As I just said, given that the Government has approved an approach on pension payments, potential benchmarking approaches to other social welfare payments will, of course, be examined. Regarding the MESL, my Department has used this research as a key input into consideration of budget options in recent years. I value the insight this research provides and it will form part of the consideration of next year's benchmarking review. Improved access to services such as the extension of the GP-visit cards for children an…

On Committee Stage, I committed to initiate a wide-ranging review of means testing in the Department. I said I would review all those schemes. This review will with cover the treatment of income and disregards across schemes generally and will therefore include the examination of thresholds and their impact for both the blind pension and the disability allowance scheme. I take the Deputy's point about somebody who has won a grant to do a particular piece of work as an artist. I understand where she is coming from n…

I, too, want to say that it has been a tough year for Tracy McGinnis. We think about her and we extend our thoughts and prayers to her as she faces Christmas without her son, Brendan. It cannot be easy for her. I was in touch with her recently about a separate issue. I appreciate where Deputy Kerrane is coming from on this matter. She is coming from a good place and I recognise that, but there are two main issues here. Domiciliary care allowance is paid for three months after a child passes away, but it is differen…

It would not be appropriate for my Department to compile a report, as is requested in the amendment, because policy in respect of apprenticeships does not come within my Department's remit. As the Deputy knows, the overall policy responsibility rests with my colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and his Department. This year, the National Apprenticeship Office was established jointly by SOLAS and the Higher Education Authority. It is the lead agency responsible f…

Yes.

Read the report.

I thank Deputy Kerrane for raising this issue. As of 1 October 2022, over 75,000 applications for additional needs payments, ANPs, were processed and payments awarded. This represents a 63% increase in awarded payments compared with the same period in 2021. My Department has already paid an estimated €46 million in ANPs so far this year. Some of this increase can be attributed to the response to support families arriving from Ukraine. The claims currently being received for ANPs are varied and often quite complex, …

I thank the Deputy. I have been in politics for almost 20 years. I have always dealt with local CWOs and to be fair to them they have always done their very best to help people. They give a good service. The delivery of this service is a priority for me and my Department. As of October, more than 75,000 applications for additional needs payments had been processed and awarded. This represents a 63% increase in awarded applications compared to the same period in 2021. As the Deputy will be aware, we had a major comm…

Where an application is complete and the required documentation is supplied, it is processed quickly. As I have said previously, where there are delays sometimes it is due to additional information or documentation being requested from the person to support their application. My Department has taken a number of steps to simplify and streamline the process for persons who apply for additional needs payments. There is a new national helpline phone number so people can ring up and get advice. A full-time CWO is also p…

I am happy to assure the Deputy that every resident in the State, regardless of geography, has access to a community welfare officer in their locality. CWOs are available to facilitate urgent and in-person meetings in more than 50 Intreo centres nationwide, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. In addition to meeting citizens in Intreo centres, branch offices, outreach clinics and Department of Social Protection offices, community welfare officers can make an appointment to meet a person who requests a meeting, at a …

Timelines are in line with where they were pre-pandemic. Generally, where it is clear that a person has an immediate need, every effort is made to ensure he or she receives a payment on the same day. With regard to staffing, there are 412 people across all grades in the community welfare service. In light of the increased volume of applications, and as part of the budget, we secured agreement for approximately 74 additional staff to be assigned to the community welfare service. Recruitment has commenced for these a…

No discretion is being taken away from the community welfare officers, I assure the Deputy, because discretion is needed. In fairness to them, they bring with them not only a lot of experience but also, most importantly, compassion.

Some people will not qualify, and I think everybody will accept that. Some requests were very vague and may not have been as detailed as they could have been, so the officers were not in a position to decide whether or not the applicants qualified until they got more information. I reassure the Deputy, however, that the community welfare officers will continue to have the discretion they currently have. As I said, not every payment has to be made immediately. This is taxpayers' money, and there must be checks and b…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am pleased to have recently published the report of the child maintenance review group, together with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee. The Government established a child maintenance review group in 2020 to examine a number of issues relating to child maintenance in Ireland and to prepare a report for the Minister for Social Protection on the current treatment of child maintenance payments within the Department of Social Protection; the current provisions rela…

I know that Deputy Kerrane is passionate about this, and we have had many a good and very constructive discussion on it. Senator Ruane is also passionate about this and has done a lot of work on it also. I met her only recently. In fairness, I have always said I recognise the problem that was there. The Deputy has heard me talk about it before when I have spoken about my time working in a credit union and the issues I saw first-hand there. These are significant reforms we are making, and between us Oireachtas Membe…

For three weeks.

I am very mindful of that. I want to move this on. I want to get the changes made as soon as possible, and administrative issues are being dealt with, specifically the liable relatives and the requirement to prove that the maintenance was sought in going to court. I think we can deal with that fairly quickly, but more work has to be done on the legislative requirements and the impact of the Social Welfare Bill in a number of places. We just want to make sure we get it right. That is the most important thing. I am k…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Indecon cost of disability report identified that additional costs of disability are a wider issue than income supports and run across a number of areas of government. These include housing, equipment, aids and appliances, care and assistance services, mobility, transport, communications, medicines, and additional living expenses. The cost of disability can be defined as the amount it costs a person with a disability to achieve the same standard of living as a person w…

I had a good discussion just a couple of hours ago with the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, and its member organisations at a strategic general meeting. I was speaking to Mr. John Dolan from DFI. There was positive feedback on the €500 disability support grant. There was recognition that we pushed the door ajar within the system by introducing that payment. We need to keep pushing that door open. My Department is working on reform of disability payments. I intend to publish the straw man proposal on these re…

To be fair, we have done a good deal of work in supporting people with disabilities. The cost of living double payment was paid to people getting disability allowance, invalidity pension, blind pension, disablement benefit and partial capacity benefit. There was a €500 cost-of-living lump sum. The disability support grant was paid to people in receipt of a long-term disability allowance, invalidity pension and blind pension. There was a €200 cost-of-living lump-sum payment for people getting a disability payment an…