Written Answers Nos. 56-65
56. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection the supports provided by her Department to social welfare recipients who have a qualification in a discipline where there are limited opportunities for employment and who wish to seek third level education in another discipline so that their prospects of employment would be improved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43133/13]
View answerI understand that the Deputy is referring to supports to a person on a social welfare payment from the Department attending a full-time third level course of study. The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling those eligible to certain social welfare payments to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held. A person wishing to pursue BTEA will have to satisfy a number of conditions such as being of a certain age, in receipt of a prescribed social welfare payment for a specified time period, pursuing a full time course of study leading to a recognised qualification in a recognised college and progressing in the level of education held by the client with reference to the national framework of qualifications (NFQ) among others. BTEA guidelines are in the main in line with the mechanisms in place for student support type schemes administered by the Department of Education and Skills. State support for education purposes is grounded on a student progressing from one qualification level to a higher one. The progression criteria are essential and apply to all courses of study. The BTEA scheme was never intended to be an alternative form of funding for people entering or re-entering the third level education system.
A person who wishes to engage in part time day, evening or weekend courses or more intensive short duration courses of education and training while retaining their jobseekers payments may be eligible under that the part time education option (PTEO). People must continue to satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking employment on an on-going basis.
Recent education and training interventions supported by the Department in 2013 include Springboard, MOMENTUM and ICT Skills programme. Springboard was launched in June 2013 with 6,000 free places on part-time conversion courses of less than one year duration that have a labour market focus. MOMENTUM supports the provision of free education and training projects to allow 6,500 jobseekers (who are unemployed for 12 months or more) to gain skills and to access work opportunities in identified growing sectors. The ICT Skills programme provides 769 free fees places for level 8 conversion programmes in 2013. In addition, the Department also supports the provision of wide variety of training through networks of private sector companies, in a range of sectors and regions, supported by Skillnets Ltd via the PTEO.
57. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will account for the high turnover rate of medical assessors in her Department; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there are significant problems in processing fresh claims and appeals due to insufficient resources being allocated towards the area; if her attention has been drawn to the ongoing problems with the standard forms which general practitioners and consultants must complete in respect of certain claims and the unnecessary delays that are being created as a result; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43388/13]
View answerThe Department is committed to ensuring that claims and appeals are processed as expeditiously as possible. There are currently 20 Medical Assessors, including the Chief Medical Adviser and the Deputy Chief Medical Adviser, employed by the Department. Due to the retirement of several Medical Assessors in recent years a number of vacancies have arisen. In response, the Department in conjunction with the Public Appointment Service (PAS) ran a competition in 2012 to recruit replacement/additional Medical Assessors. Four Medical Assessors appointed from that competition are currently employed with a further Medical Assessor due to commence work this month. The Department has continued to liaise with the PAS with a view to filling these critical vacancies. A further competition was advertised on 13 September 2013 inviting suitably qualified candidates to apply for the position of Medical Assessor in the Department and interviews are due to take place shortly. This competition is one of a number of options that the Department is currently exploring in order to increase its capacity to carry out medical assessments and reviews of its illness/disability/caring schemes thus enabling the Department to deliver a quality service to our customers. The Department’s disability and illness related schemes require a high level of medical evidence which must be assessed by the Medical Assessors and this, together with other qualifying criteria such as means testing for Disability Allowance and Carer’s Allowance and PRSI contributions for Invalidity Pension, can affect the processing times of claims. There has also been an increase in volume of customer claims to particular schemes. Despite this, there have been significant improvements from 2012 in the waiting times for assessment by the Medical Assessors across all the illness related schemes. Furthermore, the processing backlogs have been eliminated across all the illness related schemes except for Disability allowance which is currently being cleared. Claims, appeals and any urgent cases (medical/social reasons) are dealt with on a priority basis. It is the policy of the Department to standardise and simplify its application forms as much as possible. However, the design and layout of application forms must also have regard to the particular requirements of individual schemes. Application forms are reviewed on a regular basis including those parts of forms that relate to the provision of medical evidence. The design of the medical elements of application forms is undertaken in consultation with the Department’s Chief Medical Adviser and Deputy Chief Medical Adviser.
58. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Social Protection if she considered requiring employers availing of JobsPlus to pay wages at a level higher than the minimum wage. [43371/13]
View answerJobsPlus is a new simplified scheme which replaced the Employer Job (PRSI) Exemption (effective from 20 June 2010) and Revenue Job Assist (which commenced on 6 April 1998) schemes and is more targeted at channelling full time job opportunities to the longer term unemployed. JobsPlus provides an immediate financial incentive to employers who recruit employees from those who are long term unemployed on the live register. The incentive is payable, on a monthly basis, over a two year period while the employee is retained in full time employment. One of the qualifying conditions of the Incentive requires the employer to be compliant with Irish employment laws. Under the National Minimum wage Act 2000, employees are entitled to a minimum wage. All employers recruiting under this incentive are required to comply with the conditions as set out in the Act.
There are no plans at present to change the qualifying conditions of the incentive.
60. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to Social Justice Ireland's proposal for a universal pension whereby every person over the age of 65 years would have a pension of €230.30 per week; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43406/13]
View answerThe Report from Social Justice Ireland titled “A Universal Pension for Ireland” recommends a move to a universal based pension system based on residency which would replace the State pension contributory and non-contributory, widow’s, widower’s or surviving civil partner’s (contributory) pension, qualified adult allowance and which would be financed by reducing private pension tax reliefs. The sustainability of the pension system is a particular concern because of the demographic challenges Ireland faces, the associated increases in pension (and other age related) costs, and the deterioration in the public finances. This means that, in the future, the task of financing increased pension spending will fall to a diminishing share of the working population as demographic projections indicate the ratio of working age to older people will decrease from 5.3 to 1 at present to 2.1 to 1 by 2060. Life expectancy in Ireland is also increasing and whilst this is very welcome development, it also presents very real and obvious public policy challenges. A number of policy reviews on pensions have been published in recent years. The Green Paper on Pensions was published in 2007, followed by a country-wide consultation on the future of pensions. The National Pensions Framework (2010) proposed a framework for the future development of pensions. In 2011 and 2012, a number of pension reforms were introduced, State pension age has been increased and changes to eligibility have been introduced which link employment more closely to the rate of pension paid.
In April 2013, the OECD in their Review of the Irish Pension System undertook an independent and objective review of pension policy and endorsed the approach of policy to date. However, it also concludes that financial sustainability issues and our changing demographics and aging population mean that further reform is required.
The report recommends for consideration a range of changes in the key parameters of the Irish State, occupational and private pension schemes and outlines options for more profound structural reforms of the retirement income system. The OECD Report recommended expanding private pension coverage by the introduction in the future of a compulsory or soft compulsory private pension. In the context of the introduction of such an option, it also proposed structural reform of the State pension, including the option of a universal based payment, based on the principle of residency. However, residency based criteria can pose particular difficulties since Ireland does not maintain details of long term residency status. Detailed analysis of these options is on-going in my Department and consideration of the recommendations of this review will inform further developments in the area of pension policy.
The State pension has been successful in lifting older people out of poverty. Compared to the rest of the population, older people in Ireland have the lowest poverty rates (at 1.9%) and are least likely to be at risk of poverty (pointing to the adequacy of the State pension).
Secure and adequate finances are one of the fundamental components of a happy and active retirement. The overall objective of the pension system in Ireland is to provide an adequate and sustainable basic standard of living through direct supports in the form of the State pension and to encourage people (through tax reliefs) to make supplementary pension provision so that they may have an adequate income replacement rates when they retire from work.
61. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which in the coming year, she expects to be in a position to transfer responsibility for meeting the housing needs of those on local authority housing lists and having to rely on rent support from her Department to the Department of the Environment thereby achieving considerable savings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43307/13]
View answerThe purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are approximately 82,000 rent supplement recipients of which over 51,000 are in receipt for over 18 months. The Government has provided over €403 million for the scheme in 2013.
In July 2013, the Government approved the introduction of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). Under HAP, responsibility for recipients of rent supplement with a long-term housing need will transfer from the Department of Social Protection to housing authorities. Officials in the Department of Social Protection are working with those in the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG), who are leading the project, to assist with the necessary legal, policy and operational matters required to progress HAP. This summer, DECLG undertook a ‘Business Processing Design’ exercise to determine the business processes required to support the implementation of HAP roll out. This exercise will assist DECLG in the drafting of the necessary legislation and feed into the development of implementation plans and the necessary IT infrastructure to support the roll-out of the new scheme in the selected test authorities.
The Department is advised that following the enactment of the relevant legislation, a HAP testing phase will be carried out in the selected local authorities in 2014 with full roll out of the scheme to follow once the test phase is complete.
Government has approved that funding will be provided to local authorities to cover the costs of HAP by way of a funding transfer from the rent supplement scheme to DECLG in so far as the expenditure relates to persons transferring from rent supplement.
62. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will review eligibility for rent supplement to include issues such as the need not to participate in anti-social behaviour; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43137/13]
View answerThe purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are approximately 82,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €403 million for 2013. In the case of private rented accommodation, tenancy arrangements involve a contract between the landlord and tenant and tenant behaviour is a matter for the landlord in the first instance. There are a number of avenues open to landlords in such cases, including the mediation service for landlords and tenants operated by the Private Residential Tenancies Board and/or recourse to the Garda Síochána and/or the Courts in relation to the enforcement of the law in dealing with anti-social or criminal behaviour. If necessary, the landlord may seek termination of the tenancy which, if affected, would result in the termination of rent supplement. The programme for Government contains a commitment to review the operation of rent supplement to ensure that tenants who are receiving long term support from the State under the scheme are subject to the same type of anti-social behaviour regime as local authority tenants. The most appropriate way for this to happen is for local authorities to take over responsibility for meeting the accommodation needs of these individuals. Officials in the Department are working closely with those in the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government in transferring responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to persons with a long term housing need from this Department to local authorities using a new Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). It is intended that testing of HAP will be carried out in selected local authorities during 2014 subject to the enactment of the relevant legislation.
Social welfare legislation already provides the Department with the authority to refuse, suspend or terminate payment of a rent supplement in the case of a person who has been required to deliver up possession of a dwelling provided by a housing authority or an approved body where the reasons for that requirement include anti-social behaviour or the interests of good estate management. I have no plans to make any further amendments to the eligibility for rent supplement in this regard.
64. Deputy Patrick Nulty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the total number of State gifts presented to foreign dignitaries during each of the past ten years; the total value of such gifts; if he will provide an itemised list of the gifts by country of the dignitary being presented with the gift; the nature of the gift and manufacturer and the value of the gift. [43992/13]
View answerIt is standard international practice in the context of Ministerial and other High-Level visits to exchange small, representative tokens of mutual appreciation. A decision is made on the type and value of the item to be presented following consultation to ensure it respects the culture of the recipient and any ethics requirements. These items are sourced in Ireland or are of Irish interest. A list of items presented by successive Ministers for Foreign Affairs to foreign dignitaries during each of the past ten years is listed as follows
OSCE Ministerial Gifts – December 2012
Newbridge Carriage Clocks were purchased for each Head of Delegation as a gift from the Tánaiste in his role as Chairperson in Office of the OSCE. They were purchased at a reduced price of €45.38. The total cost came to €3,902.68
The gift was presented to the Heads of Delegations who attended the OSCE Ministerial in December 2012. The delegations included the 57 participating States, 11 partner States, OSCE Secretary General, Heads of OSCE Institutions and Heads of International Organisations present.
The list is as follows:
Participating States (57)
|
Country |
- |
- |
|
Albania |
Andorra |
Armenia |
|
Austria |
Azerbaijan |
Belarus |
|
Belgium |
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Bulgaria |
|
Canada |
Croatia |
Cyprus |
|
Czech Republic |
Denmark |
Estonia |
|
Finland |
France |
Georgia |
|
Germany |
Greece |
Holy See |
|
Hungary |
Iceland |
Ireland |
|
Italy |
Kazakhstan |
Kyrgyzstan |
|
Latvia |
Liechtenstein |
Lithuania |
|
Luxembourg |
Malta |
Moldova |
|
Monaco |
Montenegro |
Mongolia |
|
Norway |
Poland |
Netherlands |
|
Romania |
Russian Federation |
Portugal |
|
Serbia |
Slovakia |
San Marino |
|
Spain |
Sweden |
Slovenia |
|
Tajikistan |
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia |
Switzerland |
|
Turkmenistan |
Ukraine |
Turkey |
|
United States |
Uzbekistan |
United Kingdom |
Partner States (11)
Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Australia, Morocco, Tunisia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Afghanistan
International Organisations (14)
European Union, Council of Europe, UNHCR, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNRCCA, The United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia. NATO, Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia(CICA), CSTO, Collective Security Treaty Organisation, CTBTO, The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, EBRD, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Committee of the Red Cross, Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), League of Arab States, CICA, The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.
OSCE senior officials (4)
Table 2
65. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his position regarding possible ratification of the Antarctic Treaty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43995/13]
View answerThe question of Ireland’s ratification of the Antarctic Treaty and related agreements comprising the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) has been examined in some detail by the Government Departments and Offices concerned. While the objectives and the achievements of the ATS are of considerable importance and the commitment of the signatories is to be commended, preparation for ratification by Ireland would impose substantial administrative burdens on several Government Departments which could not be supported at the present time.
