Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of carees, whether on full or partial rate in reciept of respite grant for each of the last 10 years; the value of the grant each year; and the cost to the Department for each of those years. [54211/12]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of carers in reciept of respite grants for each of the last 10 years, whether on full or partial rate; the value of the grant in each of those years; and the total cost to his Department. [54222/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 317 and 318 together.

The respite care grant (RCG) is an annual payment made automatically to people in receipt of carer’s allowance, carer’s benefit, or domiciliary care allowance from my Department. Other people who are not in receipt of one of these payments, but who are providing full time care and attention can also apply for the grant via separate application. The RCG is paid automatically on the 1st Thursday in June of the year in question. The RCG is paid by a number of sections in my Department, via various computer platforms As a result, not all of the information requested by the Deputy is available. Details of the number of carers, broken down by scheme, the overall scheme expenditure and the annual rate of the Grant are shown in the tables below, where the information is available.

The information requested regarding the number of carees in respect of whom the respite care was paid from 2002 onwards is not available at present. It is currently being prepared and I will be in touch with the Deputy as soon as the reply is complete.

Table 1 - Respite Care Grant Number of Carers (2002 to date)

Notes:

1 Details on the carers on half-rate carer’s allowance who received the Grant are not available.

2 No details are available prior to 2008. Details shown relate to payments of the Grant.

3 Responsibility for this scheme and the associated respite care grants transferred to this Department from the Health Service Executive during 2009. Details shown in the table relate to 1st—time applications made to this Department only. Almost all payments of the 2009 respite care grant made to carers on this scheme were by the Health Service Executive during that year

4 This standalone payment was introduced in 2005

Note: 2012 expenditure is to end October 2012.