Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 129: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when she proposes to expand the free telephone rental scheme by providing for free broadband for older people as promised in the programme for Government. [24796/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The telephone allowance is a component of the household benefits package which also includes the electricity/gas allowance and free television license schemes. The package is generally available to people living in the State, aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare payment or who satisfy a means test. It is also available to people aged under 66 who are in receipt of certain social welfare disability payments or carer's allowance. There are currently in the region of 355,000 people in receipt of the household benefits at an annual cost of €317 million.

The primary objective of the telephone allowance scheme is to ensure access to help in an emergency and to provide an element of security. A secondary objective is to encourage social contact and to assist in the prevention of social isolation for those living alone. The Department has endeavoured to meet the demands of deregulation, notably in the telecoms market, where it supports multiple providers within the fixed line telephone business.

A restructuring of the telephone allowance to a cash value was undertaken in 2003 and this has facilitated the inclusion of additional providers in the scheme since July 2004. The scheme was further extended to include mobile phones in April 2007 as a result of improvements announced in Budget 2007. Since then, people have the choice of either opting for a direct credit to a telephone company for their landline or for a cash payment in respect of their mobile phone. This means that it is no longer necessary for a person to have a fixed line phone in order to benefit from the telephone allowance. There are currently approximately 15,000 people availing of the mobile phone option. In addition, the value of the telephone allowance was increased in line with general price increases in August 2007 from €296 per annum to €310.80 per annum.

The Programme for Government includes a commitment to extend the scheme further to incorporate broadband services for older people. The Department is currently examining how best to implement this commitment. It should be noted that where people access the internet using a landline, the telephone allowance applies to their bill usage and will cover the cost of calls or internet usage up to the level of their allowance.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to change the conditions of maternity benefit, if even on a cost-neutral basis, to allow the father claim part of the payment instead of the mother where this is the choice of the parents concerned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24803/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The question of introducing a paternity benefit payment, in any format, would depend on establishing an underlying entitlement to statutory paternity leave in the first instance. Responsibility for issues relating to paternity leave rests with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Following commitments made in the social partnership agreement "Towards 2016", a Working Group led by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been convened to review the level of provision of maternity leave and of paternity leave. The Group is currently examining options with regards to both maternity and paternity provision and is due to conclude its deliberations before the end of 2008.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 131: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she is taking to encourage more DEIS schools to apply for funding under one of her Department's school meals programmes; and when she expects 100% coverage of pupils in DEIS schools. [24773/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school meals programme gives funding towards provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the long-standing statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided by the Department to participating schools and local and voluntary community groups who run specific school meals projects. The school meals programme has expanded significantly in recent years and this trend will continue throughout 2008. Expenditure on the programme increased from €13.6m in 2006 to €28.2m in 2007, and is expected to be in the region of €32m in 2008. In 2006, 1,394 schools and almost 125,000 pupils benefited from the programme and this increased to over 189,000 pupils in 1,900 schools in 2007.

The decision to operate a school food project or to apply for funding under the school meals local projects scheme rests with the school itself. Funding under the scheme is targeted at disadvantaged school children and is intended to assist schools or groups who are operating their own school food projects with the food costs of the project only. Responsibility for all aspects of the day-to-day operation of the scheme lies with the school. Demand for funding under the school meals local projects scheme remains high. Additional funding in 2008 will be used to include more DEIS schools in the scheme. The focus of the school meals scheme will remain on disadvantaged children and the inclusion of all eligible DEIS schools will continue to be the main priority for the scheme.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the supports in place to farm operators suffering from a disability in view of the fact that the average age of farm operators experiencing a disability is only 52; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19652/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department currently operates a range of schemes for people with an illness or disability including the insurance based illness benefit scheme, the occupational injury benefit scheme for those who are unable to work because of an accident or illness suffered at work and the means-tested disability allowance scheme. Farm operators normally pay Class A social insurance contributions and therefore, subject to satisfying the contribution and medical requirements, would be entitled to the full range of illness and disability payments. Should they suffer from a specified illness related to their employment or an accident while at work they can apply for injury benefit which would be paid for a period of 26 weeks.

A person who acquires an illness or disability outside the work environment, or who is still unable to work after 26 weeks of receiving injury benefit, may qualify for illness benefit. They must meet certain medical and contribution requirements in order to receive this payment which can be paid for a period of 52 weeks or, if more than 260 contributions have been paid, may continue indefinitely. A person who does not satisfy the contribution conditions for illness benefit, and whose means are below a prescribed level, may qualify for disability allowance instead.