Results 21,641-21,660 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Family Income Supplement (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I share the Deputy's concern. As is the case with any in-work payment, there is a worry that low pay might be subsidised and facilitated. That is a big issue in the United Kingdom where I think they have very much gone down that road. We always need to guard against that. FIS is, of course, about more than pay. It is also about family size, so there are people on low pay who do not...

Other Questions: Family Income Supplement (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I very much agree with what the Deputy has said. I look forward to engaging with the committee on this and talking to the various spokespeople in the run-up to the budget.

Other Questions: Unemployment Levels (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The official measure of unemployment comes from the quarterly national household survey. The most recent data show that unemployment has fallen from a peak of 15% in 2012 to 6.7% at the end of 2016. Numbers at work have increased from 1.825 million at the start of 2012 to 2.048 million at the end of last year, which is an increase of almost 250,000 people. Within the south east,...

Other Questions: Unemployment Levels (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I did not claim, nor do I believe, that everything is rosy in the garden of Wexford. That is not what I said. I appreciate that there are long-standing problems in Wexford. As Deputy Walllace knows, I lived there for a few months while I was a hospital doctor. I got to know the county and liked it a lot. It has a lot to offer. It has not done as well is it should have done for decades...

Other Questions: Unemployment Levels (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: No one thing will solve all our problems. However, the vast majority of people in Wexford, certainly any I have talked to, welcome the substantial investment that has been made in the road network in Wexford including that Gorey is bypassed and we are building new roads for Enniscorthy and New Ross. Roads help to bring economic development into a county. The national broadband plan is...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know why that is so. The Deputy might pass that letter on to me. I would be interested to see it.

Other Questions: Social Insurance (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It may concern a pre-1995 public servant who pays 0.9% rather than 15%. If the contribution is less than one fifteenth of the normal contribution, the benefits will be less.

Other Questions: Social Insurance (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 45 and 46 together. PRSI is just one element of a statutory payroll deduction system that includes three parts, income tax, USC, and PRSI, which between them have three different sets of thresholds and entry points, seven bands and eight rates. Given its complexity, this is a system that most people find difficult to understand. It is expensive to...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will have to get back to the Deputy with the details on that. The self-employed will be able to apply for invalidity pension but not illness benefit. There is a difference between the schemes but the criteria for the self-employed will be the same as for employees for invalidity pension. The costs for 2017 are €1.5 million; €23 million for 2018 and €38 million for...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: In response to Deputy Penrose first, it does not have to be the case but it has always been the case that the benefit is aligned with the leave. If somebody gets X number of weeks statutory maternity leave we will match that with the benefit. I had intended to do the same. Of course, the money does not come from my pot. It comes from the Social Insurance Fund so that has to come from...

Other Questions: State Pensions (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: 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. Where a person exits the workforce before reaching State pension age they may apply for either the jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance schemes. Jobseeker’s payments are paid to eligible...

Other Questions: State Pensions (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: There are anomalies. The Government made the right decision to increase the pension age. It might not be popular but it was necessary. The State pension age in the 1970s was 70. Average life expectancy in those days was 68 for a man and 72 for a woman so people paid into the pension system for 40 or 50 years and retired for a few years. We are now in a very different situation where...

Other Questions: State Pensions (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am aware of the problem. We are looking for a solution precisely because of the reason mentioned by the Deputy, namely, the fact that this issue will become twice as frequent in 2021 and three times as frequent in 2028 so it would be wise of us to find a solution as quickly as possible. Admittedly, it certainly would have been wiser when the change was made a few years ago to think...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The State's public employment service is managed by my Department and delivered directly by its own Intreo service, as well as by contracted private companies such as the two JobPath companies, Seetec Limited and Turas Nua Limited, the local employment service companies and job club providers. The Department has contracts in place with in excess of 60 companies for the provision of these...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am certainly aware of allegations of cherry-picking but they do not stack up because it is my Department that decides who is referred to JobPath. This is very different to the model used in the UK, which has been much criticised and where cherry-picking was possible. We decide who is referred and we make sure it is a decent spread of people with different types of needs. I do not...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The evidence that exists, which is there in the first quarterly report on the Department of Social Protection website, and there will be another quarterly report out in the next couple of weeks, shows very high levels of customer satisfaction. It also shows that people who have been referred to Seetec and Turas Nua are more likely to be in employment and to gain employment than a similar...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Central Statistics Office latest monthly figures report that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for persons aged between 15 and 24 was 13.9% in March 2017. This is a significant decrease of more than five percentage points, from 19% in March 2016. Lower weekly rates for younger jobseekers were first introduced in 2009 and further extended in subsequent budgets. The rationale...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have the report so I cannot bring it forward at this stage. Once I have it I will certainly read it and bring it forward then. Changes I am making at the moment which the Deputy may be aware of include the opening up of the community employment, CE, scheme to younger people by reducing the minimum age from 25 to 21 for all schemes. It is already the case for child care and one or...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 43, 50 and 70 together. As the Deputies are aware, my Department provides a range of activation supports and programmes catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. These include programmes such as Community Employment (CE) and Tús. These schemes provide part-time temporary work in local...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Reports (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: An interdepartmental working group, comprising officials from the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners, has been examining the issue of disguised or bogus self-employment. To inform the work of the group, a public consultation on the use of intermediary-type employment structures and self-employment arrangements and their impact on tax...