Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will provide details of the new benefits and supports for carers that he recently announced; when he will introduce a national strategy for carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23023/05]

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he is considering changing the dual eligibility rule for persons in receipt of the carer's allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22907/05]

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he has received a copy of the Carers Association national policy document Towards a Family Carers Strategy; his views on its main findings; if he will draw on this document when formulating a national strategy for carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23024/05]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the details of his plans to implement recommendations made by theCarers' Association in the first national strategy for carers to formally acknowledge the role of persons who care for ill, disabled or elderly relatives at home. [23041/05]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he has plans to change the dual eligibility rule for persons in receipt of the carer's allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22895/05]

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will give a commitment to develop, finance and put in place a national strategy for carers and thereby give full recognition to their role as an integral part of the health services; if he will provide adequate supports for the 150,000 family carers here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23020/05]

Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 77: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the progress to date on a policy or framework for the future funding of long-term care of the elderly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22896/05]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 84: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his proposals to extend payment to the wider group of carers in line with modern requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23106/05]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 388: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when he expects to be in a position to extend the carer's allowance to that wider group of people who are currently carers but not in receipt of a payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24154/05]

John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 403: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will consider extending extra benefits to carers looking after the more stressful and needs related clients; if, in cases in which persons take up the carer's allowance and forfeit other social welfare payments, he will consider granting such persons all or part of forfeited payments. [24174/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 29, 32, 42, 48, 56, 69, 77, 84, 388 and 403 together.

The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. The primary objective of the social welfare system is to provide income support and, as a general rule, only one weekly social welfare payment is payable to an individual. This ensures that resources are not used to make two income support payments to any one person.

According to census 2002, there are 48,500 people providing personal care for over four hours per day. Just over 24,200 of these are in receipt of either carer's allowance or carer's benefit. This means that 50% of the 48,500 carers, as estimated by the CSO to be caring for more than four hours per day, are in receipt of a specific carer's payment from my Department.

I have been conscious, however, that there are carers who, because they are not in need of income support and consequently do not qualify for a weekly payment from my Department, feel that their contribution is not being recognised. For that reason, in the last budget I made provision to extend the annual respite care grant to all carers who are providing medically certified full-time care to a person who needs such care. This is also subject to some employment related conditions. This means that the respite care grant is now available to all carers who are providing medically certified full-time care. Accordingly, carers who are receiving a social welfare payment or those who are qualified adults on another person's pension or those who are not currently receiving a weekly social welfare payment may now qualify for a respite care grant from my Department.

The amount of the grant increased from €835 to €1,000 in June 2005. Provision has also been made to pay a grant in respect of each care recipient, where previously the grant was only available for up to two people. This benefits those who provide care for three or more people. I expect that this measure will benefit over 9,000 carers who are not currently in receipt of carer's allowance or carer's benefit. Overall, some 33,000 full-time carers will receive the grant at a cost of €36 million this year. This will bring the total expenditure on supports for carers from my Department to over €250 million this year.

I recently had the pleasure of launching the Carers Association's Towards a Carer's Strategy. It is a focused document with clear objectives and actions. These objectives and actions cover a range of areas and Government Departments, including income support and health related issues. With regard to a policy framework for the future funding of long-term care for older people, the long-term care working group, which is chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach and comprises senior officials from the Departments of Finance, Health and Children and Social and Family Affairs, is continuing its work. The objective of this group is to identify the policy options for a financially sustainable system of long-term care, taking account of the Mercer report, the views of the consultation that was undertaken on that report and the review of the nursing home subvention scheme. The group will report to the Tánaiste and myself during the summer.

I will also continue to work with my colleagues in Government to develop the type of co-ordinated services which provide real support and practical assistance to people who devote their time to improving the quality of life for others.

Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 31: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he has plans to change the way in which the supplementary welfare allowance is administered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22911/05]

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 75: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the progress to date on the review of the supplementary welfare allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22910/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 75 together.

The supplementary welfare scheme is administered by the Health Service Executive on my behalf. The scheme is being reviewed as part of my Department's ongoing programme of expenditure reviews. The review is being carried out by a working group chaired by my Department and includes the Department of Finance and the Health Service Executive. The review involves a fundamental appraisal of the scheme. All aspects are being examined, with a primary focus on considering ways of improving its efficiency and effectiveness.

Due to the number and nature of the issues raised, the working group decided to progress the review in two phases. Phase I of the review was completed at the end of 2004. This is a preliminary phase, outlining the background to the scheme, its current format, the trends in recipient numbers and expenditure. It also addresses the objectives of the scheme and their relevance in the context of Government and departmental policy and strategies. In this first phase the working group carried out an extensive consultation process. This resulted in 145 submissions being received by the working group. Over 700 issues were raised in these submissions. The report of phase I of the review has been published and is also available on my Department's website.

Phase II of the review commenced in January 2005. This involves a full examination of the issues raised in the submissions received and conclusions by the group in phase 1. The group is due to complete its work by the end of 2005 and will make recommendations on the future of the scheme based on its conclusions.

The recent establishment of the Health Service Executive requires a fresh consideration of the role and structure of the community welfare service and of the most appropriate location for that service in the future. I will address, later this year, the most appropriate administrative arrangements for the scheme in the light of recent changes.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 33: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will increase the weekly disregard of earnings as an incentive for persons with disabilities entering rehabilitative and therapeutic employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22880/05]

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 80: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he intends to increase the income disregard for persons on disability allowance following the recent increase in the minimum wage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22920/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 33 and 80 together.

My Department aims, through the provision of a range of supports, to encourage and assist people with disabilities and long-term illnesses who are in receipt of social welfare payments to identify and take up available employment, training and other self development opportunities, where appropriate.

This is achieved through a number of measures which include: exemptions from the general "no work" conditions which apply to the contributory illness and disability payments — with the prior approval of the Department, a person may be exempted from these conditions so as to engage in employment or training of up to 20 hours per week which is considered to be rehabilitative or therapeutic in nature; earnings disregards in the case of means tested payments, disability allowance and blind pension, for those engaging in rehabilitative employment or self employment and rehabilitative training; participation in the back to work scheme, whereby people on long-term illness and disability payments can retain those payments on a sliding scale for three years where they take up full-time employment in the open labour market, four years where engaged in self employment; the jobs facilitator network, which assists people to return to work, training and education by advising them of the options available, encouraging them to take up these options and providing supports, where necessary; and exemptions from liability for employer and employee PRSI contributions, in certain instances.

The earnings disregard for those in receipt of means tested payments engaging in rehabilitative employment has been increased on a number of occasions since the transfer of the then disabled person's maintenance allowance, DPMA, from the health boards to my Department as disability allowance in 1996. At that time, the disregard was £35.20, equivalent of €44.69, increased to £36.30 or €46.09 from 4 June 1997 and to £50 or €63.49 from 3 June 1998. It was then increased to £75 or €95.23 from 5 April 2000 and also extended to self employment and to its current level of €120 from April 2002. Any further change to this disregard would have budgetary implications and would have to be considered in the context of overall available resources.

As part of the Government's expenditure review initiative, a working group established in my Department reviewed the range of existing illness and disability schemes and identified a number of areas where employment support could be strengthened within the social welfare system and across Government Departments generally. I will consider what improvements can be made in the light of this review and with a view to any necessary measures being considered in the context of the next budget.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the measures which have been taken by his Department to rectify the issue of reimbursing pensioners who lose a week's money when they sign up for direct debit payments. [23037/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's policy is to ensure that a wide range of payment options are available to customers. Payment options that are currently available include post office payments by means of a personalised pension order, PPO, book, postdrafts or electronic interface transfer, EIT, using a swipe card, cheque payments to customers at their home address and direct payment to customers' bank accounts via electronic fund transfer, EFT. Customers may also switch between payment method where their circumstances warrant it.

When pension payments made by EFT first commenced, they were made four weeks in arrears. However, following a review of payment frequencies, pension payments by EFT moved to two weeks in arrears in April 2000. This situation was again reviewed in 2004 and it was further reduced to one week in arrears in November of that year.

The majority of customers who opt for the EFT facility do so at the start of their claim and are paid on a regular weekly basis once their claim is put into payment.

Under current arrangements, customers wishing to change from a post office book to EFT move to a different payment cycle and, as a result, do not receive payment for one week during the switch over. The further alignment of EFT payments with that of other payment methods, including the elimination payments being made one week in arrears, is being addressed and the necessary arrangements will be put in place as soon as possible.

I also recently announced a comprehensive review of my Department's payment systems. This review will take account of Government policy to facilitate the greater use of electronic payments systems in the economy in the interests of developing a world class payments environment in Ireland.