Results 21,901-21,920 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department is committed to modernising its service delivery and developing systems to support its functions. Responsibility for Community Employment (CE) transferred from FÁS to my Department in January 2012 and continued to be delivered on a SOLAS IT platform. The CE programme is now being integrated onto my Department’s IT infrastructure. This will have a positive impact...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Applications (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: An application for jobseeker’s allowance in the case of the person concerned is currently being processed. The person concerned submitted an application for supplementary welfare allowance in the interim and was awarded payment with effect from 3/5/17. She will be informed of the outcome of her jobseeker’s allowance application as soon as it has been processed. I hope this...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The National Pensions Framework (2010) proposed that a “Total Contributions Approach” (TCA) should replace the yearly average approach, for new pensioners from 2020. The aim of this approach is to make the rate of contributory pension more closely match contributions made by a person. Officials of my Department are currently working on the detailed development of the TCA with...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Since 1961, when contributory pensions were introduced, the average contributions test has been used in calculating the rate of pension entitlement. Entitlement is banded, with the maximum rate payable to those with a yearly average of 48-52 contributions, and the minimum rate payable to those with a yearly average in the range of 10-14 contributions per year. Even if someone has only 10...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department, like all Government Departments and agencies, is required to operate within a staff ceiling figure and a commensurate administrative staffing budget, which for this Department has involved reductions in staff. The staffing needs for all areas within the Department are continuously reviewed, taking account of workloads, management priorities and the ongoing need to respond...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The total spent by my Department on legal and other fees in the specified legal case amounted to €167,784.40. Details of this expenditure are set out in the following table. This expenditure does not include subsequent mediation costs. Body Amount Ernst & Young €36,324.82 Aon Hewitt €5,912.61 Square Mile Consultants €119,656.50 Aon Hewitt /Philip...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting some 43,600 recipients for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017. A county analysis of recipient numbers by county as at December 2016 is provided in the following tabular statement. Expenditure under the scheme for 2016 was some €275 million, a breakdown of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The activation supports and services available to those who are long term unemployed include work experience and training schemes such as Community Employment (CE), TÚS, Gateway and Rural Social Scheme (RSS). In this case, the primary sponsor, Udaras na Gaeltachta, Gaoth Barra has 25 CE participant places and one supervisor position. The Halla Naomh Bride project, which is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Benefit Applications (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my Department received an application for carer’s benefit from the person concerned on 18 April 2017. The application is currently being processed and once completed, the person concerned will be notified directly of the outcome. I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support, which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependants and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are currently over 57,000 families with almost 127,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support, which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependants and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are currently over 57,000 families with almost 127,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy will be aware, 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 JobPath, Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Club providers. These services have been designed by the Department to augment and complement one another, to ensure the best outcomes possible...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 302 and 303 together. Nearly 950,000 entitlement reviews and investigations were conducted across the Department’s schemes in 2016. These reviews yielded €506 million in control savings for the year. Reviews and investigations of entitlements are conducted by social welfare staff, social welfare inspectors and inspectors assigned to the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Applications (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Letterkenny Intreo Centre has advised that the person concerned was issued a cheque payment on 2ndMay 2017 for the total amount of jobseekers benefit due to her for the Easter holiday period.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 305 and 306 together. The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) is an income support initiative which provides part-time employment opportunities in community and voluntary organisations for farmers or fishermen who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and underemployed in their primary occupation. The RSS is a supplementary income support scheme and is not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the Deputy is referring to my reply to question number 599 of 2 May 2017. As part of the roll-out of the Public Services Card (PSC), my Department introduced facial recognition software in March 2013 to support its efforts to combat identity fraud and impersonation. This software is used to ensure that multiple or fraudulent identities can be detected at the point where a person...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Data (10 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As provided for in Budget 2012, from September 2012, new rate bands for State pension (contributory) were introduced. This resulted in one of the bands (in respect of those with a yearly average of 20-47 contributions) being replaced with three bands (in respect of yearly averages of 40-47, 30-39, and 20-29 respectively). These additional bands more accurately reflect the social insurance...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Data (10 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: A number of significant reforms to State pensions were introduced in recent years which have allowed my Department maintain the value of the State pension, and indeed increase it in the last two Budgets. With effect from April 2012, the number of paid contributions required to qualify for a State Pension increased from 260 paid contributions to 520 paid contributions. At the time this...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Illness Benefit Eligibility (10 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: A medical report was issued from the Department on 13 January 2017 to the person concerned in relation to his claim for Illness Benefit. The report was completed by his GP. and returned to the Department on 27 January 2017. It has been reviewed by one of the Department’s Medical Assessors and the person concerned still remains eligible for Illness Benefit and will not be required to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Insolvency Payments Scheme Payments (10 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 149 to 151, inclusive, together. The purpose of the redundancy payments scheme is to compensate employees for the loss of their jobs when the employer is unable to pay statutory redundancy due to financial difficulties or insolvency. The purpose of the insolvency payments scheme is to pay outstanding wage-related entitlements due to employees in the event of...