Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated at 10.40am
THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection will need extra resources to pay for management of the €100 household grant for Irish Water customers, RTÉ News has revealed this morning.
The broadcaster obtained a letter written by the Secretary General of the Department of Social Protection, under Freedom of Information rules.
In it, the official says Joan Burton’s department will need further resources, including more staff, to manage the payment to Irish Water customers.
The letter to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was written last November, RTÉ reports.
“…resourcing the processing/payment of WCG applications in 2015 and beyond needs to be addressed and cannot be accommodated from within the existing resource/admin budget allocation,” the letter says.
The Secretary General adds that it is “critical that we advance this project quickly”.
Additional funds would be needed to cover the cost of writing to every household in the country, and advertisements telling people how to apply.
New regime
Environment Minister Alan Kelly confirmed last November that every household in the country will be entitled to a €100 rebate from the Department of Social Protection if they sign up with the utility.
The Government’s revised charging scheme was announced in the wake of a series of large-scale public protests.
Independent TD Catherine Murphy said she wasn’t surprised at the revelations.
“Every household in the country that is a primary residence — that is people who are renting or people who are homeowners — has an entitlement to apply for this. That’s 1.65 million,” Murphy told Morning Ireland.
“The Government estimates that that 1.3 million households will apply for it. That’s a wider — as they would say themselves — client base than any other social welfare payment, and it was very obvious that there would be a need for extra resources within the department.”
Murphy said the set up of Irish Water had been “an absolute fiasco from beginning to end”.
In a statement, the Department of Social Protection said staff were “still assessing the resource requirements in respect of new initiatives for the payments system and work is ongoing”.
“Dealing with resource requirement issues is a routine feature of Government work. The Department processes approximately 85 million payments a year and anticipates no issues in processing the Water Conservation Grant.”
Junior Minister at the Department Kevin Humphreys said people needed to know how to claim the €100 payment, and that there was nothing unusual about the request from the Secretary General.
“I don’t see any excessive costs in this, but we’re in the process of making sure that we can make that payment in September,” he told RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke.
He said that whatever resources were needed would be put in place, and that it would be done as cost-effectively as possible.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
All the focus on Syria has distracted people from the fact that IS is now in Tunisia, Libya, Sinai in Egypt, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Stopping them is like playing whack-a-mole.
May I know where did Bangladesh come from and what do you know about this country? Have you ever been there or any other Asian country?
I was going to answer your first question but then you added two such stupid questions that it’s clear you’re not interested in the answer. Presumably your agenda is something along the lines of ‘only people who pass my test of knowledge of X country may comment on anything to do with it.’ Yawn.
You are one of those living in a small country like Ireland and never been outside of your town. You can keep your answer to yourself, because I know you know nothing pathatic lonely guy.
They really do hate their own more than us.
No they don’t.
“their own”, you are saying!? do you even know what you are talking about?
Religion of Peace at it again.
Against other Muslims, showing yet again that tarring all muslims with the same brush is thick
In their eyes they’re not Muslims. They’re something worse. Apostates. Fit for slaughter and subjugation.
Budget Travel are doing cheap deals, for summer breaks in Tunisia.
Sun, sand, sea, and slaughter.
Couldnt visit a nicer country and people, its a shame to see it degenerating in front of our eyes
Assumed it would be the Mormons causing trouble again till I saw the word jihad. If not for the constant reassurances that this sort of behaviour has nothing to do with Islam from NGOs and the like I might be led to believe that this carnage is fuelled by Muslim beliefs, in the manner those who keep conducting these attacks repeatedly tell us.
Islam was never a religion of peace. Islam is a religion of fighting. No one should believe that the war that we are raging is the war of the islamic state, it is a war of all Muslims, but the Islamic state is spearheading it. ——-Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS, May 2104.
Kill the lot of them Jihadis..trying to turn Tunisia into a s*ithole just like Libya has been under their control.
Take note minister of justice…this is how its done,train,equip,arm and preposition elite units KNOWING they are coming and not whinging afterwards that they didnt give your commissioner “intelligence” in advance.
I blame SF for this.
Don’t be silly, maybe in Colombia or Spain
Can’t we all be friend s?
Tunisia..instead of hiding behind budget constraints,triple lock mechanisms,”smart policing”,political correctness dug almost 200k of real border and supplied their police and army with modern weaponry…thus,they won this one.feel stupid now francis??
The British, Americans and French just could nt wait to overthrow Gaddafi, now they have created a new base for the jihadists even closer to home.
Gaddafi could see it coming and they mocked and laughed at him…
have your say