Irish families having to wait 18-weeks for vital welfare cash
Struggling Irish families will be left waiting for several months for vital social welfare, it has emerged.
The waiting time for the Family Income Supplement scheme stands at 18 weeks for a new application while families seeking to renew their payments will face a wait of 16 weeks.
Family Income Supplement (FIS) is a weekly tax-free payment available to workers with children. It is designed to give extra financial support to people on low pay.
The figures were obtained by Roscommon South Leitrim TD Denis Naughton following a parliamentary question.
“Due to the current delays, if someone were to take up a qualifying job and apply for the FIS today, they will not get a decision this side of Christmas,” he said.
The Department of Social Protection said there are currently 7,002 new FIS applications and 7,934 renewal applications awaiting approval.
A spokesman said: “An in-depth business process improvement (BPI) project has recently commenced for the FIS scheme. This project will focus on optimising output and customer service and the reduction of backlogs.”
Ireland’s dip into markets pays off as NTMA sells €500m of bonds
Two years after being shut out of the international markets, investors seem to be interested in Ireland again.
There was strong demand at an auction of short-term Irish debt today and the interest rate was better than expected.
Dipping-it’s-toe into the markets is how the NTMA describes the sales of short term debt that it’s currently engaged in and there was good news today from Treasury Buildings – a successful auction of €500 million worth of three month treasury bills.
After being shut out of the markets for the last two years, there was strong demand today.
The auction was 3 times oversubscribed and the interest rate was better than expected.
However we’re far from out of the woods yet – the government’s economic advisors have warned that the cuts planned for the coming years may not be enough.
Today’s report also describes overspending at the departments of health and social protection as “significant”.
Eamon Gilmore is confident of Ireland’s recovery by September 2013
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn at the Labour party gathering at Carton House, Co Kildare.
Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has expressed confidence that by this time next year Ireland will be about to exit from the troika bailout programme and on its way to economic recovery.
Speaking at the end of his parliamentary party’s two-day “think-in” at Maynooth, Co Kildare, he said: “There are still difficult days ahead but we are determined to get through them, for this country to recover, and for people to be back at work.”
He was confident that Labour’s backbenchers would stay united behind his leadership on the difficult decisions ahead: “We have a great team of TDs, Senators and MEPs.”
However, he said it was “disappointing” that three Labour Senators had absented themselves from the party “think-in” on the basis that it was being held in a luxury hotel although Mr Gilmore said the party was given a good rate for the use of conference facilities there.
“We were all here today and yesterday to discuss the problems that are facing the country. These are problems that affect the people from the constituencies of the people who stayed away just as they affect the constituencies of the people who are here.”
The Labour gathering was briefed by Fine Gael Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald on the forthcoming children’s rights referendum.
“We are ready to pursue that campaign and we will campaign vigorously on that referendum when it is launched,” Mr Gilmore said.
Welcoming the ratification of the European Stability Mechanism by the German Constitutional Court, he said: “I think that’s a very positive decision.”
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin said: “Obviously it’s a very welcome decision from Karlsruhe. It, I suppose, is the last obstacle for the ratification of the ESM, an important part of the recovery architecture.”
Labour’s think-in ended as a 25-strong group of grassroots activists announced plans to lobby left wing politicians to fight the party’s support for cuts in spending.
The Government will continue to honour the terms of the Croke Park agreement, as long as the unions implement their side of the bargain, Mr Gilmore said earlier.
The Labour Party leader said the agreement on public sector pay and reform contains a “considerable degree” of flexibility regarding working arrangements and, in particular, the provision of cover for those that have left the public service.
“What the Croke Park agreement is about is about saying to [public service workers] that pay will not be cut further for a period of time, provided there is co-operation first of all with the reduction in the numbers who are employed and secondly with getting the work done,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
Echoing comments made yesterday by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the Government is determined to implement the agreement in full, Mr Gilmore said there would be no “unilateral” withdrawal from the agreement.
“This is about an agreement. If you make an agreement, you keep the agreement. And, there is a good reason for that. Because if you break an agreement – the people you make it with are unlikely to reach agreement with you again.”
The agreement could be looked at “mid-term”, Mr Gilmore said, adding that the Government keeps it under review “all of the time”.
Mr Gilmore said the Government’s objectives of a reduction in the public service pay bill and reform of the public service would have to be done in co-operation with the unions.
“The objective is, is that we get more out of our public services for less, reduced numbers of people and a better quality public service. That is a big challenge,” he said. “That is something that is very difficult to achieve and you won’t achieve it by conflict, you won’t achieve it by confrontation, you achieve it by co-operation. It’s what any sensible employer would do.”
Asked about the Government’s view on the introduction of same-sex marriage, Mr Gilmore said the matter was being referred to the constitutional convention. He said he hoped it would report back “before 2016”.
Mr Gilmore said the Government will address the contentious issue of abortion once the contents of the report of the expert group on abortion is issued.
“That’s an issue that’s very sensitive and people have very firm views on it. There was a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. That ruling has to be addressed by the Government. There’s an expert group that was established to look at what is required to comply with that ruling.
“When it reports we will address [it]. There is no point in trying to anticipate what recommendations they are going to make to us but when they report we will address it,” he said.
A small group of Labour grassroots members frustrated by Government cuts today also launched a campaign to promote alternatives to austerity.
Campaign for Labour Policies (CPL) is attempting to recruit as many public representatives and party activists as possible in a bid to see a five-point programme implemented.
Spokesman Paul Dillon said its policies included investing in growth and jobs, taxing the wealthy, increasing workers’ rights, repudiating debt and expanding public enterprises.
Forget the spin, tourism in Ireland is in real trouble
SAYS FELIM O’ROURKE AN ECONOMIST
THE total number of overseas visitors to Ireland in 2011 was 6.6 million — an 8pc increase on 2010. This is very good news — or not, depending on how it is spun.
If we just look at the visitor figures and compare them with 2010, they appear very good. But if we dig deeper and compare ‘real tourists’ or holiday visitors in 2011 with earlier years, then we can see why our tourism industry is in such trouble.
In 2011, our emigrants made just over two million visits home to see their families. It is an insult to the parents of Ireland that our children coming home for a visit are counted by Failte Ireland as tourists. If we count only those who come to Ireland for a holiday, then we end up with ‘real tourists’ and the number of these for 2011 was 2.8 million.
We have to be very careful about comparing 2011 with 2010 because of the Icelandic volcanic eruption in April 2010. Irish air travel was massively disrupted from April 15 to May 17, but holiday travel was affected into June. This meant that the early summer of 2010 was a complete disaster for Irish tourism. A recovery in 2011 from the disaster of 2010 means very little.
The 2.8 million holiday visitors in 2011 was less than every year between 1998 and 2009. In 2007, for example, Ireland attracted just over four million holiday visitors, so 2011 is down 31pc on four years previously.
The best way of measuring Irish tourism is to count the bed nights of overseas holiday visitors. In 2011, these visitors spent 19 million bed nights in Ireland — almost 30pc below the figure for 2007 and less even than the figure for 1995.
Very few people in Ireland know that real tourism in Ireland is now at the same level as in the mid-1990s. This is a tribute to the ability of Failte Ireland to spin.
This spin has dominated discussion of tourism policy for the last 20 years. As a result, the public remains in the dark about key facts concerning our tourism industry.
Last year, Irish residents made four million holiday visits to overseas destinations, compared with 2.8 million holiday visits to Ireland by overseas residents.
Irish residents spent 37 million bed nights overseas last year on holiday, compared with the 19 million bed nights spent by overseas holiday-makers in Ireland. Irish residents spent €2.8bn on holidays abroad in 2010 — almost twice the €1.5bn spent by overseas holiday-makers here.
Tourism statistics are complicated and often confusing. Failte Ireland has failed to highlight the massive decline in overseas holiday visitors that has taken place.
Between 2004 and 2011, the number of overseas holiday visitors to Ireland fell by 18pc. Failte Ireland’s spinning of tourism statistics has kept this from view.
Felim O’Rourke is an economist who has written extensively on tourism
Property tax in Ireland won’t be set by the new price register
The much anticipated property price register will not be used as a valuation tool for the forthcoming property tax, the Department of Justice has said.
The register, which is due to go online at the end of this month, has been long-awaited as the first transparent measure of house prices in the Republic.
A statement from the department ruled out the possibility that the register will be used to estimate the value of homes after the Government confirmed last week it will introduce a value-based property tax.
“It should be emphasised that this is not a property price index and will not form the basis for the valuation of any property tax,” it stated.
A department spokesman said that the basis on which valuations will be made will be a matter for the Revenue Commissioners.
A spokeswoman for the Revenue Commissioners said they were working on options and it would be “inappropriate for us to comment any further at this stage”.
She added: “The Government decision that Revenue will administer this new tax has been made and we are planning for its introduction.
“We understand that the Government will consider the policy matters in the coming weeks.”
The property price register will be published by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) based in Navan, Co Meath, and will be available on the authority’s website ( npsra.ie).
The information will include the address of the property, the price that was paid for it and the date it was sold, going back two years.
The Department of Justice has said the property register will be live “in the coming weeks” but has declined to give a date.
Nobody from the PSRA was available for comment, but in an interview in July, the PSRA’s chief executive Tom Lynch said the register “will be up by the end of September”.
The authority is also responsible for the licensing of property service providers, and will investigate and adjudicate on complaints to the authority.
Health Minister James Reilly angry at stance of Irish consultants
Anger is growing in Government circles at the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association over its failure to participate in talks at the Labour Relations Commission on work practices and other reforms.
Minister for Health James Reilly said yesterday he was losing patience “big time”. He said he intended to discuss “further options” for dealing with the issue with Cabinet colleagues and the Attorney General.
It is understood the commission yesterday said it could not secure agreement for participation in the talks, which were due to start today. The talks were to deal with reforms proposed by management under the Croke Park agreement.
Informed sources said last night that one option open to the Minister would be to seek guidance from the national body overseeing the implementation of the Croke Park deal on whether consultants, by not taking part in the talks, were outside the protections in the accord regarding pay cuts.
Dr Reilly has sought the introduction of greater flexibility and work practice reforms on the part of consultants as an alternative to the introduction of further pay cuts as set out in the programme for government.
Direct talks between health service management and representative bodies for hospital consultants broke down over the summer. Management then referred the issue to the commission under the provisions of the Croke Park agreement. Ultimately, the issue could go to the Labour Court for a binding ruling.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said earlier this week that he wanted the issue of hospital consultant reforms to go to the Labour Court next month.
However, the consultants’ association rejected claims by Dr Reilly that it was vacillating over reforms. Last night the association blamed the HSE for delays in the negotiations.
The association’s secretary general, Martin Varley, said it had been seeking a response from the HSE on some points of fact for more than a month.
Mr Varley said the HSE had responded through the commission yesterday and the association would assess this response in the coming days.
It is understood the consultants had raised three issues with the HSE.
It had sought assurances that the HSE recognised each consultant had an individual contract of employment and that the conciliation process at the commission was non-binding.
It also raised concerns at some of the items on the management’s agenda for reform. Sources said these included Government plans for a new consultant grade and changes to arrangements for historic rest days.
Speaking yesterday, Dr Reilly did not specifically name the consultants’ association. However, it is understood from informed sources that this is who he had in mind.
Dr Reilly said the issue of the reforms was not going to go away and had to be addressed.
However, he wanted to be fair to those consultants who were co-operating by delivering change on the ground, which had resulted in substantial savings since last year. “I don’t want to be hurting those consultants who are delivering while the ones who aren’t delivering get away scot-free,” he said, adding that a cap on pay was not the answer.
Mr Varley said consultants had delivered very significant flexibility since the inception of the Croke Park agreement.
In its reform proposals, health service management sought “demonstrable” changes to work practices, attendance patterns and reporting relationships for hospital consultants.
On the health cutbacks, Dr Reilly said he had no problem in acknowledging that he had failed to communicate to the people who feared the most from the HSE cuts announced last week and who had camped out outside Government Buildings. “So for that I am deeply sorry.”
He said he wanted to ensure patients were protected to the greatest extent so that services were “the last thing affected”.
Smoking now banned everywhere on Letterkenny Hospital grounds
Letterkenny General Hospital’s and St. Conal’s new tobacco free policy has been officially implemented, with staff, patients, visitors, contractors and others banned from smoking anywhere on the hospital grounds, including the car parks.
The ban also extends to all areas of the St Conal’s campus.
The Donegal Smoking Cessation Service is backing the policy, and will be working with patients and others to offer support with quitting, and provide treatment where necessary.
Smoking Cessation Officer Elaine Robinson says it will be a difficult transition for many people, but so far the new rules have been working well
No comments:
Post a Comment