Results 20,181-20,200 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I have absolutely no doubt that there will be a haggle over money. Of course, there will be. Anytime one discusses anything with any professional body or interest group, it is going to try to maximise the fees its members receive from the taxpayer. Having a definite commencement date in law would strengthen its hand. It would be able to state there was a date laid down in law by which it...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: JobPath is a relatively new approach whereby the Department has procured additional resources under contract to enable us to provide high-quality case managed employment support services for people who are long-term unemployed. JobPath supplements the internal case management capacity of the Department's Intreo service and the local employment service. In the past year this additional...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The complaints process is as follows: a person initially makes a complaint to the service provider and if he or she is not happy with the outcome, he or she can make a further complaint to my Department. That is the number of 145 to which I referred. It is possible that many of those who have contacted the Deputy have not made a complaint to the Department or JobPath, but they can do so, if...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I am unsure what the Deputy means by "retaliation". If people are concerned that their payments will be reduced, that cannot be done. Neither of the JobPath providers has the authority to do so. It can only be done by my officials. Sometimes people who attend social welfare offices and Intreo centres have complaints. This may be down to personal interactions, for example, how they have...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate that. That may be an issue particular to the office involved, for example, and may be due to its size. That is the type of complaint - about the quality of the service provided, respecting people's privacy and so on - that we want to hear because we might be able to act and make improvements to the office, etc.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Law Acts are within the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality. They place a legal obligation on parents to maintain their children, regardless of whether they are the parents in receipt of welfare payments. In cases where the family unit has broken down, these obligations continue to apply and the relevant maintenance payments can be arranged either directly or through...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: With respect, I think the Deputy is getting a few things mixed up. Many lone parents are not in receipt of social welfare payments. This is primarily a matter of family law and under family law, regardless of anything to do with social welfare, people have an obligation to provide for maintenance of their children. That is a civil matter between the two parents concerned. What the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: If that is the case it was done mistakenly and we want to know.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Any of those things are principally matters of family law. I am no expert in the UK system but at one stage there was a child support agency, a government agency that would, for want of a better term, go after fathers and get the money from them. If we were to make a decision to go down that road it would be a point of family law it would not be something that would be exclusive to social...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Expenditure on pensions, at approximately €7 billion, is the largest block of expenditure in my Department, representing some 35% of its expenditure. Demographic change alone increases this by about €200 million a year. Maintaining the rate of the State pension is critical to protecting older people from poverty. Entitlement levels are calculated by means of a yearly average...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The figure of €290 million is the maximum amount estimated so that would be the case if we took existing pensioners and recalculated what they might be entitled to under a new set of rules. There would almost certainly be demands to do that. The rules could be changed prospectively but I think those who are already retired would want the rules changed for them as well. The Deputy is...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: There is no compulsory retirement age in Ireland so there is no law saying that anyone has to retire at a particular age. However, for some people, their contracts with their employers require that they retire at 65. Many, though not all, of those people are public servants. The interdepartmental group has already produced its report, which was published some months ago before the summer...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Both the jobseeker's benefit and the jobseeker's allowance schemes provide significant support to individuals so that they can work up to three days a week and still retain access to a reduced jobseeker's payment. As of the end of September, there were approximately 59,000 jobseekers casually employed in this way. Any changes to the current criteria, such as moving to an hours-based...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: We definitely have a problem here and it will take between now and possibly the next budget to figure out a solution. Employers contact me all the time saying that they have staff and would like staff to work more hours but staff will not work more hours because of the way the social welfare rules work and because they would lose their payments. At the same time, there are people earning...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Only people who are long-term in receipt of a jobseeker's payment are referred to JobPath. Accordingly, someone who has been refused access to a jobseeker's payment by definition cannot be referred to JobPath. In order to qualify for a jobseeker's payment, a person must meet certain conditions, including that they are unemployed and are available for, capable of and genuinely seeking...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I might just take 30 seconds because I am about to give the Deputy the answer. I am sorry I did not give the answer in the first part. To date 60,000 jobseekers on the live register have engaged with JobPath. Of these, 499 are on a reduced rate, of whom only 96 are under 25 years of age. Again these figures are under 1% of the people engaged with JobPath. Given these relatively low levels...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I have not.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I thought the Deputy said the Dáil for a second.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Somebody who had previously been working and making contributions, in the first instance, should be entitled to jobseeker's benefit, which cannot be cut. That is a legal entitlement for six to nine months depending on the person's length of contributions. Only jobseeker's allowance can be reduced. The penalty rates are being used more frequently than they were in the past. That is not...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I reiterate what I said earlier. One of the conditions of jobseeker's allowance is to be actively seeking full-time employment. Other people, who go out to work and pay their taxes, expect those taxes to be used to support people who need that support and are genuinely seeking work. People who have particular difficulties can apply for other payments, including illness payments. On 17...