Wednesday, 9 May 2018

Written Answers Nos. 259-266

Capital Expenditure Programme

Ceisteanna (259, 260, 261)

Jonathan O'Brien

Ceist:

259. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the capital allocation across his Department in each of the years 2018 to 2022. [20456/18]

Jonathan O'Brien

Ceist:

260. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development his Department's capital allocation for projects underway and projects already tendered or committed to spending contractually. [20473/18]

Jonathan O'Brien

Ceist:

261. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development his Department's capital allocation in each of the years 2018 to 2022 disaggregated according to capital allocated to projects underway, projects contractually committed to and projects yet to be initiated. [20490/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Rural and Community Development

I propose to take Questions Nos. 259 to 261, inclusive, together.

My Department’s Capital allocation to 2022 is as follows:

-	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Total Capital Allocation	88*	141	150	152	175

* + 7.7 Capital Carryover

My Department provides funding at programme level to support local authorities and others in the delivery of individual projects. In respect of allocations for 2018, the breakdown of my Department’s capital spend at programme level is as follows.

Capital allocations

-		€,000
Administration		302
A3	Dormant Accounts	2006
A5	National Rural Development Schemes	15383
A6	LEADER	35000
A8	Town and Village Regeneration Scheme	15000
A9	Rural Broadband, Regional Economic Development	600
A10	Local Improvement Scheme	10000
B6	RAPID	3767
B8	Programme for Peace and Reconciliation	700
B10	Library Development and Archive Service	2750
B11	Community Facilities Fund	2000

In general, the breakdown of capital funding for my Department between subheads is agreed annually as part of the Estimates process. In the case of the LEADER programme, the overall allocation for this programme for the period 2014-2020 has been agreed at €250 million as part of the EU co-funded Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

Details of individual projects supported by my Department are available on my Department’s website.

As recently announced, a new Rural Regeneration and Development Fund will be established under my Department as part of Project Ireland 2040. The fund will invest an additional €1 billion in supporting rural renewal. The additional investment under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund will commence in 2019 and will ramp up incrementally over the first 4 years before reaching a steady level of investment.

My Department is currently developing proposals for the detailed operation of the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, and I will announce the details following consultation with relevant Government colleagues.

Social Welfare Benefits

Ceisteanna (262)

Pearse Doherty

Ceist:

262. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department has an obligation to advise jobseekers who are taking up employment that they may have an entitlement to certain payments such as the back to work family dividend scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20269/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection

The Department operates a network of some 120 Intreo centres and Branch offices throughout the country. These offices provide information on the wide range of schemes and services provided by the Department. Front-line staff are available to give timely and accurate advice to people who contact any of the Department’s offices on the various supports and services available including back to work family dividend to customers.

Customers also have access to the various scheme guidelines, information leaflets and application forms on the Department’s website and if necessary they can contact their local office in relation to their particular circumstances.

Furthermore the activation process provides a professional employment service to help unemployed jobseekers secure and sustain suitable employment and by so doing achieve financial self-sufficiency. This function is carried out by Case Officers of my Department, the Local Employment Service and JobPath and can include advice and information on income supports, training and development opportunities, employment support, career guidance services and job placements.

The Department offers a range of pro-employment incentives to assist and support jobseekers in the transition from unemployment to employment and to preserve the incentive for the employee to remain in employment where he/she might only be marginally better off than if he or she were unemployed and claiming social welfare.

Such incentives include the Back to Work Family Dividend and this support is designed to further improve the incentive of taking up employment for people with children via the retention of the child-related element of their welfare payments for a set time.

During the course of the engagement between the Case Officer and the jobseeker all possible pro-employment incentives are explored and explained to the jobseeker and the advantages and benefits of suitable employment take up are promoted as an integral part of the activation interaction.

Back to Work Family Dividend Scheme

Ceisteanna (263)

Pearse Doherty

Ceist:

263. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason the back to work dividend scheme does not facilitate an arrangement whereby payments can be collected by recipients at post offices; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20270/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection

The back to work family dividend (BTWFD) scheme is an in-work support payment. As an in-work support, payment by electronic fund transfer (EFT) into a bank account was chosen as the most convenient and appropriate payment method for the scheme whose recipients are at work. There is no provision for it to be paid into a post office account.

More generally, the Deputy should note however that customers of the Department can choose between payment at the post office or by electronic fund transfer, subject to overall control requirements.

Carer's Allowance Applications

Ceisteanna (264)

Michael Healy-Rae

Ceist:

264. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of an application for a carer's allowance by a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20282/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a person who has such a disability that they require that level of care.

CA was awarded on 19 April 2018 in respect of care provided by the person concerned to both of her parents and the first payment was issued to her nominated bank account on 26 April 2018.

Arrears of allowance due from 12 October 2017 to 25 April 2018 has also issued. The person concerned was notified of these details on 19 April 2018.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Disability Allowance Eligibility

Ceisteanna (265)

Seán Fleming

Ceist:

265. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans or proposals under discussion to increase the age for the disability allowance application from 16 to 18 years of age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20285/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection

I am assuming that the Deputy is referring to a national consultation process undertaken by my Department in relation to a number of recommendations made in the Make Work Pay (MWP) for people with disabilities report. The MWP report itself was published in April 2017 following a commitment in the Comprehensive Employment Strategy 2015 -2024 and was undertaken in order to better identify how people with disabilities could be supported to achieve their employment ambitions.

The consultation reflects a commitment made at the time of the publication of the MWP report to consult widely with persons with disabilities and their families in relation to the number of recommendations about the principle of early engagement and a proposed reconfiguration of the Disability Allowance (DA) payment. One MWP recommendation is to support young adults through education, training and social inclusion according to their capacity, and to change the lowest qualifying age for DA from 16 to 18 years. The other recommendation was to adopt an early engagement approach in order to support the employment ambitions of people with disabilities. Early engagement would mean that the State will support people with disabilities at the earliest stage possible to help them achieve their employment goals. To this end, people with disabilities would begin receiving assistance, advice and support from the departments Intreo service or other related services when they apply for a disability income support payment.

At the launch of the consultation process, I together with the Minister of State for Disabilities made clear that engagement would be voluntary: in other words, it would be a matter for persons with disabilities themselves to decide whether they wanted to avail of the supports offered through the Intreo service. This has been stressed at all stages throughout the consultation process.

The national consultation process concluded on April 13th and now will be followed by further consideration of the results with a stakeholder focus group. This group is comprised of persons with experience of disability issues and was established last September and has helped my Department with the design of the national consultation process.

I together with my Government colleagues, look forward to learning the outcome of the consultation process in due course. The Government will then consider what actions will best support the overall objective of improving employment outcomes for persons with a disability.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.

Partial Capacity Benefit Scheme Administration

Ceisteanna (266)

Jack Chambers

Ceist:

266. Deputy Jack Chambers asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average processing times for applications for partial capacity benefit; her views on whether the time it is taking to process such applications is discouraging persons from returning to work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20301/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister of State at the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

The partial capacity benefit (PCB) scheme allows people with restricted capacity to avail of employment opportunities while still in receipt of an income support. The scheme is open to people who:

a) have been in receipt of illness benefit for a minimum of six months;

or

b) are in receipt of invalidity pension.

The process of claiming PCB involves the submission and consideration of medical evidence in relation to the application by a Departmental Medical Assessor. A person must be assessed as moderate, severe or profound in order to be eligible for PCB.

Following a decision to put a PCB claim into payment, there is a requirement to liaise with the customer in order to commence the PCB claim on a date to coincide with the start date of the customer’s employment. This can result in longer start times for PCB claims in certain cases.

My Department makes every effort to expedite decisions for PCB claims. The average time taken to process PCB claims is currently 14 weeks. The scheme is moving to a new computer system before the end the summer which, along with a streamlining of existing procedures, should further reduce processing times.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.