asked the Minister for Social Welfare why the increased rates of children's allowances were not paid on Tuesday, 3rd July, as expected.
61.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Children's Allowances.
60.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the date on which it is proposed to pay the new rates of children's allowances to qualified persons.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 61 together.
It was made clear in the course of the debate on the Social Welfare Bill in Dáil Éireann on 14th June last, and later in seanad Éireann that because of the enormous amount of work involved, not to mention problems in regard to staff, accommodation, equipment and in getting essential printing done, there would be some delay in getting the new increased rates of children's allowances into payment. The general public were similarly advised in Press notices published on 19th June and 3rd July last. These notices also contained instructions for obtaining the increases later if persons wished to cash allowance orders for July at the old rate.
The position is that owing to the great number of families involved, some 359,000 representing 1,013,000 qualified children, it was not possible in the time available to have new allowances books for the increases printed and distributed within anything like a reasonable time and it was necessary to resort to the printing of special adhesive stamps to the value of the increase in allowance payable each month which could be affixed to existing allowance orders already in the hands of recipients. Even this could not be done overnight, as I am sure the Deputy will appreciate. The dies for the stamps had to be manufactured in England and even with the most strenuous efforts on the part of the Stamping Branch of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners the first delivery of these stamps was not received in my Department until 23rd June last. They have been issued to recipients since then as fast as supplies have come to hand and, in fact, some 120,000 families had received their stamps in time to cash them with the July allowance orders payable on 3rd July.
For example, practically all families resident in the counties Donegal, Leitrim, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth, received their adhesive stamps before 3rd July. In addition, a substantial proportion of families in the counties of Wexford, Wicklow, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Meath, Westmeath and Longford, also received their stamps before the due date, as well as some thousands of families living in the Cork and north and south Dublin areas.
The issue of stamps to all remaining families in the country will be completed within the next week or so. As those who did not receive them in time to cash them with their July allowance orders have already been advised by press notice, and are also being advised by means of a leaflet enclosed with their stamps, they may, if they have already cashed the July allowance orders, affix both the July and August stamps to the August order when cashing that order on the due date.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that it was very foolish of the Minister to have been so adamant about the July date—
No.
—and to have played politics with the question of children's allowances?
That is a separate question.
I would agree with the Deputy that had we adopted the practice of the previous Government in deferring payment of increases in these allowances until October, it would have been easy to deal with the large volume of work involved but, fortunately, we paid the allowances in July and there was very little delay involved in respect of that decision.
Are they not back-dated to July?
Yes.
People were told that the increased allowances would be available to them in July but this has not been so.
Is it Deputy Power's opinion that these allowances should not be paid until October?
There is one white man.