The Government acknowledges the important contribution carers provide and is fully committed to supporting them in that role. Accordingly, the current State pension system gives significant recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period of time outside the paid workplace, often to raise families or provide another full-time caring role. PRSI credits, homemaking disregards and home caring periods recognise caring periods of up to 20 years outside of paid employment in the calculation of a paymen…

As part of the State pension reforms, I am committed to providing the pension for long-term carers and hope to have it in place by 2024. As the Deputy knows, we are doing much work to support carers, which is absolutely correct because they really do great work. There is no doubt about that. My officials are looking at the legislation we need to change. That is being written as we speak. The Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, of which Deputy Kerrane is a member, i…

We will use any of the information we have in the Department on domiciliary care allowance, carer’s support grant or carer's allowance. We are trying to make sure people who have genuinely been caring for more than 20 years get the benefit of this. It is important that they get this pension. They have cared all their lives and find that when they come to pension age, because of their partner's income, they cannot get anything because it is means-tested. We are trying to deal with this. We expect to have the legisla…

In 2022, 26,021 disability allowance claims were registered with my Department, with 13,817 claims awarded and a total of 5,637 appeals. Domiciliary care allowance claims registered stood at 10,524, with 7,872 claims awarded and 2,084 appeals. There were 22,841 claims registered for carer's allowance, with 14,921 claims awarded and 3,521 appeals. During 2022, the Department continued to receive an increased number of claims across all of these schemes. Claim volumes for disability allowance increased by more than 2…

Each scheme has multiple conditionality such as medical, caring, means and residency. A key criteria is that the applicant satisfies the medical-related conditionality. To assess this, the Department employs its own team of more than 30 doctors who have a mix of skills and specialties and who are specially trained to assess the impact of a medical condition on a person's capacity to work or on his or her care needs. The focus is not to disallow a claim but to try to understand the impact of the underlying condition…

I thank the Deputies. I hear the concerns they raise. I had one case in my constituency office of a child who had been diagnosed from birth with a particular disorder but the medical evidence did not stack up and they did not get the disability allowance. They were moving from domiciliary care to disability care but they did not get it. They did not provide the information. I told them they would have to go back to their specialist and get a letter. They said they would not go back. They said that what they had sup…

I thank the Deputy for this question. The purpose of an additional needs payment is to assist with essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. In 2022, over 97,000 additional needs payments were issued at a total value of over €58 million. More than €66 million has been provided for additional needs payments in 2023. However, the budget for this scheme is demand-led and is not subject to an overall cap. There are 412 staff across all grades in …

This is a demand-led scheme, as the Deputy knows. We spent €58 million on it last year. There is a budget for this year and if the scheme requires more money, that is not a problem. We will provide it. The additional needs payment, through the community welfare service, is the State's safety net for people who get into difficulty. I have been in politics for 20 years and have always dealt with the local CWOs. They have always done their best to help people, as has the Deputy. I value the CWOs. The delivery of this …

I thank the Deputy. I ask her to give me the details. I am not familiar with district heating systems, to be honest. If she gives me the information, I am happy to have a look at it. I do not know the details. If she gives me-----

If the Deputy writes to me on that specific issue, I will be happy to follow it up.

Given the complex historical basis of the DPMA and the disability allowance, I welcome the opportunity to set out the context of this matter for the House. Over the full period of some 70 years, there have been different allowances and legislative provisions governing these schemes and it is important that they be understood clearly. For more than 40 years, the DPMA constituted a weekly allowance paid by health boards to persons who were unable to work by reason of a disability. The scheme was first introduced unde…

I move: That, notwithstanding Standing Order 215 of the Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann relative to Public Business or the Resolution of the Dáil of 14th December, 2022, the following Further Revised Estimate for Public Services for the year ending 31st December, 2023, be presented to the Dáil on 1st February, 2023, being a date later than that prescribed for the presentation of Estimates: Vote 11 — Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform (Further Revised Estimate).

This is a sad morning. I offer my condolences to the family of the young Irish soldier who lost his life in Lebanon. Our thoughts and those of the Government are with his family and with the other brave soldiers injured in this attack, their families and their colleagues in Óglaigh na hÉireann. Our Defence Forces' tradition of peacekeeping with the UN is a proud one and these brave soldiers served in that tradition. In serving the noble cause of seeking to build and maintain peace, they put themselves in danger. We…

As I said, the development of a rural-proofing model is a key commitment in Our Rural Future and work is progressing well on this. In conjunction with other Departments, we have identified the areas we wish to focus on as part of a pilot project. This includes sustainable tourism, which is an aspect that has a major impact on rural economies. We have, of course, launched the national outdoor recreation strategy. This will have great economic benefits. We just have to look at the Limerick greenway or the mountain bi…

It is important to clarify that there was no downgrading of the north and western region by the European Commission from the status of a region in transition. This region in transition designation was decided in 2018 based on GDP per capita in the region over the previous three years and has been used to calculate European funding allocations for the region from 2021 to 2027. Separately, then, the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development, REGI, independently categorised the north-west region as a lag…

The Government is fully aware of the challenges facing community and voluntary organisations now and I was delighted to launch the €15 million community centres investment fund earlier this year. The huge interest in this fund shows how important community centres are for communities throughout Ireland. Under the 2022 fund, applications were invited under three categories, with funding of up to €300,000 available. On 12 October, I announced over €12.5 million in funding for 580 successful category 1 applicants. On …

I had a great day in Hartstown last week with the Deputy, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. There was a good turnout on the day. It was a lovely event. I thank all the local volunteers and the committee in Hartstown for the work they put into the application. This was the centre about which concerns were expressed some years ago regarding whether it would survive. I saw the "Save Hartstown" signs in …

The grant of €300,000 will ensure that the centre does not just survive but thrives in future. The centre in Hartstown was in the ownership of the diocese, but it is now being taken over by Fingal County Council. This is a good thing. The support of the local authority will be of great help in future. We are happy to work together. I come from a rural area, and the community centres there are nearly all run by volunteers. Few centres are owned by local authorities. I am happy, though, to work together because it is…

I see the point the Deputy is making all right. In fairness, the majority of the applications that came in were from community owned ones. There are some local authority owned ones. However, I take the Deputy's point that if there is an obligation on the local authorities to support those centres, they should be honouring that obligation. At the same time, we want to ensure that we have good facilities. Of course, this was supposed to be originally a €15 million fund but in the end, we announced over €45 million in…

I thank Deputy Canney for raising this. The local improvement scheme, LIS, supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, the Government is committed to ensuring that the LIS is funded into the future. The scheme makes an important contribution to connectivity in rural Ireland. I am also committed to improving connectivity for rural residents, whether it be access to homes, farms or outdoor amenities. The local improvement sch…