Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 68: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans for alleviating child poverty in view of his Budget 2007 proposals for the investment of almost €300 million; his plans for specific targeting of qualified child allowance and family income supplement; the number expected to be eligible for back to school clothing and footwear allowance; the way the additional funding for school meals will be utilised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43156/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Budget 2007 introduced a package of measures costing €300 million aimed at alleviating child poverty. By channelling income support in a number of ways, this package of measures is designed to balance the need to provide support universally through child benefit, with targeting those most in need by increasing child dependant allowances, family income supplement, back to school clothing and footwear allowance and school meals.

In addition to child benefit increases of €10 per month at a cost of €243.70 in a full year, all three child dependant allowances will also be increased and consolidated into a new single rate of €22.00 per week. This increase, the first in 12 years, will benefit approximately 342,000 children at a cost of €56.13 million in a full year and represents a more selective approach to child income support through its targeting of children in poorer households, while at the same time limiting the extent to which employment incentives are worsened.

Family income supplement income thresholds have been increased in this Budget to add from €9 (for a one child family) to €111 (for a family with eight or more children) to weekly payments of almost all existing FIS recipients. This will increase the average payment, per child, to €50 a week. Research has shown that poverty is more likely to be concentrated in larger families and in this context the new FIS thresholds, while substantially increasing all payments, concentrate additional resources on larger families. This improvement, costing an estimated €32m, continues the re-focusing of thresholds towards larger families which started in Budget 2006, thereby further targeting resources at low-income households. As a result, average FIS payments in 2007 will approach €50 per week per child.

Back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) is designed to assist recipients of social welfare, health service executive payments and similar schemes in meeting the costs of school uniforms and footwear. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but to provide assistance towards these costs, where people are on low incomes.

Provisional figures for 2006 indicate that some 172,000 children benefited from this scheme in 2006 at a cost of €25.4 million. This is an increase on 2005, when some 76,200 families with 157,300 children benefited at a cost of €16.7m. This increase can be mainly attributed to improvements in income disregards introduced this year and the significant level of publicity given to this scheme in the media and through the other information services operated by my Department.

As announced in Budget 2007, the rate of payment of BSCFA is being increased by €60 per child for children aged 2 to 11 years old and €95 for children aged 12 to 22. This represents a 50% increase on the current allowance, bringing rates to €180 and €285 respectively, and will provide a considerable boost to families at a time of considerable expense in the year. The annual expenditure on the scheme is expected to exceed €38.million as a result of this measure.

The school meals programme operated by my Department provides funding towards provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the long-standing statutory urban school meals scheme, currently operated by 36 local authorities. The Department jointly funds the food costs with these local authorities, who also manage and fund the administration of the scheme. The second is the school meals community (local projects) programme through which funding is provided by my Department to participating schools and voluntary community groups in both urban and rural areas who are running specific school meals projects, including breakfast clubs.

The purpose of funding is to assist disadvantaged children in gaining maximum benefit from educational services. Many of the schools that are currently receiving funding are also in RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development) areas. The school meals programme has been expanding into additional schools each year. Expenditure has increased from €4.6m in 2004 to €8.2m in 2005. The expenditure outturn for the scheme for 2006 will be of the order of €13.6m. This clearly demonstrates the ongoing expansion of the scheme. In 2006, the total number of schools availing of funding (under both schemes) has increased to almost 1,400 while the numbers of pupils benefiting has increased to over 125,000. The additional funding of €3m in 2007 will allow for the current number of participating schools to be increased by over 200, benefiting an estimated 20,000 extra children.

The school meals programme makes an important contribution to ensuring that school children receive better nutrition and contributes to improved school attendance and quality of learning. The scheme also supports initiatives that target dispersed disadvantage and children with special needs. All relevant research indicates that there is a strong link between nutritional intake and cognitive ability and that inadequate nutrition impacts negatively on a child's ability to learn and benefit from education.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 74: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the progress made to date with regard to implementation of the 2003 report of the Dáil Committee on Social and Family Affairs on carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43122/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Supporting and recognising carers in our society is and has been a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates to carers have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have been significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit and the respite care grant have been introduced and extended.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs Report on the position of full time carers which was published in 2003 makes fifteen recommendations. Some of these relate specifically to my Department and others relate specifically to the Department of Health and Children. The report recommended that the means test of carer's allowance should be abolished. In line with other social assistance schemes, a means test is applied to the carer's allowance so as to ensure that limited resources are directed to those in greatest need. This means test has been eased significantly over the years most notably with the disregard of spouse's earnings.

Following Budget 2006, since April, the earnings disregard for a couple has been set at €580 per week which is equivalent to gross average industrial earnings. As a result of further improvements which I announced in the Budget 2007 this disregard will increase to €640 per week for a couple from April 2007. When this increase is in place a couple with two children will be able to earn up to €36,240 and still qualify for the maximum rate of carer's allowance as well as the associated free travel and household benefits. This measure surpasses the commitment in Towards 2016 to ensure that those on average industrial earnings can continue to qualify for a full carer's allowance. Another of the major recommendations of the report was that where a person who is in receipt of a widow/er's pension and providing someone with full time care and attention, that person should be paid a half rate carer's allowance in addition to his or her pension.

In Budget 2007 I was very pleased to introduce fundamental structural reforms in this area which go beyond the Joint Committee's recommendation. In future, people in receipt of another social welfare payment who are also providing full-time care and attention to a person will be able to retain their main welfare payment and receive another payment, depending on their means, the maximum of which will be the equivalent of a half rate carer's allowance. It is estimated that approximately 18,000 carers will benefit by up to €109 per week from this measure at a cost of €56.72 million in a full year. The precise details regarding how this new arrangement will operate are being examined and will be set out in legislation early next year.

In Budget 2006 I extended the duration of Carer's Benefit from 15 to 24 months. This is in line with the report which recommended that the 15 month restriction be waived where the person continues to provide care.

The recommended extension of the respite care grant to people in receipt of a social welfare payment other than carer's allowance or benefit and who are providing someone with full time care and attention was implemented in Budget 2005. That improvement went beyond the report's recommendation in that the respite care grant was extended to all full time carers regardless of means.

With regard to the provision of information to carers, my Department provided the Carer's Association with a grant to assist them in producing an information pack for carers. I was very pleased to launch that very comprehensive pack during the summer. In addition, my Department has recently run an information campaign in relation to the income supports available for carers. This involved a week-long media campaign which included advertisements on radio, television and in the print media.

Another of the report's recommendations was that a national strategy for carers should be developed. I am delighted that one of the key Government commitments in the national partnership agreement Towards 2016 is the development of a National Carer's Strategy. This strategy, which will focus on supporting informal and family carers in the community, will be developed by the end of 2007. All relevant departments and agencies will be involved in the strategy and there will be appropriate consultation with the social partners.

I am committed to working for, and with, carers to deliver increased benefits, supports, and services for them and their families. The improvements for carers which I announced in Budget 2007 are further evidence of this commitment.