Results 2,281-2,300 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department has an ongoing programme to develop information and communications technology, ICT, systems to support delivery of a first class service to customers. The current development programme is an early step towards achieving, inter alia, a comprehensive system which would provide full advice to customers on all entitlements. It will take some years, however, for the Department to be...

Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The group in question aids and assists families and individuals who have experienced suicide by a loved one, by way of counselling and bereavement support on an individual and a group basis. The group first applied for funding to the Family Support Agency in 2005. The agency administers the scheme of grants to voluntary organisations providing marriage counselling services, marriage...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Mar 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. Neither I nor my Department has any function in respect of decisions on individual claims. The executive has advised that it received an application for rent supplement from the person concerned on 1 March 2006. It has...

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

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned applied for disability allowance on 3 November 2005. The principal conditions for receipt of disability allowance are that the medical eligibility criteria are met and that the means test which applies is satisfied. While he satisfied the medical criteria for award of disability allowance the means of the person concerned which were derived from a private pension and...

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 464 and 465 together. With regard to younger carers, I recognise that special help, advice and support is essential for young carers who are often caring for a parent and in particular, that services must be put in place to support the household and to ensure that young carers remain at school. These include the services of home helps, public health nurses and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The detection of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day to day work of my Department. In this regard all staff engaged in claims processing are concerned with preventing and detecting fraud and abuse. Controls are exercised at both the initial claim stage and at subsequent stages during the claim life-cycle. Claims are reviewed on a regular and targeted...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The main data on poverty levels in Ireland are derived from the annual EU survey on income and living conditions, EU-SILC. Results for the second year of the survey, 2004, were published by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on 12 December 2005. The survey results do not break down poverty rates by county, as the survey sample size is too small. The survey does, however, provide a regional...

Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Water supply is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Under his department's rural water programme, grants are available through the county councils for the upgrading and improvement of a quality deficient private group water scheme supply or the improvement of a private individual supply in cases where an alternative public or group...

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

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare staff of the Health Service Executive is one of a number of social assistance schemes which, with effect from 1 May 2004, is subject to a habitual residence condition. The effect of the condition is that a person whose habitual residence or centre of interest is deemed to be other than in...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned retired from the ESB in March 2004 and is in receipt of an occupational pension from the company since that date. No PRSI is payable on the person's occupational pension. The pension income is liable to deduction of the 2% health levy, class K, provided income exceeds the levy threshold of €440 per week. This liability will cease when the person reaches the age of 70.

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: In dealing with telephone inquiries, the aim of my Department is to ensure that all inquiries made to any of the Department's lo-call numbers are answered quickly, competently, courteously and with due regard to the needs of the callers. The pensions services office in Sligo administers a number of schemes, including old age contributory and non-contributory pension and retirement pension,...

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

Séamus Brennan: The social welfare pension rights of those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties are protected by the home-makers scheme which was introduced from 1994. From this the scheme allows up to 20 years spent caring for children or incapacitated adults to be disregarded when a person's social insurance record is being averaged for pension purposes. However, the scheme will not of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Mar 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. Neither I nor my Department has any function in decisions on individual claims. The person concerned is in receipt of one parent family payment and half-rate disability benefit from my Department. The Health Service...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Mar 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. Neither I nor my Department has any function in decisions on individual claims. Under standard supplementary welfare allowance rules, rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Mar 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. Neither I nor my Department has any function in decisions on individual claims. One of the conditions for entitlement to rent supplement is that an applicant must be deemed by the local authority to have a genuine housing...

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

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned was in receipt of unemployment assistance at the maximum weekly rate of €165.80 from 8 February 2006. However, it came to light that she should have been assessed with means from parental income. A deciding officer assessed her with means at €69 a week from 8 March 2006, derived from the value of board and lodgings. This assessment entitles her to payment of...

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

Séamus Brennan: The person's application for carer's allowance was disallowed by a deciding officer on the grounds that she was not deemed to be habitually resident in the State. The person appealed this decision to the social welfare appeals office and the appeals officer considers that an oral hearing is necessary in the case. It is not possible at this stage to give a date for the hearing. However, the...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (21 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department operates a range of family-friendly working arrangements including work-sharing, term time leave and parental leave. Some 900 staff currently avail of these schemes. A flexible working hours scheme was introduced into my Department in 1986 and now forms part of a package of measures which have been implemented across the Civil Service to allow staff balance work and other...

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

Séamus Brennan: The person's application for carer's benefit was disallowed by a deciding officer on the grounds that the person was not engaged in remunerative employment prior to her claim as she was on a career break from the Department of Education and Science. The person appealed this decision to the social welfare appeals office and an oral hearing was held on 28 February 2006. Having considered all of...

Decentralisation Programme. (22 Mar 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under the Government's decentralisation programme for the Civil Service and public service, the Department's headquarters sections and the social welfare appeals office are to relocate to six locations, Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Donegal, Buncrana, Drogheda and Carrickmacross. In addition, the Combat Poverty Agency and Comhairle, which operate under the Department's aegis, are scheduled to...