Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Social Protection in view of the introduction of the carbon tax on 1 May 2010, the reason the promised vouched fuel allowance scheme has not been developed to offset the increases for low income families at risk of fuel poverty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40010/10]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason he has not yet adopted measures to compensate the poor for the increase in fuel costs arising from the introduction of the carbon levy in May 2010. [40032/10]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 90: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to address the increased fuel poverty resulting from recently imposed price increases and the carbon levy; if the fuel allowance rate of payment will be increased or extended using the carbon tax income fund and if he has had discussions with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government regarding making the fuel allowance payment more effective through retrofitting of these homes. [40070/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 55, 71 and 90 together.

The Department of Social Protection already assists low income households with heating costs through their basic payments, through the fuel allowance scheme and through the household benefits package of electricity and gas allowances. These schemes have been improved significantly in recent years. The fuel allowance is paid for 32 weeks each year from end September to early May. In the 2010/2011 heating season it is estimated that over 350,000 recipients will benefit from the allowance at a cost of over €239 million.

There are also 380,000 pensioner and other households in receipt of the household benefits package which provides up to 2,400 electricity units per annum (or the gas equivalent) over the year. It is estimated that 140,000 of these households are receiving both the fuel allowance and the electricity/gas allowance under the household benefits package to assist with heating and other energy requirements. The electricity and gas allowances under the household benefit package cost €184 million in 2009. I have recently announced that the electricity allowance has been increased with effect from 1 October 2010 to cover the cost of the Public Service Obligation levy on domestic electricity, which will increase the annual cost of the scheme by €12.6 million.

The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from the impact of energy costs through a combination of supports, investment in programmes to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock and energy efficiency awareness initiatives such as the Keep Well and Warm booklet and accompanying associated website. Some 150,000 copies of the booklet have been distributed to date in the last couple of years. The Warmer Homes Scheme administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), under the aegis of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is the primary mechanism for alleviating the key underlying cause of energy poverty – that of thermal inefficiency of houses. Over 19,000 low-income houses were retrofitted in 2009 with a target of a further 22,500 in 2010.

In his Carbon Budget Statement, the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, outlined details of €130 million in funding for insulation, €76 million of which will be used to assist low income families.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has overarching responsibility for the energy portfolio and has convened an Inter- Departmental/Agency Group on Affordable Energy to coordinate and drive Government policy in this area. They were tasked with devising an Energy Affordability Strategy. This strategy will set out existing and future approaches to addressing energy affordability and will have regard both to the impact of the carbon tax on low income households and the range of supports outlined above in making its recommendations.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his views on Sinn Féin's proposal that rather than cutting, taxing or means testing child benefit it should remain universal and at its current rate and the wealthy should be taxed more; his plans regarding child benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40076/10]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 61: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way he intends to reform family income supplement to ensure that more low income families qualify. [40040/10]

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to reform child income support payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40026/10]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 83: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is committed to maintaining the current value of child benefit in 2011. [40067/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 56, 61, 67 and 83 together.

Between 1997 and 2009, overall expenditure on Child Income Supports (Child Benefit, Family Income Supplement, Qualified Child Increases, Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance) grew from just below €900 million to approximately €3.5 billion per year. Clearly social welfare spending and specifically Child Benefit, is a very significant part of overall Government spending. The Government is proud to have been able to direct such substantial increases in financial support to all families in recent years. However, given the scale of the current economic crisis, it is necessary to address all aspects of the public finances so as to ensure that they are sustainable and to ensure that resources are allocated fairly.

With regard to Child Benefit, the Government is conscious that this universal payment can be an important source of income for all families and so in Budget 2010 decided against withdrawing Child Benefit completely from any family. In the context of Budget 2010, the Minister for Finance noted the legal and logistical reasons why means testing or taxing Child Benefit could not be done at that stage. For these reasons in 2010, the Government decided to reduce the Child Benefit payment rates while protecting those children in families who were dependent on social welfare or in low income employment by increasing Qualified Child Increases and FIS income limits.

Social welfare expenditure for 2011, including expenditure on Child Income Support payments, is currently being considered in the context of the preparation of the departmental estimates for that year. Any plans to change the Child Benefit and Family Income Supplement payments are a matter to be decided in a budgetary context and announced on Budget day.

The Department is currently carrying out a value-for-money review in the area of Child Income Support payments. The review is nearing completion and in line with the overall approach of the expenditure review process, conclusions reached in the review, while not necessarily representing Government policy in this area, can be expected to play a role in informing future policy development particularly directed at securing more coherent, effective and efficient spending of public money on families with children. The question of higher levels of taxation for those with higher wealth or incomes is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Finance.

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way his work for the dole scheme will operate and if the scheme will be compulsory; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40050/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Activation and support for those who are unemployed is a key priority for Government. Earlier this year, the Taoiseach announced a number of changes to improve the delivery of employment, training and community services to the public by bringing together related responsibilities in these areas. These changes included the restructuring of Departmental responsibilities with the objective of providing a stream-lined response to the income support and job search needs of people who are unemployed.

In this context, my Department is devising proposals for the development of new initiatives based on the Rural Social Scheme and the Community Services Programme which will offer social employment opportunities. This new initiative will be an important element in the development and delivery of employment and community services and will aim to provide quality work opportunities to the unemployed and beneficial outcomes to the community. A key feature of the new scheme will be to provide a new activation route that will support unemployed people in remaining job-ready for re-entry to employment as the economic environment improves.

Considerable work is required on these proposals before they come on stream and take their place within the suite of activation measures aimed at supporting unemployed people. I have not set targets as to how many employment opportunities might be created as much depends on the level of resources that will be available to the Department and the capacity of not-for-profit community based organisations to avail of these emerging opportunities. Details of the roll out of this initiative will be made available as soon as possible.