Community Employment
Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act, 2003
Dormant accounts in insurance companies will be
transferred to the state
National Spatial
Strategy
The plan for development which identifies gateways and
hubs
Statute Law Restatement
Act, 2002
This will make it easier to find out what the law
says
Immigration Bill,
2002
New duties on carriers, penalties for employing non
nationals illegally and changes to the Refugee
Act
Redress for
Taxpayers
The Ombudsman's Report on the Revenue Commissioners
refusal to give compensation for overpaid
tax.
Standards for disability
services
Draft standards for disability services have been
issued
Inside: Overpaid tax - proposals for compensation arrangements
Community Employment
The reduction in the number of places on Community Employment (CE) schemes continues to cause concern to voluntary organisations and other groups who use the services of CE workers.
The numbers of CE schemes have been gradually reduced from 1999 when the numbers were close to 40,000. This is because of the reduction in long-term unemployment which is now at 1.2%, compared with 5.5% in 1997. There are currently approximately 22,000 people officially recognised as long term unemployed. The primary purpose of CE is to facilitate long term unemployed people in getting back into the labour force. Because of the way CE operates it has become a very significant support for the community and voluntary sector.
Some of the money saved has been allocated to other Departments for the mainstreaming of some of the work previously done by CE participants and some has been allocated to the Social Economy Programme.
Numbers on CE
| Date | Approximate numbers |
|---|---|
| November 1999 | 36,000 |
| December 2001 | 30,000 |
| May 2002 | 28,000 |
| end 2002 | 25,000 |
It is expected that the average number of CE participants will be 22,000 in 2003 with 20,000 participants at the end of the year. This number may be further reduced if the mainstreaming of CE services proceeds as planned.
It is expected that there will be about 5,000 people in
the Social Economy Programme this year. Other labour market
programmes have approximately the following
numbers:
Local training initiatives - 1,500
Community training - 1,000
Job initiative - 2,700
What projects now get CE support?
In deciding which projects are to continue to get CE support, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) and FÁS have identified the following as priority areas: the local drugs task forces, child care service provision and designated disadvantaged areas covered by the RAPID programme and BMW regions.
Mainstreaming of school services
Services provided to schools by CE participants (mainly caretaking and secretarial services) are being "mainstreamed". This means that 4,500 CE places are abolished and the funding is being transferred to the Department of Education and Science over the period 2001 to 2004.
The Minister for Education and Science has said that there is an agreement with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and FÁS that all school-based CE participants who have a legitimate expectation of spending three years on the scheme will be facilitated to complete their full term.
The money transferred from FÁS to the Department of Education and Science is being used to give grants to primary schools for secretarial and caretaker services. Primary schools are getting €127 per pupil towards the cost of these services in 2003 (€102 in 2002).
The Department has also set aside €2.5 million to deal with difficulties which schools may experience because of the phasing out of CE. Consultants have been engaged to examine the problems being faced by schools in this respect and they are consulting schools about these problems.
Other mainstreaming of services
It is intended to transfer the appropriate funding to the Department of Health and Children for the mainstreaming of CE places in the health services - it is not clear how many CE places are involved. The government is considering the mainstreaming of other services such as environmental services and CE services in Gaeltacht areas. This will involve further reductions in the numbers on CE schemes.
Social Economy Programme
The Social Economy Programme aims to have about 5,000 places this year. Local social economy working groups have been established in the 38 designated disadvantaged Partnership areas and in 16 non-Partnership areas.
Review of Labour Market programmes
There are a number of reviews being conducted at present. These are addressing the two main issues - that is, the contribution of CE and other programmes to getting people back into the labour market and the contribution they make to the community and voluntary sector.
A review of active labour market programmes (which includes CE) is being conducted under the aegis of the Standing Committee on the Labour Market. This is chaired by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) and includes representatives of the community pillar, employers and trade unions, other relevant Departments and FÁS. This review is concerned with re-focusing CE and other Active Labour Market Programmes more closely on meeting the needs of the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups to ensure that the emphasis is on progression to, and meeting the needs of, the open labour market. Policy regarding the participation of older people in CE, particularly those in rural areas will form an important part of this review process.
FÁS is also undertaking an internal review of CE. This review aims to inform the prioritising of activity within CE, taking account of the needs of disadvantaged groups and the provision of services to areas experiencing severe social and economic disadvantage.
Senior officials from a number of Government Departments are considering options for the future operation of CE in view of its contribution to community services.
The Community Training Programme
FÁS intends to carry out a fundamental review of the community training programme (CTP) in consultation with sponsors, participants, employers and relevant Departments. The CTP is operated by FÁS and includes activities which were formerly undertaken as part of the community youth training programme and local training initiatives. The budget for CTP has been reduced by 11% for the year 2003.
Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act, 2003
This Act basically provides for similar arrangements for unclaimed life assurance policies as apply to dormant accounts in financial institutions (the Dormant Accounts Act, 2001).
The Act requires the insurance companies to take steps to identify and contact the owners of the unclaimed policies. If the owners cannot be traced, then the proceeds of the policies must be transferred to the Dormant Accounts Fund. The Dormant Accounts Fund will be managed by the National Treasury Management Agency. This fund is invested and the surplus will be disbursed by the Dormant Accounts Disbursements Board to be used on programmes or projects to help people who are economically, educationally or socially disadvantaged and people with a disability. The Board is in the process of drawing up a plan for the use of the money - this must be approved by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Individuals do not lose their right to get the funds and can claim them at any time. The insurance undertakings will be obliged to maintain a register of unclaimed policies.
The amount of money owing on insurance policies is not always clear as they are designed to cover various risks and may be subject to variable investment returns. The insurance companies will have to calculate the cash value of the policies on the date they are transferred to the Dormant Accounts Fund. They will be required to transfer the investment element of the value only; the insurance element will be retained by the company.
When will policies be considered dormant?
Bank and building society accounts are considered to be dormant where there has been no transactions for 15 years. This is called the "dormancy period". In the case of insurance policies, the dormancy period depends on whether the policy has a specified term or not. If the policy has a specified term, then it will be considered to be dormant if the customer has not been in contact with the insurance company for 5 years from the date the policy matured or the last communication from the customer whichever is later. If the policy has no specified term, then it will be considered dormant if there has been no communication from the customer for 15 years. Dormant policies must be transferred to the fund in April each year - the first transfers should take place in March 2004.
The policies concerned
The scheme will apply to all insurance undertakings in Ireland and to all policies for life assurance which have been taken out by Irish residents except policies which form part of the assets of occupational pensions schemes, group health insurance or disability benefit schemes and sponsored superannuation schemes.
The insurance companies will have to personally contact customers whose policies are worth €500 or more and tell them how to claim the proceeds. They will be obliged to put advertisements in the national papers twice a year to inform those customers whose policies are worth less than €500 - the first such advertisements should be placed in January 2004.
Regulation of financial institutions
The Act provides that the regulatory authority may appoint inspectors to ensure that the various financial institutions comply with the scheme. At present, the regulatory authority for the insurance industry is the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This will change to the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority when it is established (see Relate, November 2002).
The text of the Act is on www.irlgov.ie/oireachtas.
National Spatial Strategy 2002 - 2020
The National Spatial Strategy is a planning framework which aims to achieve a better balance of social, economic and physical development and population growth between the regions. The strategy will guide government departments and agencies in implementing policies and locating investment and will inform regional planning guidelines and city and county development plans.
The present approximate regional population distribution is as follows. The overall figures are for 2002 while the figures for individual cities and towns are from 1996:
| Greater Dublin area | 1.5 million, 1 million in Dublin city and suburbs |
| South West region | 581,000, 325,000 in Cork city and suburbs |
| Border Region | 432,000; 30,000 in Dundalk, 18,500 in Sligo, 12,000 in Letterkenny |
| West region | 380,000; 127,000 in Galway city and suburbs |
| South East region | 424,000; 111,000 in Waterford |
| Mid West region | 340,000; 214,000 in Limerick |
| Midland region | 226,000; 54,000 combined in Athlone, Mullingar, Tullamore, Longford and Portlaoise |
Gateways and Hubs
The strategy identifies specific centres which are to be the drivers of national development.
Gateways have a strategic location, provide national scale social and economic infrastructure and support services. The characteristics of gateways are that they have a large urban population, a wide range of education, including third level, facilities, clusters of large scale enterprises, a regional hospital and a range of cultural amenities. They are also focal points for transport and communications and have integrated public transport services. The existing gateways are Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick/Shannon and Waterford. The strategy identifies four other potential gateways: Dundalk, Sligo, Letterkenny/Derry and Athlone/Mullingar/Tullamore.
Hubs are identified as supporting the national and international role of the gateways and energising smaller towns and rural areas within their area of influence. The characteristics of hubs are that they have an urban population in the 20,000 - 40,000 range and services such as education, enterprise zones and local hospitals.
The strategy names the following as hubs: Cavan, Ennis, Kilkenny, Mallow, Monaghan, Tuam, Wexford, Ballina/Castlebar and Tralee/Killarney.
The strategy sets out the issues that should be addressed by local and regional authorities when they are drawing up strategic plans, the developments which are required in transport and other infrastructure and how each region fits into the national strategy. It also sets out indicative policies in relation to:
- the location of employment-related development
- the location of residential development
- spatial aspects of rural development
- how people access services
- how people can continue to enjoy a high quality environment.
The implementation of the strategy will be led by the Department of the Environment and Local Government and will involve all government departments, state agencies, local and regional authorities and the private sector.
The strategy is available for purchase or may be downloaded from www.environ.ie
Statute Law (Restatement) Act, 2002
If you want to find out what the current law is on any issue, it is quite likely that you will have to read more than one piece of legislation. This is because most laws are amended from time to time and are not usually consolidated.
A "consolidated" law means that existing legislation is put into one Bill and that is then enacted by the Oireachtas. For example, the social welfare legislation was last consolidated in 1993 - the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1993. It has been amended at least once a year since then so, if you want to find out what the present rules are, you need to check the 1993 Act and all the Social Welfare Acts since then. You only need to look at the pre-1993 social welfare legislation if you need to know the rules which applied at times prior to 1993. The income tax legislation was consolidated in 1997 but, again, it has been amended every year since. The Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Bill is currently going through the Oireachtas.
The Statute Law (Restatement) Act, 2002 which was passed in December 2002 provides for a different approach to putting amended legislation in one piece. It provides that the Attorney General may combine amended legislation into a single text and certify that it is a restatement of the law. The difference between a consolidated Act and a restatement is that the consolidated Act has to go through the normal processes in the Oireachtas and the restatement does not. The restatement does not, of course, change the law in any way - it just puts it all together in one text and makes it easier for users.
Finding the law
It has become much easier in recent years to access the numerous laws and statutory instruments which govern us. The Irish Statute Book - a CD-ROM of the Acts of the Oireachtas and the Statutory Instruments for the years 1922 - 2001 can be bought from the Government Publications Sales Office. These Acts and Statutory Instruments are also on the Attorney General's website: www.irishstatutebook.ie
The Acts from 2002 are available on the website of the Houses of the Oireachtas www.irlgov.ie/oireachtas. This site also has all the Bills as they go through the Oireachtas process. You can find out what the original proposals were, how they were amended and then the final version of the Act. This is constantly updated so the current Bills and Acts as they are passed are available there. You can also read the discussion about the legislation in the reports on Dail and Seanad debates on this site. The unamended text of the debates is usually available on the following day.
Court cases which set out common law or interpretations of legislation are also becoming more readily available. The most important Irish court cases and new ones as they become available are on the Irish Legal Information Initiative website at www.irlii.org. For example, the full text of all the judgments in the recent Supreme Court decision on the Irish born children of foreign nationals were available on this site on the evening of the decision.
All of these developments have greatly improved access to the law but there are still a few gaps. Statutory Instruments from the start of 2002 are not available on the web free of charge in a systematic way. Some departments put their statutory instruments on to their websites. Others do not even have information about the existence of any statutory instruments.
Pre-1922 legislation which is still in effect in Ireland is not available in a systematic way either. Some of it may be available on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute site at www.bailii.org but generally only if the particular Act is still in effect in the UK. Some of the relevant Acts are specific to Ireland so they are not generally available.
Redress for Taxpayers
"Redress for Taxpayers" is the title of a special report issued by the Ombudsman to the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The Ombudsman is required to examine the actions or inactions of the public bodies under his remit where those actions or inactions have adversely affected a person and which were or may have been:
- taken without proper authority
- taken on irrelevant grounds
- the result of negligence or carelessness
- based on erroneous or incomplete information
- improperly discriminatory
- based on an undesirable administrative practice, or
- otherwise contrary to fair or sound administration.
When you complain to the Ombudsman and your complaint is investigated, the Ombudsman may issue a recommendation to the public body concerned. Usually that recommendation is accepted by the public body. The Ombudsman does not have the power to directly enforce his recommendations. If the public body does not accept the recommendation, the Ombudsman may make a special report to the Houses of the Oireachtas.
This is the first time that the Ombudsman has issued a report of this nature. It arises from the rejection of his recommendation by the Revenue Commissioners. The Ombudsman considers that this rejection is a direct and unprecedented challenge to his authority.
The Ombudsman investigated a number of complaints in relation to tax. The people concerned had all overpaid tax and were getting a refund. In some cases the refund was limited because the Revenue Commissioners applied rules about the time limit on claims. In all cases, the complainants did not get compensation for the loss of purchasing power on the money involved -they did not get interest on the repayments.
There was a difference of opinion between the Revenue and the Ombudsman on the time limit for claims. The legislation provides for a 5 year limit in some cases and 10 years in others. The Revenue accepted the Ombudsman's recommendations on this issue and allowed the longer time limit.
The Ombudsman held that the overpayments of tax were the result of maladministration and recommended that interest should be payable on the refunds and that there should be a general scheme of compensation where people were getting rebates of tax which had been incorrectly levied. The Ombudsman considered that, in refusing to pay compensation, the Revenue were acting in an "improperly discriminatory manner". Failure to exercise the discretion which he considered was available, where fairness demanded that they did so, was "contrary to fair and sound administration". The failure to provide for the same treatment in similar cases was improperly discriminatory and, therefore, failure to make provision for an appropriate general scheme which allows for such payments was in itself an undesirable administrative practice and is contrary to fair or sound administration.
The Revenue did not accept this recommendation because they argued that this required legislation. The Ombudsman considered that this fell within the Revenue's care and management powers and did not require specific legislation.
There is provision in the tax legislation for interest to be paid to the taxpayer when there is an overpayment of tax in certain circumstances. Broadly, this arises where the refund of tax arises as a result of an appeal or a court action - the rate of interest is set at 0.6% per month in some cases and may be set by the Court in others. Interest is also payable where people pay preliminary tax which is more than the actual tax due for the year in question - the rate of interest is 0.6% per month. There have been some court cases in which the courts have ordered the payment of interest because the non payment of interest would result in unjust enrichment of the Revenue. The Ombudsman considered that this principle should apply to the cases under consideration.
The Revenue did not accept that they were challenging the authority of the Ombudsman. They were not opposed to a compensation scheme but they argued that it needed a statutory basis.
Areas where compensation is payable
The Ombudsman's report outlines areas in which compensation is payable for loss of purchasing power as a result of late payments:
The Department of Social and Family Affairs introduced a scheme of compensation sixteen years ago largely as a result of the Ombudsman's recommendations. That scheme was put on a statutory basis in 2000 (Statutory Instrument 160 of 2000). The compensation may be granted if the Department is making a payment related to previous years and the social welfare recipient was at a disadvantage because the Department itself was solely or significantly responsible for the delay in making the payment. This may happen because the person was given the wrong information by the Department or because the Department overlooked some factor which may have proven the person's eligibility for a payment.
Following the Ombudsman's investigation into the level of unrefunded overpayments on borrowers' loan accounts, local authorities agreed to pay the borrowers compensation for loss of purchasing power.
The Department of Education and Science pays compensation for loss of purchasing power in cases where payment of higher education grants has been delayed.
The report says that the health boards have also agreed to the introduction of a national compensation scheme covering loss of purchasing power. The scheme is "currently being examined by the Department of Health and Children."
Proposals on compensation in the Finance Bill, 2003
The Finance Bill, 2003 contains proposals for establishing a scheme of compensation along the lines recommended by the Ombudsman. The Bill has not yet been discussed by the Dail so the proposals as outlined here may be amended. We will have information on other aspects of the Finance Bill in next month's Relate.
The Finance Bill proposes to establish a general scheme of compensation and also to streamline all the arrangements for repayment of tax.
Time limits for repayments and claims
The time within which claims for refund of tax can be made will be reduced - from the present 5 or 10 years (depending on the circumstances) to 4 years. This provisions applies to all taxes except customs duties. The time limit for the Revenue Commissioners to make enquiries and assessments will also be reduced to 4 years unless there are grounds for suspecting fraud or negligence - in these cases, there is no time limit. This will mean that you must make your claim to any credits or allowances within 4 years of the end of the year in which you were entitled to them or you will lose the entitlement. This is particularly relevant for PAYE taxpayers as they do not fill in tax forms every year and may allow claims such as medical expenses or third level fees to build up.
Compensation
The proposals in the Finance Bill provide for a general scheme of compensation for loss of purchasing power - again, this applies to all taxes except customs duties. This means that the Revenue Commissioners will pay interest on repayments in certain circumstances. You will be entitled to get interest on repayments for the period from six months after the date on which you make the claim to the date the repayment is made. If the Revenue Commissioners have misconstrued the law and you have paid tax which was not due, the interest will be payable from the date the tax was paid to the date of repayment subject to the overall time limit of four years.
This scheme will replace all the existing arrangements for paying interest on repayments. The interest rate on repayments will be reduced from 0.0161% per day to 0.011% (from 6% to 4% annualised).
Meanwhile Revenue has set up a Working Group to examine an administrative scheme of compensation for redress. This would arise where Revenue made a mistake and the taxpayer loses directly as a result or has to incur costs to get this corrected. The Implementation Group of Secretaries General has also been asked by the Taoiseach to review the legislative, policy and practical issues which arise, when considering how to further develop and refine the forms of redress available to the citizen when dealing with the Civil Service.
Immigration Bill, 2002
The Immigration Bill, 2002, has been passed by the Seanad and has yet to be discussed in the Dáil. The main aim of the Bill is to ensure that people arriving in Ireland from places other than the UK have valid travel documents with them. The Bill also includes some amendments to the Refugee Act, 1996 (which has already been amended by the Immigration Act, 1999 - a suitable case for a restatement) and makes it an offence for employers to employ non nationals who do not have work permits.
Travel documents
When the Bill is enacted, carriers such as airlines and ferry operators and cars, buses and lorries using the ferries will have a statutory obligation to ensure that their passengers have appropriate travel documents. (At present, many carriers require some form of identification for passengers, including passengers to and from the UK. This arises because of security concerns and is not a statutory obligation.)
Over the past 5 years, an average of 45,000 people a year immigrated into Ireland (about 24,000 emigrated). Many of these are Irish people returning but a significant number are non EU nationals, for example, 36,000 work permits were issued in 2002. Significant numbers of people are refused permission to land in Ireland - 5,852 in 2000. Nearly half of those did not have a proper passport and about a quarter did not have the required visa.
The Bill provides that the carrier must ensure that anyone who wishes to land (including Irish nationals) in Ireland (from other than the UK) is presented to an Immigration Officer and must comply with any directions given by the Officer. There is a further obligation on the carriers in respect of non-nationals - they must have the appropriate travel documents with them. The major effect of these provisions is that carriers bringing passengers to Ireland will be obliged to check travel documents at the start of the journey. In practice, many carriers are already doing this.
The appropriate travel documents are passports or EU member states' identity cards and visas for those nationals who need them. The non nationals who do not need visas are set out in the Aliens (Visas) (No. 2) Order, 2001.
In the case of all carriers bringing passengers to Ireland (including from the UK), an Immigration Officer will be able to request a list the names and nationality of the passengers and details of the crew members.
Refugee Act
Some amendments to the Refugee Act are also proposed in the Bill. It is proposed that the chair of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal will be a member of the Refugee Advisory Board. The Board is designed to bring together all the various groups dealing with asylum seekers and refugees. The Board's purpose is to monitor the operation of the asylum system. It has not yet been appointed.
At present, an asylum seeker may not be identified in the media without the consent of the Minister. This was originally intended as a protection for the privacy of asylum seekers - particularly those whose families might have been in danger - but has been criticised by journalists and others. It is proposed to repeal this provision. The individual asylum seeker's consent will still be required.
There are new provisions which will result in a refugee application being deemed to be withdrawn if the applicant does not abide by various rules.
Employment of Non Nationals
The Bill will make it an offence for a non national to be employed without the necessary work permit or authorisation and for an employer to employ a non national without the necessary documents. Conviction could result in a fine of €3,000 for the worker and up to €250,000 for the employer. The Bill also provides for Gardai to enter and search premises where it is suspected that non nationals are illegally employed.
National Standards for Disability Services
The National Disability Authority (NDA) and the Department of Health and Children are in the process of developing national standards for disability services. These standards will apply to services such as day services, residential and respite services, training services and home support services which are funded by the Department of Health and Children for people with intellectual disabilities, autism, physical and sensory disabilities.
Following a consultation process, draft standards have been developed. The NDA will be holding meetings throughout the country during March to get feedback on the draft standards. The draft is available on the website www.nda.ie.
