Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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72. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the proposals announced for his Department in budget 2017 that have yet to be implemented; and when they will be implemented. [17590/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My priority in Budget 2017 was to help ensure that everyone benefits from the recovery - including retired people, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents, farmers and people who are unemployed. In doing this I sought to balance the improvements to social welfare payments with measures designed to make sure that the system also works for people who are in employment, including self-employed people.

On Budget Day, I announced the first general increase in all weekly rates of payment since 2009. A €5 increase in the maximum weekly rates of payment for all social welfare payments took effect in March, with proportionate increases for qualified adults and those on reduced rates of payment. Approximately 1.5 million people are benefitting from this increase.

I am also extending social insurance benefits for the self-employed. Since last month, self-employed contributors can now avail of the Treatment Benefit scheme, which includes free eye and dental exams, and contributions towards the cost of hearing aids and contact lenses.

I also introduced changes to improve the financial benefit of work for lone parents who take up some employment. The income disregards for the One Parent Family Payment and Jobseekers’ Transition payment increased by €20, from €90 to €110 per week, reversing, in part, previous reductions. This change improves the level of take-home earnings of lone parents. For example lone parents earning €110 per week or more, saw their take-home income rise by up to €15 per week from January 2017.

A number of Budget 2017 measures will take effect from later this year, most significantly, from December, self-employed contributors will be eligible for the Invalidity Pension. For the first time, this will give self-employed people access to the safety net of a guaranteed income support if they have the misfortune of experiencing a debilitating illness or injury that prevents them from working.

Treatment benefit entitlements will also be extended from October 2017 so as to provide further dental and optical benefits to both employees and people who are self-employed.

In addition from the commencement of the next academic year in September, a €500 annual Cost of Education Allowance will be made available to Back to Education Allowance participants with children. This will help parents, including lone parents, to return to and remain in, education.

Also from September, young jobseekers under age 25 will be entitled to receive the full maximum rate of jobseeker’s payment of €193 per week when they engage in educational activity under the Back to Education Allowance scheme. This is an increase of €33 or 21% on the current level of payment.

Finally, also from September, Budget 2017 provides for the inclusion in the School Meals scheme of an additional 80 schools not currently part of DEIS but deemed to require this support following the recently launched DEIS Plan 2017by my colleague, the Minister of Education and Skills. In addition for the first time in many years, School Meals will be extended to schools outside of DEIS, with the phased extension of the scheme to breakfast clubs in non-DEIS schools from September 2017.