Vol. 562 No. 3
220 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her views on reports that people who are in receipt of both orphan's allowance from her Department and relative fostering allowance from the health boards are to have one of these payments removed. [5961/03]
221 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason that children whose parents are still living can be classified as orphans, as happens with many children of drug addicts whose relatives are caring for them. [5962/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 220 and 221 together.
Orphan's contributory allowance and orphan's non-contributory pension, paid by my Department, are intended to provide income maintenance for children who satisfy the qualifying conditions.
The current definition of an orphan, which was introduced in 1995, includes children where one or both parents are still alive but have abandoned or refused or failed to provide for them. This approach was seen as a necessary response to changes in social and family circumstances.
At present orphan's, allowance payments in respect of children in foster care are made from my Department directly to the relevant health board in respect of, and for the benefit of, a child in foster care. The health board then combines the orphan's payment with the foster care allowance which is a health board payment to give a total payment to the foster carer of €281.50 in respect of a child under 12 and €308.50 in respect of a child aged 12 or over.
In line with the recommendation of an interdepartmental working group, and in consultation with the Irish Foster Care Association, the Social Welfare Bill 2003 provides that orphan's contributory allowance and orphan's non-contributory pension will no longer be payable to children in respect of whom foster care allowance is being paid.
222 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount of money paid out under the rent allowance scheme in each of the past five years. [5995/03]
The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of my Department by the health boards, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible persons who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Details of expenditure on rent supplements in each of the last five years are set out in the following tabular statement.
|
Year |
Rent Supplement expenditure |
|
€ |
|
|
1998 |
111.74m |
|
1999 |
128.24m |
|
2000 |
150.59m |
|
2001 |
179.40m |
|
2002 |
252.34m |
