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A question for the minister?
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The Irish Examiner is running a series at the moment of putting questions to various Government ministers. The minister facing questions for the next edition is Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin.
Do you have a question you would like to put to Minister Hanafin? Send me an email (gavin AT gavinsblog DOT com) or leave a comment. A name with a town/county would be cool too.
Your question may be put to the minister and published…. 
Does she intend addressing the problem of the childcare-allowance being used by foreign nationals from the Accession states who do not have children with them in this country? From my perspective, the measure was intended to assist Irish parents with the high cost of childcare, which is obviously a LOT cheaper back home in Poland etc.
Can she indicate what costings or assessments have been done to date to show how people with intellectual disabilities in long term care settings will be able to clothe, amongst other things, themselves once the new Residential Charges regime sequestering either €120 or the weekly income of that person less €35 from their current social welfare payments comes into effect?
Daniel Sullivan, Limerick
Good stuff guys. Any more questions? Surely someone out there wants to grill the minister?
Grill her? Turtle in the half shell over a barbie….
do plans to link single-parent allowance to jobs and marriage (I think the word “values” was quoted in relation to this reform) not represent a politicization of welfare?
It strikes me that tying payments to values like relationships or marrigage is a highly political move affecting the hardest up in our society and limiting the individuals privacy. FAmily welfare may well be a legitimate policy area for government but it strikes me that that is a different policy area to single-parents, who are often the worst victims of the poverty trap.
do plans to link single-parent allowance to jobs and marriage (I think the word “values” was quoted in relation to this reform) not represent a politicization of welfare?
It strikes me that tying payments to values like relationships or marrigage is a highly political move affecting the hardest up in our society and limiting the individuals privacy. FAmily welfare may well be a legitimate policy area for government but it strikes me that that is a different policy area to single-parents, who are often the worst victims of the poverty trap.
link
sorry, the links
http://url.ie/ko6
Cian, interesting turnaround when you think that Seamus Brennan said that he intended seeking to scrap the constraints that force fathers not to live with the mothers of their children in case they lose the allowance. Was he in fact saying much the same thing or was he planning on allow families come together while she intends to force them together? Hard to know really from a couple of paragraphs in that article.
The Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996 recommended a Cost of Disability Payment. To date there have been no additional allowances introduced to cover the extra costs of disability. Those people with significant disabilities who are in employment have no extra payments or tax allowances (beyond the back to work allowance) and there is a disincentive to work due to this (and many other factors!).
also
Internationally people with disabilities are able to manage their own assistance packages receiving payments directly (from social security rather than health agencies) and allowing them to choose the type of assistance they receive. Does the Minister agree that this social model of disability support should be introduced in Ireland?