Results 21,081-21,100 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Poverty Data (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: They are in negative wealth. One thing I hope the Deputy would welcome from the SILC report- I did not hear him mention it although I know he has an interest in economic equality, particularly in income inequality - is the most interesting fact that our Gini coefficient has gone down and that income inequality in Ireland is at its lowest since 2009. Ireland is becoming more equal and I hope...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The total number of 65 year olds currently in receipt of jobseeker's allowance is 2,583, a further 2,635 are in receipt of jobseeker's benefit and 3,193 were signing on for jobseeker's credits at the end of January 2017. There is no statutory retirement age in the State, and the age at which employees retire is a matter for the contract of employment between them and their employers....

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I reiterate that there is no mandatory retirement age in Ireland. Other countries have had a mandatory retirement age and have abolished it. Some people are required to retire from particular jobs at a certain age. The Deputy is right when she says that some of them do not want to do so. Quite frankly, I do not think they should have to. Many people in their 60s who have lots of skills...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Neither issue is directly under my remit. Public sector employment is a matter for the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. Employment law and employment equality law are matters for the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Fitzgerald. We are all part of the same Government. We need to join this up better. I think this matter should have been dealt with when the State...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Obviously, it is correct. The Deputies should think about it logically.

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: If somebody stays in a senior post in a school or a hospital for an additional five years, somebody else will have to wait longer to replace him or her. I do not think that matters. We do not disagree on this. I do not think people should be required by contract or by law to retire at 65. The age of 65 is not old anymore and it is a long time since it was. We need to get to grips with...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The overall concern in recent years has been to protect the value of weekly social welfare pension rates. Annual expenditure on pensions is approximately €7 billion and is increasing at an approximate rate of €200 million, or €1 billion every five years. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other payments is critical in protecting people from poverty in old...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: According to the most recent figures available to me, 43,609 recipients of the State contributory pension are in the rate bands affected by the changes introduced in 2012, 57.8% of whom are women and 42.2% of whom are men. I do not have data on how many people are on alternative payments as a result of these changes. It would be difficult to estimate such a number with accuracy. More...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I apologise if I baffled the Deputy with my answer but I thought it entirely clear and factual.

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The way we calculate the contributory State pension is very odd. If a person has 520 contributions, or approximately ten years of contributions, he or she could potentially get a full pension. If a person works for nine years and 11 months, he or she could get nothing. There is an averaging system that is very odd because it works particularly against people who started work early but who...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: There are a couple of issues. Anybody who has made 520 contributions or worked ten years from a working life of 40, 45 or 50 years is entitled to a State contributory pension. Those who did not work for that time may not be. What we had previously and we still have is a position where there is very little correlation between the contributions made and the pension that one gets at the end....

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: If we do so, we must cost the option. All of these issues have a cost but that is the approach we are taking.

Other Questions: State Pensions Reform (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The State pension system is very effective in ensuring that pensioners have a decent standard of living and results in more gender-equal outcomes in Ireland than in most European countries. The gender poverty gap for those over 65 in Ireland, using European Union, EU, figures, is 2.1%, compared with 4.2% across the EU as a whole. There are a number of reasons for this. First, other EU...

Other Questions: State Pensions Reform (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have a principled problem with there being a universal tier one pension paid to everyone in the way child benefit is, with a tier two pension - a top-up, if one likes - based totally on contributions made by a worker. Were one to design a pension system from scratch, one might very well do that and it would be a very good approach. As I mentioned, the difficulty is we estimate it...

Other Questions: State Pensions Reform (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have read the Age Action Ireland report but I cannot recall the author. I intend to deal with this by moving from a system of calculating a contributory pension that is unfair to a system that is simple and fair and based on contributions. Pretty much anybody with a contributory or occupational pension has it calculated based on the number of years at work or in which contributions were...

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have allocated an additional 500 places on the RSS as part of the social welfare budget package for 2017. This is the first increase in places since 2006 and will expand the overall number of participants from 2,600 to 3,100. I also announced a €5 increase in the weekly personal rate of payment for RSS participants from March this year. The 500 additional RSS places have been...

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The RSS is very different from the CE schemes. People on CE schemes are supposed to be looking for regular employment. People on the RSS already have regular employment as farmers or fishermen. Given that they cannot derive an adequate income from their regular employment, RSS is an additional top up to the income they make from farming or fishing. They are very different schemes for very...

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: More lone parents and people with disabilities would be more likely to take up a CE scheme if they received €30, €40 or €50. That is my opening pitch for the budget.

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have an open mind on it and the issue of older workers arises frequently in this context. It is also an issue for younger people. I always get Tús and CE mixed up on the minimum age criteria. The minimum age is 25 for one of the schemes and 21 for the other. We have young people who have spent a year on JobPath and have not got a job. It would make more sense for them to move to...

Other Questions: JobPath Implementation (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 43 together. Many CE schemes are run by private companies. I am not sure what the Deputy referred to. The activation supports and services which are available to those who are long-term unemployed include the JobPath employment activation service and work experience and training schemes such as CE and Tús. The JobPath service procured by...