Results 24,081-24,100 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 03rd December 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 have been received from the Department, the case in question will be...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it to discuss the 2014 Revised Estimates for my Department. My officials have provided detailed briefing material for the use of the committee at this meeting. This builds on the changed format introduced last year and is designed to better reflect the new performance-budgeting approach to the Estimates process. Understandably, there...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: Table 3 on page 6 gives the summary. Deputies will see that for the State contributory pension there is extra spending of €160 million provided for this year. Members of the committee will be aware that every year of the three years I have been involved in budgets I have had to provide between €160 million and up to €190 million in extra spending on the extra numbers of...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: We have a working title of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill. From time to time technical changes arise; for example, in many of the recent Bills they related to European requirements regarding pension directives and so forth which periodically we incorporate, as we are required to do, into Irish legislation. There are some technical pension amendments in almost every case. Obviously,...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: There might be. There is no necessary pension legislation at this point in time, but it is a holding title on the legislation on which work is being done. We had a previous experience where we did not include "pensions" in the title, as the Deputy will recall, and subsequently that was required. In fact, there was a discussion about it on the floor of the House, so since then I have tended...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: First I will answer the Deputy's query about the changes in required contributions. I wish to draw attention again to the fact that the KPMG actuarial review in 2012 stated that the pensioner support ratio in Ireland is projected to decline from 5.3 workers for every individual person of pension age in 2010 to 3.9 workers by 2020 and 2.1 workers by 2060. In other words, the number of people...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: No, not really, but I thank the Deputy for them. We sent all of our material to the Clerk of the Committee over a week ago. I do not know if the Deputy's personal assistant has had an opportunity to examine the material. We have forwarded a lot of documentation and information, as requested by the committee. If someone is coming up to pension age, he or she should send his or her details...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: The rule applying to the State contributory pension transition payment is that the means-test applies to the dependant and the rule stands. If people do not qualify for jobseeker's allowance in the first place, they are unlikely to qualify for a non-contributory pension, perhaps because one of the people involved is working.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: In the case of the contributory pension, it is a matter of the income of the person's spouse or partner. It is means tested and I have no proposals to change this. The changes to pension age were broadly set out in the financial framework of 2011 which followed a Green Paper and a paper on pensions launched by the Department in 2007 and 2010. They were broadly agreed to by everyone and,...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: I will come to it later.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: In the Department there is wide consultation with different groups on a continuous basis. We engage in consultation with people with disabilities and organisations that represent those with disabilities. At official level we frequently sit down with organisations to discuss how the structures work. I have received, on behalf of the Department, positive feedback from members of all parties...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: Yes, I can give the Deputy the numbers. The rate of unemployment will be a function of the numbers of people at work in the economy, immigration, emigration and so forth. Last year, the average live register figure was 419,000. As I said in my opening statement, in October of last year, the register fell below 400,000 for the first time. The register is somewhat seasonal and goes up and...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: It is not enough.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: I will take the Deputy's question about lone parents first and will use an example to illustrate the point I wish to make. Let us take a lone parent with one child who is offered a job which pays €300 per week. If that parent applies for FIS, he or she will get an additional €120 per week. More and more lone parents who are now in work are very significant beneficiaries of...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: On special needs payments, the Deputy will appreciate that when this system operated in the old health boards and Health Service Executive it involved different regions or area and the level of oversight was limited to perhaps a town or region. In some areas, there was a strong tradition of making a payment for certain events, while the same payment may have been unheard of in other areas....

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: Yes, I agree.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: The advisory group on tax and social welfare has done a great deal of work and published several reports on how to help families with children in particular and how to ensure that in every house there is a job for at least one of the adults. The committee will be aware that if children are living in a household where no one goes to work, sometimes the outcome for those children is far below...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: I agree with Deputy Collins and that is rather worrying. One of the reasons I am a strong advocate of Ireland's need for a debt deal from the European Union down the road, because of what happened with the banking collapse, is so that we can invest in the training and education of our people. The calibre of jobs that people apply for and the income outcomes are heavily related to the level...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: I am making my calculations. If somebody was to take up a job at €8.65 per hour for a 39 hour week, he or she would receive a gross payment of €338.52. If that person were single, he or she would receive €188 per week on social welfare. The comparison is absolutely clear for a single person. There have been discussions, particularly in Germany, about raising the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014)

Joan Burton: On 31 December 2012 there were 20,414 appeals in hand. On 31 December 2013 there were 14,770, a fall of 28% in the backlog of appeals. During 2012 a total of 32,588 decisions were made. During 2013 a total of 38,421 decisions were made, an increase of 18%. We are beginning to get through the backlog, but it is still significant. As our technology improves, I hope we will be able to deal...