Results 2,141-2,160 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I understand that the Deputy is concerned in particular about the current arrangements applying in the case of old age pension where a landholder leases land or is otherwise in possession of land which is fallow or idle. While there were no specific measures regarding the leasing of land in the recent budget, it contained a number of important measures which are designed to target resources...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The one-parent family payment, OPFP, acts as a safety net for people where there is inadequate maintenance, where maintenance payments are irregular, or where efforts to secure maintenance in the first place fail. Applicants for OPFP are required to make ongoing efforts to look for adequate maintenance from their former spouses, or, in the case of unmarried applicants, the other parent of...

Written Answers — Emigrant Support Services: Emigrant Support Services (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The role of my Department in supporting Irish emigrant groups abroad has centred on providing good quality, clear and comprehensive information for Irish people who wish to return to live in Ireland. My Department ensures that such information for our emigrants abroad is available by funding and supporting the various voluntary agencies involved in this work. In carrying out these functions...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of the scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes a basic income support payment and a rent supplement payment, is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, HSE. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims. In calculating the amount of supplementary welfare allowance payable to any...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Social welfare programmes aim to be responsive to the needs of those who depend on income maintenance support while providing incentives to assist people to become more independent financially, particularly through employment. A number of measures have been introduced in recent years to remove disincentives to taking up employment and to assist in the transition from welfare to work. These...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Further to the previous parliamentary question referred to, the appeals officer of the social welfare appeals office who decided the case was Ms Una Reidy. Also in attendance at the oral hearing in this case were the appellant, his wife, his daughter and a note-taker, Ms Julie Gallagher, staff officer.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: In the case of contributory pensions and most other contributory and non-contributory social welfare payments, a qualified adult allowance, QAA, is payable in respect of a spouse or partner who is wholly or mainly maintained by the claimant. Account is taken of the spouse or partner's income for the purposes of determining whether the spouse is wholly or mainly dependent. A spouse or...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity-gas allowance, telephone allowance and television licence schemes, is generally available to people living permanently in the State, aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to carers and people with disabilities under the age of 66 who...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Widows and widowers can qualify for one of a number of different schemes depending on their particular circumstances. The contributory widow's-widower's pension is available to those who satisfy the necessary PRSI contribution conditions, either on their own record or that of the deceased spouse. Those qualifying for this benefit are not subject to any means test. Those without the necessary...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities programme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. As the Deputy may be aware, I reduced the qualifying period for access to the third level option of the scheme to 12...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The main purpose of the EU and bilateral social security arrangements is to protect the pension rights of persons who have paid social insurance contributions in Ireland and have reckonable periods of insurance in another country. The arrangements protect pension rights by allowing reckonable periods in each country to be taken into account in either country in determining entitlement to...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Missionaries who have made sufficient social insurance contributions can qualify for an old age contributory pension. Contributory pensions are payable abroad and so missionaries who qualify and who chose to settle overseas can receive a payment. Non-contributory pensions are only payable where a person is resident in this country. Accordingly, missionaries who return here and who satisfy the...

Written Answers — Tax and Social Welfare Codes: Tax and Social Welfare Codes (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Ireland has social security agreements with seven countries Austria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the USA and Switzerland. These agreements came into effect between 1989 and 1999, except for that with the UK which came into effect in 1971. Ireland also has a bilateral understanding with Quebec since 1 October 1994. In the case of Austria, Switzerland and the United...

Written Answers — Civil Service Travel Scheme: Civil Service Travel Scheme (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The travel pass scheme was introduced by the Minister for Finance on 1 January 2002 in respect of permanent employees. Temporary employees, therefore, cannot be accommodated under the scheme. My Department operates a flexible approach to the scheme whereby permanent employees of this Department can apply for an annual travel pass at any time throughout the year on a monthly basis. For the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (9 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A claim for maternity benefit was received from the woman in question on 18 October 2005. Her expected date of confinement was certified as 22 December 2005, with her maternity leave due to commence on 5 December 2005. Details included on her application form indicated that she was working with her husband and that PRSI contributions had been paid in respect of that employment at PRSI Class...

Rent Supplement: Motion. (14 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I want to refer to matters raised by Deputy Gilmore and others. There is a case for reforming rent allowance because the reality is that the State is paying approximately €400 million per year on a temporary basis to house 60,000 people. The questions arising from that issue are obvious. For example, would it be preferable to put that money into permanent housing? If one went to the local...

Rent Supplement: Motion. (14 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I will examine the issue, as I see the point the Deputy has made. More than €400 million is spent under the scheme per annum. The number of recipients of rent supplement has almost doubled in a decade. In 1995, when the scheme began, the figure was 32,000 but today it is more than 60,000. Of the 60,173 people in the scheme, more than half, or 33,000, have been in it for 18 months or more,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Diet supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Any person who is receiving a social welfare or health service executive payment, who has been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition and who is unable to provide for his or her...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (14 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 413 and 414 together. As part of the decentralisation programme announced in December 2003, my Department is due to decentralise its headquarters to Drogheda. The indicative time for completion of accommodation in Drogheda is 2009. There are five posts at assistant secretary and one at deputy secretary level in my Department. In the context of a general...