The Government acknowledges the crucial role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. To support carers, I announced a number of measures in budget 2024. These include the €400 cost-of-living lump sum payment which will be paid in November, and the €12 increase in the maximum rate of the carers allowance and the carers benefit from January 2024, with proportionate increases for people getting a reduced weekly rate. From January 2024, there will also be a €10 increase to the …

I thank Deputy Canney. No more than they go to his office, people who have made applications also come to my constituency office. There are times when people make applications that not all of the information is provided. This is probably the main reason for the delays, to be honest. I have spoken to officials about this. They say that if all of the information is in, and all of the necessary documentation has been completed by the doctor and whatever else, the application can be processed very quickly. As I said ea…

I thank Deputy Canney. Of course I understand it is a big step for anybody to take and it is not easy. In recent years one of the factors impacting processing times is the tendency for some people to submit claims early, before all of the required documentation is ready. This is in order to establish an entitlement date. When the application is made that is the beginning. People get the application in as quickly as possible and I understand why. However, it does prolong the processing time as the Department must wr…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. 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 customers with direct eligibility. This increases to 1.75 million customers when spouses and companions are included. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2023 is €95 million. Since 2017, people moving from certain long-term disability schemes have been able to retain their free travel entitlement for a furt…

Ireland is behind the average EU rates for the employment of people with disabilities. I have worked to enhance the supports we have in my Department, whether it is the employability programme, the reasonable accommodation fund, the WorkAbility programme or the wage subsidy scheme for people with disabilities. I was delighted to bring in changes in this budget. There had not been any changes in the Department's free travel pass scheme for many years, but I got approval to extend the free travel pass to people medic…

I did a lot of work with Epilepsy Ireland, because this is probably the best example in this regard. People who have epilepsy are put off the road and cannot drive. I engaged, therefore, with Epilepsy Ireland on this issue and have been doing so for some time. I met representatives of the organisation several times. I know people who have epilepsy and it is not easy for them because they just cannot get to work as they cannot drive. If they could get access to transport, then they would be in a much better position…

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for raising this issue. The Citizens Information Board, CIB, is a statutory body under the aegis of my Department. CIB funds and supports a number of service delivery companies to provide services on its behalf including eight regional citizens information service, CIS, companies which operate the national network of citizens' information centres. The Comhairle Act 2000 charges CIB with the provision of independent information, advice and advocacy services. Each CIS company is a separate co…

I take on board the points made by Deputy McAuliffe. I know the Deputy's background and he will be aware that my background is in the credit union so nobody knows better the value of community, the value of volunteers and the voluntary ethos that I saw at first hand there. I am pleased to see a number of recruitment drives for volunteers are taking place around the country. I want to see the volunteers who were there pre-pandemic coming back. Of course we also want to see new volunteers coming on board and I am gla…

In my Department of Rural and Community Development we are developing a national volunteer strategy because it is important that we get people to volunteer. It is very rewarding. Some people may think they are taking on too much and maybe sometimes the responsibilities are too onerous for them but we do want to encourage them to get involved. We all know it can be very rewarding. I am aware of the issue in Carlow. I was well aware of it last year and earlier this year. One of the strengths of the citizens informati…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 57, 84 and 101 together. As part of budget 2024, I secured a €2.3 billion social protection package. This is, for the second year in a row, the largest in the history of the State. This package provides a mixture of exceptional cost-of-living payments delivered over the coming weeks, along with an across-the-board €12 weekly rate increase in primary payments and an increase of €4 per week for a qualified child, both of which take effect from early January. This approach will ease th…

Deputy Dillon mentioned the hot school meals programme. The expansion of the programme in 2024 will cover an additional 900 primary schools. That means that by this time next year, we will be two thirds of the way to providing hot meals to all primary school children. My aim is that any child born this year will have access to the hot school meals programme by the time they are going to primary school. That means we want to roll it out to every primary school. That scheme addresses issues around child poverty, part…

I am not that good. It is a big game changer and I want to pursue it. As regards secondary schools, I felt we should deal with the primary schools first because younger children are not able to fend for themselves. When they get to secondary school, they might be able to put a bit of ham in the middle of two slices of bread and move on. We will expand it. We have the school meals programme for secondary schools and I hope they can take that up and as time goes on we will roll it out the whole way. That will be a gr…

If people are running into problems, they need to look to the essential needs payment. It is there and is available. Anybody who has a problem with their mortgage, before getting into any deep difficulties, should go to the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS. It is a free service and the staff give good advice and will advocate on people's behalf. Deputies should send people to MABS. I do not have any plans for my Department to start funding soup kitchens. We want to support individuals. On Deputy Dillon's ques…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 58, 90, 95 and 109 together. Carer's benefit is a payment made to insured people who leave the workforce to care for someone in need of full-time care and attention. It is payable for a maximum of 104 weeks for each person being cared for. It can be taken in one block or in separate periods as long as the combined total does not exceed 104 weeks. The average duration of a carer's benefit claim is 76 weeks. I do not consider it necessary to extend the duration of the benefit for long…

Like the Deputies, I meet carers all the time in my constituency office. We help them fill out their forms and follow up on their applications in the same way the Deputies do, and I can only say they do great work. One of my priorities since I became Minister for Social Protection has been to do whatever I can to support our carers because I know the huge work they do and the contribution they make to our society. In my first budget, therefore, I increased the carer's support grant to €1,850. In budget 2022, I was …

I want to be clear: my job in social protection is to provide people with a basic income. I cannot pay carers for the work they do; that is just the way it is. That is why I am setting up an interdepartmental group with the Department of Health in order that we can look at this whole area, have an open and frank discussion about it and see how we can adequately support carers for the work they do. Deputy Moynihan asked how many carers who come off the carer's benefit and continue to get the carer's support grant do…

The Green Paper that I published delivers on the Government's commitment under the roadmap for social inclusion to develop and consult on proposals to restructure long-term disability payments and simplify the system. The proposals of the Green Paper are not final; they are intended to invite discussion and debate. We recognise it is well documented that people with disabilities face additional costs and that Ireland's employment rate for people with disabilities is well below the EU average. The question is whethe…

First, I welcome our visitors who are here for this debate and thank them for attending. I thank Senator Clonan for raising this very important issue. I think everybody in this House agrees that we need to do more to support people with disabilities. At the outset, I will say that I do not see recipients or claimants, I see people. It has been well documented that the cost of disability needs to be addressed. Ireland’s employment rate for people with disabilities is below the EU average. So, the question is, do we …

I met leaders from the disability sector to brief them on the Green Paper and I explained that these are draft proposals for public consultation. Consequently, nothing is decided here. The Green Paper does not claim to be the best way or the only way. Its real purpose is to encourage thinking and discussion and to prompt suggestions. The draft proposals in the paper are designed to help people think about what might work and to encourage a focused debate around key design ideas to reform disability payments. It is …

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