Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 240: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount spent by his Department on add-on cash benefits and non-cash benefits to persons of pension age in each of the years this century with a breakdown by benefit type and the number of recipients; and the number of people at pension age receiving any welfare payment from his Department in each of these years. [23109/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Due to the level of detail required it has not been possible to collate the information in the limited time available. The data requested are currently being prepared and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy when they become available.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 241: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average or typical equivalent monetary value received by pensioner households in each of the years this century for each of the non-cash benefits available to certain households of people of pension age; the equivalent monetary value in each of these years and for each of these benefits for a pensioner who was maximising their benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23111/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity, natural gas allowance, telephone allowance and free television licence are non-cash benefits available to pensioners living permanently in the State who satisfy specific qualifying conditions. The scheme is also available to customers under age 66 years who satisfy the conditions of the scheme. There are currently some 350,000 customers in receipt of the household benefits scheme at an annual cost of €315 million, of which some 285,000 of these customers are aged 66 years and over.

The free travel scheme is also a non-cash benefit which permits some 600,000 customers, of which 450,000 are aged over 66 years, to travel free on a range of transport services at an annual cost of €64 million. The monetary value of the electricity allowance, natural gas allowance, telephone allowance and free travel pass to an individual customer depends on usage and may vary from customer to customer.

The monetary values of each of the components of the household benefits on 1st January 2000-2007 are as follows:

For accounting purposes within my Department, the average value of a free travel pass is calculated using the total number of recipients at year end and the overall cost of the scheme in an individual year. Based on this method of calculation the average values of a free travel pass since 2000 are as follows:

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 242: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the cost of administering the State contributory pension; the proportion this represents of the total value of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23112/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Most of the administrative expenditure incurred by my Department is not brought to account on a scheme specific basis. In many cases, services are shared between several scheme areas. Accordingly, it is not possible to identify all the costs associated with administering the State contributory scheme.

The further development of systems to support the Management Information Framework and the Annual Output Statement should facilitate the development of accounting arrangements, over time, which will enable expenditure to be linked more closely to services. Estimated expenditure for my Department in 2007 is nearly €15,335 million of which administrative expenditure from Vote 38 and the Social Insurance Fund amounts to around €467.85 million. This represents 3% of total estimated expenditure.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 243: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount spent by his Department in each of the years this century on welfare payments to pensioners broken down by year, and by pension type and the absolute number of recipients by pension type and by year in each case. [23136/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The information required by the Deputy is contained within the following tabular statement: