Monica Barnes
Ceist:36 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the legislative proposals he plans to publish in the remaining time of this Dáil; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19730/01]
Written Answers. - Proposed Legislation.
As outlined in the Government legislation programme published on 26 April last my Department is developing proposals for publication of legislation in a number of significant areas before the term of the current Dáil expires. These include: the Pensions Bill, which will provide for the regulation of occupational pensions and the legislative framework for the implementation of recommendations contained in the Pension Board's report "Securing Retirement Income"– the text of the Bill will be published shortly; the civil registration Bill which will provide for reform of the existing births, marriages and deaths registration legislation, and underpin the modernisation of the Civil Registration Service – it is hoped to publish the text of the Bill later this year; the family support agency Bill, will provide for the establishment of a new body to be known as the family support agency to exercise a range of functions, including the provision of a family mediation service, the promotion and development of marriage and relationship counselling services and of other family support services and to support, promote and develop the family and community services resource centres – the new body will provide financial assistance, subject to ministerial consent to voluntary organisations providing these services and it is anticipated that the Bill will be published later this month; the money advice and budgeting service Bill will provide the legislative framework for the money advice and budgeting service – MABS – established under the auspices of my Department in response to problems of moneylending and overindebtedness.
I believe that it is now opportune to provide a firm statutory basis for the service in order to demonstrate the Government's commitment to the service and to secure its continuity into the future. It is anticipated that the Bill will be published later this year; the fundraising for charitable and other purposes bill will provide for reform of the existing law relating to the administration and regulation of charities.
A review of the current situation has been initiated, and, pending completion of the review, publication of the Bill has been tentatively scheduled for mid-2002; the public service broker Bill the REACH agency, which was established in September 2000, is a cross-departmental agency established to improve the quality of service to customers of the public service. The particular mandates of REACH are to develop a framework to integrate public services and to specify and establish a single gateway to Government – the public services broker.
The public services broker is a new model for the electronic delivery of public services intended to simplify transactions between customers and the public service by providing common services to both the customer and public service agencies. Work is under way on the preparation of this legislation.
I also intend to bring forward legislation in the form of the annual Social Welfare Bill to implement the increases in weekly social welfare payments to be announced in the forthcoming budget, with effect from January 2002, and other budgetary improvements in social welfare schemes.