Results 2,421-2,440 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Apr 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....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: It was open to unemployed persons to apply for the position of census enumerator with the Central Statistics Office if they wished to do so. The matter of recruiting census enumerators is more appropriate to the Department of the Taoiseach.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned applied for carer's allowance in respect of two care recipients on 3 March 2006. The principal conditions for receipt of the allowance are that full-time care and attention is required and being provided and that the means test that applies is satisfied. Additionally, the requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain...

Written Answers — Official Engagements: Official Engagements (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I represented the Government at a number of engagements and events in Boston to celebrate and mark St. Patrick's Day in the USA. My official party travelled to Boston on 14 March 2006 and returned on 18 March 2006. My itinerary included an address that focused on Ireland's knowledge economy to the Irish Association at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an address at a breakfast to mark...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A deciding officer disallowed the unemployment assistance claim of the person concerned from 16 January 2001 to 23 September 2003, on the grounds that he was not unemployed for this period. Consequently, an overpayment of €14,486.46 was assessed on his claim. The person concerned called to the social welfare local office in Belmullet on 10 April 2006 and arrangements for repayment have been...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 446 and 450 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. Neither I nor my Department has any function in decisions on individual claims. The executive has confirmed that the person concerned applied for a rent supplement on...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The primary objective of the orphans payments administered by my Department is to provide income support in respect of children whose parents are deceased or who are unable or have failed to provide for them. The weekly rate of payment is €138 per week. Foster carers, on the other hand, operate within a very specific framework and the foster care allowance is intended not only to provide...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 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 HSE, Dublin mid-Leinster area, has confirmed that a basic weekly supplementary welfare allowance payment was made to the person concerned...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, if a person has an exceptional heating cost due to a particular infirmity or medical condition which he or she is unable to meet out of household income, it is open to him/her to apply to the local community welfare officer for a special heating supplement. The number of heating supplements paid and the annual expenditure on this supplement...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Recipients of social welfare or Health Service Executive payments who have been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition, and whose means are insufficient to meet their needs, may qualify for a diet supplement under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. This scheme and related supplements are administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The qualifying period for people on disability allowance who wish to avail of the back to work enterprise allowance is 12 months. The qualifying period for people on disability benefit is three years. The back to work allowance scheme is part of my Department's programme of initiatives designed to assist long-term unemployed people, lone parents, people with disabilities and other social...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under standard supplementary welfare allowance rules rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution, currently €13, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Recipients are also required, subject to income disregards,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 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 Health Service Executive has advised that the person concerned was in receipt of rent supplement as a single person. Following her marriage...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Health Service Executive may make a single payment, known as an exceptional needs payment, ENP, to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income. Eligible people would normally be in receipt of a social welfare or Health Service...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The family income supplement, FIS, is designed to provide cash support for employees on low earnings with families. This preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he or she were unemployed and claiming other social welfare payments. FIS is paid on a weekly basis over a period of 52 weeks, taking into account...

Written Answers — Community Welfare Officers: Community Welfare Officers (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare scheme is administered by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive, on my behalf. The commission on financial management and control systems in the health service, which reported in 2003, noted that over the years the health system had been assigned responsibility for a number of services which might be regarded as non-core activities. It...

Written Answers — Local Authority Charges: Local Authority Charges (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: There have been no formal discussions with the Department of Finance in relation to a waiver scheme for refuse charges. The setting of waste management charges and the introduction of waivers in respect of waste charges is, as stated by my colleague the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, a matter for each local authority. The introduction of a national social welfare...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Participants on the back to work allowance scheme are entitled to the allowance for up to three years and retain their entitlement to other secondary benefits, or for four years if opting for self-employment commencing in year one at 100%. For employees, the rate of payment is as follows: year one, 75%; year two, 50%; and year three, 25%. Participants who leave the scheme are allowed to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are available to eligible people through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The HSE, Dublin mid-Leinster area, has advised that it has thoroughly examined all information available to it on the circumstances of the person concerned and has determined that she is not eligible...

Written Answers — Departmental Records: Departmental Records (25 Apr 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Department's central records system, CRS, contains 5.6 million active records. This database has been in existence since 1979. The personal public service, PPS, number, which is widely used to access public services, is the customer identifier in the database. Practically all the population has a PPS number included in the database. The CRS database is at the core of all the Department's...