilepsy could not drive for over a year. They did a lot of work on that. I met with them, only last week, on World Epilepsy Day. We hope to invite applications for the new scheme in May. They were advocating for people with epilepsy but I was delighted I was able to exp…