Results 2,181-2,200 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 426, 435 and 439 together. 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Disability benefit is a social insurance payment made to people who are unable to work due to illness. To satisfy the PRSI contribution conditions and to underpin the contributory principle underlying the social insurance system, a person must have paid 52 contributions since entry into insurable employment, with 39 contributions paid or credited in the relevant contribution year and 13...

Written Answers — Public Procurement Policy: Public Procurement Policy (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: As I indicated in my reply to Question No. 819 of 25 January last, the Department of Social and Family Affairs is drawing up a procurement strategy, a key component of which will be an annual procurement plan, which will support the procurement strategy to ensure the Department continues to maximise the potential to deliver value for money in the area of procurement.

Written Answers — Departmental Contracts: Departmental Contracts (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Department of Social and Family Affairs has a dedicated procurement section that advises on all aspects of procurement practice within the Department. The section maintains close contact with the Government contracts committee and the Department of Finance's national public procurement policy unit to ensure that the procurement advice that is provided is of the highest standard. It also...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: There is no provision for a statutory lump sum payment to be made on cessation of employment due to ill health. The Department of Social and Family Affairs operates a number of schemes which provide income support to people who are unfit to work due to illness or disability. The payments include disability benefit and invalidity pension, which are social insurance based schemes. Eligibility...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The maximum duration of the carer's benefit scheme is 65 weeks. Provision was made in budget 2006 to extend the duration of the scheme by nine months to two years in respect of each care recipient. To facilitate carers who will exhaust their 65 weeks of carer's benefit, I have made provision in the Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill 2006 to implement the improvement from 7 December...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person's claim for carers allowance was refused by a deciding officer on the grounds that the care recipient was not so invalided or disabled as to require full-time care and attention as laid down in the carer's allowance legislation. The person appealed against the decision to the social welfare appeals office. The case has been referred for consideration to the appeals officer who will...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity and 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 payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to carers in receipt of a carer's allowance and people with...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 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. People, including one-parent families, are entitled to retain certain social welfare and other secondary benefits in total or in part for the duration of the employment...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under the Government's decentralisation programme for the civil and public service, the HQ sections of the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the social welfare appeals office are scheduled to relocate to six locations — Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Donegal, Buncrana, Carrickmacross and Drogheda. The Combat Poverty Agency and Comhairle, which operate under the aegis of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: PRSI class D contributors provide social insurance coverage for permanent and pensionable employees in the public services, excluding those recruited after 6 April 1995, registered doctors and dentists employed in the Civil Service, gardaí or commissioned Army officers and members of the Army nursing service. Public servants recruited on or after 6 April 1995 are liable to pay PRSI...

Written Answers — Health Contribution: Health Contribution (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The health contribution levy was introduced by the Health Contributions Act 1979 and came into effect on 6 April of that year. The contributions are levied on income at a percentage rate set in pursuance of this and subsequent Health Contributions Acts and the income collected is paid to the Minister for Health and Children. Subject to an earnings threshold, currently €22,800 per annum, and...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department currently has 66 social welfare branch offices at various locations throughout the country. Each branch office is operated and managed by a branch manager who is required to act as an agent for the Department in the area served by the office. Subject to having completed seven years satisfactory service a branch manager who retires on age, that is, at 60 or over, on health...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain older people or people with a disability with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. Provision was made in the budget to increase the income disregard on the carer's allowance means test to €580 per week for a couple from April 2006. This...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (21 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 442 to 445, inclusive, together. 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of rent supplement to eligible people whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs. I am very conscious of the need to facilitate persons in receipt of social welfare payments when taking up employment...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The schemes administered by my Department which assist pensioners with energy costs include the national fuel scheme and the electricity or gas allowance. The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare or Health Service Executive payments with meeting the cost of their additional heating needs during the winter season. The fuel allowance is paid for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned is in receipt of unemployment assistance at the maximum weekly rate of €165.80 from 8 February 2006. She had applied to have her claim made retrospective from 17 December 2005. A deciding officer disallowed her retrospective claim on the grounds that she failed to satisfy all the conditions for receipt of unemployment assistance and also that she failed to show that...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain older people or people with a disability with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. In the course of the carer's allowance means test, account is taken of the claimant's own means and, in the case of a couple, the joint means are assessed....

Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill 2006: Second Stage (Resumed). (23 Feb 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Myself and Fukuyama are very close.