Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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21. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the supports that are currently available to families with children in hospital; if consideration has been given to placing a social welfare officer on site at children’s hospitals to provide necessary information on exceptional needs payments and carer’s allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48266/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am very aware of the pressures, financial and otherwise, that having a child in hospital can place on parents. As the two main hospitals that treat children are based in the Dublin area, this often involves parents having to travel distances and to stay close to the hospital concerned. My Department provides supports that can be accessed where a need arises as a result of a child being hospitalised.

Where a domiciliary care allowance is in payment this continues to be paid for up to 13 weeks following the hospitalisation of a child. Similarly, if carers allowance is in payment this payment continues for up to 13 weeks following the hospitalisation.

In all other cases, application can be made under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme as this scheme is intended to provide assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Under the SWA scheme, the Department may award a supplement to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the person's own resources and which are deemed to be necessary.

In addition, an Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) is a single payment to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. For example, the payment can be for costs such as travel, necessary temporary accommodation while a family member is in hospital and clothing or other hospital requirements.

Social workers who are based in the hospitals are well briefed on these schemes and are in a position to contact staff of my Department for assistance where this is required. As a result, I do not believe there is a need to base staff of my Department in the hospitals concerned.

My Department is committed to ensuring that members of the public are fully aware of the welfare supports and services that are available to them. To that end detailed information on each scheme and service is published on gov.ie. A list of all DSP schemes and services can be found at www.gov.ie/dspschemes and this page provides a link to the dedicated web page for each individual scheme including the Exceptional Needs Payment and Carer’s Allowance.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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22. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if consideration will be given to increasing the weekly carers payments by €8 and the carer’s support grant from €1,850 to €2,000. [48627/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that I will be considering a range of options for Budget 2022 over the coming days, taking account of available resources.

My Department provides a range of income supports to carers through the Carer's Allowance, Carer's Benefit, Carer's Support Grant and Domiciliary Care Allowance schemes. In total, it is estimated that my Department will spend almost €1.5 billion on these supports in 2021.

A series of evidence-based targeted measures were introduced in the last two Budgets to ensure the most vulnerable, including carers, are protected. For example, the qualified child rates were increased by €4 for children aged under 12, and €8 for those aged 12 and over. The Carer's Support Grant was also increased by €150, from €1,700 to €1,850 per year - its highest ever rate of payment.

I can assure the Deputy that I am very much aware of the key role that family carers play in our society and I will continue to keep the range of supports available to carers under review.

However, any improvements or additions to these supports can only be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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23. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on the minimum essential standard of living data compiled by an organisation (details supplied); her views on the validity of the research behind the data; and if she will consider using the data as evidence in determining the level of core social welfare payments. [45864/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department funds work undertaken by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice to develop and calculate the Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL). My officials work closely with the MESL team and I find this work very useful in informing policy. The outputs from this research complement data produced from other analyses such as the Survey on Income and Living Conditions produced by the Central Statistics Office.

The MESL research provides an estimate of the income requirements of different family types in both urban and rural locations. It provides a comparison of welfare payments against these calculated requirements to identify what the Vincentian Partnership terms adequacy gaps. In 2020, the study concluded that pensioner couple households have no adequacy gaps but other households demonstrate gaps of various magnitudes.

This research also highlights issues that may also be addressed by improvements in services. In this regard, improved services, such as the extension of GP visit cards for children and the affordable childcare scheme can result in significant reductions in the minimum income standards needed by households.

In recent years, the Department has used the study as a key input into consideration of Budget options. Budget 2019 introduced a new, higher rate of increase for qualified children aged 12 and over, across all social welfare schemes. Budgets 2020 and 2021 again provided for a higher increase for older children. Changes have also been made to enhance the Working Family Payment and One Parent Family payments. In addition, the Living Alone Allowance increased by a total of €10 per week over Budgets 2020 and 2021 in response to the research highlighting adequacy gaps, particularly for pensioners living alone.

Measures taken by this and previous governments ensure that social welfare payment rates in Ireland are among the highest in Europe. Social transfers contribute very significantly to reducing poverty rates in Ireland. According to the Central Statistics Office, in the absence of social transfers and pension income, the at-risk-of-poverty rate would be 41.4%. After social transfers, the rate is 12.8%. This is a poverty reduction effect of 68.5% for all social transfers and pensions, one of the highest in Europe.

I can assure the Deputy that any measures being considered for Budget 2022 will be guided by research, including the minimum essential standard of living research, to target resources at those who are identified as being in most need.