Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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213. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending statutory paid maternity and paternity leave to a year, both shared and unshared; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39304/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department's maternity benefit scheme is payable for 26 weeks and paternity benefit for 2 weeks. The 2018 Estimates provides for expenditure of approximately €264 million on Maternity Benefit and €16 million on paternity benefit. The estimated weekly cost of extending the duration of maternity and paternity benefit, based on 2019 estimated average weekly recipients, is approximately €9.7 million and €6 million respectively.

The following table provides details of the additional full year cost of increasing the duration of maternity benefit by 24 weeks and paternity benefit by 50 weeks, providing a total of 52 weeks for each parent.

The table also provides details of the cost of increasing the duration of paternity benefit by 24 weeks to bring the leave for both parents to a combined total of 52 weeks (when added with the existing 26 weeks already available to mothers).

Estimatedannual cost of increasing the duration of maternity & paternity benefit based on 2019 estimated recipients at a rate of €240 per week

Any extension to schemes can only be considered as part of the budgetary process in the context of overall welfare improvements.

The Deputy is advised that there are additional costs to the Exchequer as these estimates do not include the costs of salary top-ups for public/civil servants or substitution costs.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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214. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the weekly allowance for children living in direct provision to the current rate for a qualified child including a €5 increase for over 12's and the adult weekly allowance to €38.80 as recommended by the working group on the protection process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39306/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has opted in to the EU (recast) Reception Conditions Directive with effect from 30 June 2018. As a result, direct provision allowance is being renamed daily expenses allowance. The Government has provided over €5.6 million for the allowance in 2018. This is paid to applicants for international protection who live in the direct provision system where they are provided with full board accommodation and other facilities/services by the Reception and Integration Agency of the Department of Justice and Equality.

The allowance is currently paid at the rate of €21.60 per week per adult and per child. There are approximately 3,700 adults and 1,500 children residing in the system of direct provision in respect of whom the allowance is being paid.

The McMahon Report on Improvements to the Protection Process recommended that the adult rate of the allowance should be increased to €38.74.

The additional full-year cost, based on the current numbers, of increasing the weekly adult rate, for each adult, from €21.60 to €38.74 is approximately €3.3 million.

The additional full-year cost, based on the current numbers, of increasing the weekly child rate, for all children, from €21.60 to €31.80 is approximately €795,600.

The additional full-year cost of providing an extra €5 per for children aged over 12 years is approximately €58,500.

Any increases to the rate of this allowance would have to be approved by Government and considered in a budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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215. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing universal child benefit by €5. [39307/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full-year cost of increasing the monthly rate of Child Benefit by €5, from €140 per month to €145 per month, is €73.29 million.

It should be noted that this costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2019.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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216. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transition payment to €161 per week; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39308/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I understand the Deputy to be referring to the income disregard applying to these payments, rather than the payments themselves.

Based on the income data for existing customers on one parent family payments and jobseekers transition payments, the estimated cost of increasing the income disregard for the one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transitional payment for this cohort from €130.00 to €161 per week is in the region of €8 to €8.5 million per year.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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217. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the jobseeker's transitional payment until the youngest child is 18 years of age and until a child finishes secondary school, respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39310/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The policy goal of the changes to the OFP scheme were to tackle long-term social welfare dependency - and its associated poverty risks - through a tapering of income supports and a more active engagement process offering enhanced educational, training and employment supports.

My Department continues to provide a range of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment ceases. These include the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over, and the Working Family Payment (WFP), available to lone parents who are working 19 or more hours per week. Lone parents who move to WFP may also apply for the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD).

There are significant barriers to accurately estimating the cost of extending the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) until the youngest child is eighteen years of age, and until a child finishes secondary school. For example, some customers may no longer be within the welfare system, while others could seek to move from alternative payments such as Jobseekers Allowance (JA), the Working Family Payment (WFP) and the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) back to JST. It would be difficult for my Department to estimate the magnitude of this flow into and between schemes with any degree of accuracy.

Likewise, the number of young people 18 years of age and over who are still in secondary education, and the proportion of those who are the children of lone parents in receipt of benefits is not readily available or easily estimated. As these unknown factors are critical to providing a reliable costing my Department is not in a position to provide the costing requested.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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218. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the threshold for one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transition payment to an increased limit of €500 per week with a €50 increase for each additional child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39311/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In the case of One Parent Family payment (OFP), the earnings data necessary to enable a reliable calculation is not available to the Department, as claimants with earnings above the €425 threshold will have exited the scheme and the Department will have no sight of their numbers or earnings.

Insofar as the jobseekers transitional (JST) payment is concerned there is no specific "earnings threshold" in place. The allowance ceases to be paid when the means (as assessed by the Department) exceeds the payment amount for the individual, which is in turn based on the personal rate plus the relevant number of child dependant increases payable for the particular claimant.