Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 16 October 2024
Select Committee on Social Protection
Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary)
9:30 am
Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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The one-parent family payment. It is A.5. It tells me here that it is offset by €7 million less due to fewer recipients than estimated.
On A.10, additional needs payments, there is a jump in expenditure which is, I am told, related to the increased price of accommodation and fit-outs. The Minister might mention some specifics on that.
Disability allowance is a peculiar one. The Supplementary Estimate refers to €56.7 million due to a higher number of recipients in 2024 than estimated. I am just slightly surprised. I would have thought the number of people who will end up being recipients of the disability allowance was relatively predictable. We have had a fairly significant jump on that, so the Minister might talk me through the detail on that and how we ended up there.
The job initiative, on which I have had a parliamentary question to the Minister before, is an employment support scheme, and there is kind of a discrepancy between what people get paid on the jobs initiative. It is a relatively small number of people, and I would have thought it would be a relatively low-cost fix.
I might come back with some more general questions but I will stick to those specific ones first.