Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The rural social scheme (RSS) provides income support for farmers and fishermen who have an entitlement to specified social welfare payments. The scheme currently provides work opportunities for approximately 2,600 participants and 130 supervisory staff to provide certain services of benefit to rural communities. Funding allocated for the scheme in 2016 is €44.3m.

Assuming that the participants supported by the RSS remain at the current payment rate, the full year cost of an additional 500 places is estimated at €8.5m while the net cost is estimated at €3.8m. This costing consists of wages paid to participants, fuel allowance, supervisory costs, fees to implementing bodies, fees to the payroll provider and provision of input costs for implementing bodies.