Agreement has been reached with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for an additional 289 staff for the Department, of whom approximately 80 will be allocated to community welfare service. These staff will be at all grades and will increase the capacity of the community welfare officers to focus on making decisions on complex applications and meeting with claimants locally, as required. We have approval and it is going ahead. A process has to be got through but resources will be increased in that area a…

If there are any especially long delays in any area, I ask that the Deputy bring them to my attention and I will be happy to address them and see whether there is a problem that we need to sort out. The Deputy was right when she said that people should not wait until the last minute to go to the community welfare officer. If they think there will be a problem, they should put in their application as to what it would be. The average is four weeks but an urgent need will be dealt with straight away. I was at an event…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 29, 46 and 89 together. Child benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children who are in full-time education until their 18th birthday, whether that is post-primary, post leaving certificate or third level. Payment up to age 18 years is also made in respect of children who have a disability. Estimated expenditure on the scheme will be approximately €2.1 billion in 2022. In bud…

I thank the Deputies. For those people who are in receipt of social welfare payments, an increase for a qualified child will be paid up to the age of 22 or until the end of the academic year in which they reach 22. This approach ensures targeted assistance that is directly linked to household income and thereby supports low-income families with older children participating in full-time education. I take the Deputies' points. Keeping a child in full-time education is expensive. Budgets are also about choices. We are…

Trying to establish whether people are in full-time education or not would be hard for us. If they are over 18 years of and are still in second level education, it would be hard to find the data and it could take some time. I am not sure where we would obtain it because people themselves have to declare that their children are still in full-time education at the age of 16. I am always willing to look at other ways in which we can help people so I would say to each of the Deputies that I am of course happy to look a…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 50, 60, 74 and 82 together. In response to the ongoing cost-of-living pressures as part of budget 2023 I secured more than €2.1 billion in new measures. This is the largest social protection package in the history of the State. Recognising that the autumn and winter period is the most expensive time of the year for many households, rather than waiting until the new year, €1.1 billion of this package has been targeted to provide for a wide range of lump-sum payments which will be…

On the issue of cash, for those who will collect it in their post office, I would tell them to lodge it in their bank account or go to their credit union and put it in there. The credit union is the place to put it. They can take it out when they need it. It is the best way they can manage it. I know from working in a credit union that many a person got extra money and the sensible people went in, put in the credit union and took it out when they needed it. Most credit unions have ATMs as well. That is where they s…

There will be a campaign, of course, to tell people what they are entitled to and what they should apply for. On the expanded fuel allowance, we hope to target an additional 81,000 homes with the changes to the means test for the over-70s. Just in case people are wondering, we have to change our systems to do that and we are putting together an application form, which we hope to have ready at the end of the year or early next year. However, they will get it from 1 January. If they do not get the money immediately, …

As the Deputy knows, I announced on budget day that the Government will spend over €2.1 billion on social protection measures, including over €880 million in order to provide for a €12 increase in the weekly rate of social welfare payments from January 2023. This supports both pensioners and those of working age and includes a proportionate increase for qualified adults. This is the largest social welfare package in the history of the State. The rate increase is accompanied by a wide range of additional measures an…

One of the benefits of the Vincentian MESL Research Centre is that it provides an analysis of the different levels of income needed for a wide range of household types, including the different costs. For example, the latest MESL annual update shows the differences in the cost of meeting household needs in urban and rural areas. For a start, differentiating social welfare payment rates based on location would be problematic. For these reasons, while not used for benchmarking, the work of the Vincentian MESL Research…

I am happy to accept the further amendment tabled by my Labour Party colleagues-----

I am sorry; the Deputy is first.

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following: "Dáil Éireann resolves that the Pensions (Amendment) (Transparency in Charges) Bill 2021 be deemed to be read a second time this day nine months, to allow for, amongst other things, an examination and assessment of the issues pertaining to the provision of information to pension scheme members in relation to costs and charges incurred by pension schemes and, if deemed to be required, to identify and develop the appropriate policy…

I have listened to the contributions of Deputies Nash and Kerrane. I again thank Deputy Nash for giving the House the opportunity to debate this important issue. I know it is an issue in which the Deputy has a keen interest. I will reiterate some of the points I made earlier. We all know that improved pension cost transparency and better outcomes for pension savers are always desirable. It is a complex world when one starts to look at pensions. If one goes to someone to get advice about pensions, one needs to be aw…

I was delighted to welcome the recent announcement that the European Commission has confirmed its approval of Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, strategic plan for 2023 to 2027, which includes the LEADER programme. This approval is a key step in the delivery of the next LEADER programme. A number of further steps will now be completed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in advance of bringing the CAP plan to Government for final approval in the coming weeks. My Department's focus now is to…

We will have the same amount in this LEADER programme as we had in the last, which is a total of €250 million. Some €70 million has already been provided to fund the transition programme from 2021 to 2022. A further €180 million has been committed to for 2023 to 2027. We will be funding that. On top of this core funding, additional administration Exchequer funding has been put in place for LEADER groups which have exhausted all such existing funding in 2022. I wanted to make sure there would be no stoppages and gro…

I will be addressing the issue of the islands local action group, LAG, because there is a full question tabled on it. I will be happy to give further details at that stage. On the issue of steps, the first step is the expression of interest, which we hope to put out in the coming weeks. When expressions of interest come in, I want stakeholders to collaborate and put together their strategies, which will then be submitted to us. Partnership is the key message in LEADER. When the strategies come in, they will be eval…

Earlier this year, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage launched the Croí Cónaithe fund. The fund is initially focused on supporting the refurbishment of vacant homes in regional towns and villages and is a key funding support under the town centre first policy which was jointly developed by my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The publication of town centre first was a key deliverable under Our Rural Future. The fund is being delivered by local authorities …

I thank the Deputy. I am sure there will be more cases like the one she has just outlined. The criteria were set as towns and villages with a population of over 400 people. First of all, this is a great scheme and I think everybody agrees with that. I am getting a lot of calls from Fine Gael Deputies in particular. Even last night at a meeting it was raised with me. I have been asked can we not expand it further and can we not bring it out into rural areas and can we not make it available for towns and villages wit…

I thank the Deputy. She is right that the fund is being rolled out through the local authorities. As to the flexibility, I am not all over the detail but you can get €30,000. If the refurbishment costs are expected to exceed the standard grant of €30,000 then a maximum top-up grant of up to €20,000 will be available where the property is confirmed to be derelict. This brings the total grant available for a derelict property up to a maximum of €50,000. Applications are to be made to the vacant homes officer in the r…