The people who qualify for this payment are the applicants who have received maternity benefit, adoptive benefit, or paternity benefit for their child. They will automatically satisfy the PRSI contribution requirements to receive parent's benefit. A person must be paying PRSI to qualify. The payment is €250 per week. The question was asked whether single parents can get this benefit. Under the EU directive single parents cannot get this benefit on the double. The single parent can get it for himself or herself but …

The Government is acutely aware of recent price increases and their impact on low-income households and those who are dependent on social welfare. For this reason, the Government did not await a further budget cycle to address these challenges but acted early. Overall, the tax and spending measures we have introduced to ease the burden and provide support to those most in need have amounted to €2.4 billion. Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department can make additional needs payments to help me…

I am very aware of the importance of people having access to the community welfare officers. That is why we have had a very comprehensive media advertising campaign to make people aware that this payment is available. I have run radio and social media advertisements. I am sure the Deputy has heard them. We want to raise awareness and get the message out through our constituency offices. I would appreciate the help of Deputies in this House in helping to get the message out also. People affected by the current cost-…

We have community welfare offices in the 51 Intreo centres throughout the country. They talk to the people over the phone. They can meet them in the local branch office. They can even arrange to meet people in their own homes by appointment if that is what people need. We are also considering setting up a system where people can apply directly for additional needs payment online. As the Deputy knows, some people want face-to-face contact. They might need some help completing a form. Others would rather submit the f…

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this question. The delivery of crucial community welfare services to meet the challenges and the needs of citizens across the country remains a priority for me and my Department. It is important that the community welfare service, CWS, remains accessible, flexible and responsive to meet the varied needs of vulnerable people, particularly in a time of crisis or emergency. The Department has maintained staffing levels in the CWS nationwide in recent years during times when demands d…

The community welfare officers across the country are a great resource to the Department of the Social Protection. In my experience, I have always found them to be exceptionally helpful. They have always gone beyond the call of duty in trying to help people who need support at particular times in their lives. As Deputy Doherty is aware, we started a very active media campaign to make people aware that this service is available. We have been running advertisements on radio and social media. We have constantly tried …

The additional needs payment is not a new scheme and it comes under the remit of the general supplementary welfare allowance scheme operational guidelines. A briefing note with information on the additional needs payment has issued to all staff in the Department, setting out the role of community welfare officers in assisting customers with cost-of-living expenses. It directs community welfare officers to use their discretionary powers in considering applications for additional needs payments and places significant…

My Department has carried out extensive work on the policies surrounding means-tested schemes over the past year and I have also made commitments in regard to further reviews. Means tests are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. In particular, I have introduced a number of changes to means testing that provide for higher income disregards. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, a certain level…

As I said, the Deputy and I have discussed these issues. He raised an example of somebody on the disability allowance whose elderly parents have been living frugally in order that they can leave an asset behind, when they pass on, to their disabled child. They may then find that the asset, or their savings as the case may be, has an impact. I take the Deputy's point and, as I said, I have made some improvements. In the context of the budget, I will consider the list of proposals he gave me because there are anomali…

I reiterate the Department has carried out numerous reviews of policies surrounding means-tested schemes over the past year and the Deputy has given me a list of suggestions. In line with a commitment in the programme for Government and the rural development policy, a review of the means assessment disregards for the farm assist has been completed and a key recommendation from the review was to extend the list of agri-environmental schemes that qualify for a disregard. We have made some changes and will continue to…

Just over two years ago, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party formed a Government. It was not easy, but we did it for one overriding reason. We believe that people enter politics to improve people’s lives. Putting people first was our number one interest during the Covid-19 crisis. The priority of this Government now is to protect families against the unprecedented increase in the cost of living. This evening, once again, Sinn Féin is playing politics. The Sinn Féin motion is an absolute waste of time and pur…

In the eyes of Sinn Féin, €385 is not good enough for a child south of the Border but £42 is enough for a child in Northern Ireland.

As usual with Sinn Féin, it is a case of "Do as we say, not as we do." It is the flip-flop party. During Covid, when the Government closed the pubs, it wanted them open. When we opened the pubs, it wanted them closed. When we do universal measures, it wants targeted measures. When we do targeted measures, it wants universal measures. Last week, it wanted an emergency budget. This week, it wants a general election. It does not know what it wants. Its policy is very simple: whatever way the wind blows, Sinn Féin goes…

We are not swanning off.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I again extend my sympathies to Ms Tracy McGinnis on the loss of her dear son, Brendan, and to his brother, Declan. This matter came to my attention at the weekend. I apologised on behalf of the Department and I accept we need to look at the matter. I am committed to doing that. I will put some context to how the system works. The key role of the Department of Social Protection is to provide income support where an income need arises because of a particular contingency, be…

I have asked my officials to examine the arrangements in respect of the case we are talking about. Some particularly difficult cases arise and, as I said, we must consider our processes. On foot of that review, I will consider a further change, if necessary. I give the Deputy that commitment. Since taking up this role, I have learned that the staff in my Department do not just say they are here to help; they follow that mantra. We know that. The staff of the Department do a wonderful job in difficult circumstances.…

I thank the Fine Gael Senators for tabling this Private Members' motion. I am responding to the motion on behalf of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and the Government. The Government supports the motion on the basis that we agree with its call for a budget to help people, particularly those on the lowest incomes and the squeezed middle, deal with the cost of living. We agree that we need to respond to inflation in a strategic way, rather than doing so piecemeal. Budget 2023 is just over three and a half m…

Many commentators predicted a tsunami of redundancies and business failures but that has not happened. Instead, we have more than two and a half million people at work - the highest level of employment in the history of the State. At the same time, the number of people on the live register is now at its lowest level for many years. There are a significant number of job opportunities across all sectors at the moment. As Minister, through our Pathways to Work strategy, my Department, along with the Department of the …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The LEADER programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government's policy for rural development launched last year, which aims to deliver a range of actions to rural communities over the lifetime of the policy. Some €250 million has been made available for LEADER for the period 2021 to 2027. This comprises €70 million for the transitional period 2021 to 2022 and an additional €180 million from 2023 to 2027. This level of funding is evidence of the Government'…

The indicative budget of €180 million has been announced for the LEADER programme for the period 2023 to 2027. When taken together with the €70 million for 2021 and 2022 under the transition LEADER programme, a total of €250 million will be made available for the 2021 to 2027 period, thus maintaining the level of funding provided in the period 2014 to 2020. Approximately €139 million has been paid to beneficiaries in respect of completed works, with 3,250 projects receiving their final payment claim, representing 6…