Results 23,641-23,660 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: -----in relation to a large number of claims.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: Sorry,

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The situation is that the country is in a slow recovery, with a slow recovery of employment.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: Among those institutions which are in difficulty as the Senator described at great length, are pension funds. The suspension of the funding standard in 2008, shortly after the bank guarantee, did not actually help the long-term sustainability of pension funds. The Government, of which the Senator was a member, decided to do that. I think it felt, like the bank guarantee and the First World...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: I will not even need five minutes.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: Five minutes.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: As I said, many of these difficulties have their origin in the peculiarities of the bank guarantee, the state of the economy and the suspension of the funding standard. I think people expected it would be all over by Christmas. Not only was it not over by Christmas, the situation continued for an extended period. What we are trying to do in the legislation is to allow schemes to...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (3 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The majority of people have less that €12,000.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Issues (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: Employer PRSI is payable on earnings at the rate of 10.75% in respect of weekly earnings in excess of €356 and at 8.5% on weekly earnings of €356 or less. As part of the 2011 Jobs Initiative, the Minister for Finance announced the halving of the 8.5% rate of employer PRSI to 4.25%, as a means of helping job creation and improving labour cost competitiveness, particularly in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on the 10th October 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When these papers have been received from the Department, the case in question will...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Reports (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are approximately 80,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €403 million for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: An application for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) was received from the person concerned on the 17th October 2013. This application has been forwarded to one of the Department’s Medical Assessors for their medical opinion. Upon receipt of this opinion, a decision will issue to the person concerned. It can take up to 8 weeks to process an application for DCA.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud Data (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: My Department accepts reports of possible fraud from members of the public in relation to the operation of its schemes and uses both a dedicated phone number and a facility on the Department’s website for this purpose. Members of the public are asked to provide as much detail as possible about the case they are reporting and they can do so anonymously. Reports can be made as...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The personal rate of State pension contributory is a non means-tested payment based on PRSI contributions paid to the Social Insurance Fund over a working life. To qualify a person needs to: - enter insurable employment by age 55 for State Pension (transition) and age 56 for State Pension (contributory); - have paid 520 full rate social insurance contributions; - have a yearly average...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was received in that office on 16th July 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 21st ...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The Community Employment Operating Guidelines issued to Sponsors state that participants are paid the appropriate weekly rate for a maximum initial period of 52 weeks irrespective of the specific working arrangement. CE participant wages are paid weekly on a current week basis. For example if a participant starts on a community employment scheme on a Monday they will be paid on the Thursday...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Death Certificates Issues (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The loss of a child in any circumstances is an extremely tragic event for a family and I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to those families who have lost children. The procedures governing the registration of deaths are provided for under Part 5 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004. When a death occurs, it is registered on foot of a certificate of cause of death supplied by a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Security of the Elderly (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The overall concern of the Government in this and previous budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in relation to protecting people from poverty. To allow us to protect these core payments, we have had to look very carefully at other additional payments. The cost of the telephone...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are approximately 81,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €403 million for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (4 Dec 2013)

Joan Burton: Self-employed persons are liable for pay related social insurance (PRSI) at a rate of 4%, which entitles them to access long-term benefits such as State pension (contributory) and widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension (contributory). This compares to employees in respect of whom a combined 14.75% rate, under full-rate PRSI Class A, is paid giving entitlement to the full...