asked the Minister for Social Welfare who has been assigned responsibility for the administration, care and policy in relation to the use of the Social Insurance Fund here and in each other EEC country for which such information is available.
Written Answers. - Social Insurance Fund.
773.
The Social Insurance Fund comprises a current account and an investment account. The current account is managed and controlled by the Minister for Social Welfare and the investment account by the Minister for Finance. The statutory provisions in this respect are contained in section 122 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981.
Somewhat similar arrangements apply in Great Britain and Northern Ireland where a single Department of State is responsible for the provision of benefits from a single fund.
A wide range of agencies and funds are however involved in the provision of social security benefit in other member states of the EEC. In many instances there are separate agencies and funds for the different forms of benefits and for different classes of contributors. The competent authorities for social security in these States are the appropriate Government Ministers but information is not readily available on the detailed manner or degree of control exercised by the competent Ministers over the various agencies and funds. Information on the basic organisation and method of financing of these social security systems is given in an EEC publication Comparative Tables of the Social Security Systems in the Member States of the European Communities. A copy of the most recent edition of this publication, which sets out the situation at 1 July 1980, is available in the Dáil Library.