Results 26,241-26,260 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 235 to 237, inclusive, and 254 and 255 together. It is not anticipated, at this stage, that there will be any carry forward of capital expenditure from 2014 into 2015. There was an under-spend of €23.6 million or 0.2% on the Department’s overall expenditure on schemes, services and administration at the end of June 2014. This performance is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobsPlus Scheme (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: JobsPlus provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who recruit employees from those who are long term on the live register. The incentive is payable, on a monthly basis, over a two year period if the employee is retained in full-time employment for two years. JobsPlus is biased in favour of those who are longer term unemployed. The value of the monthly payments is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Eligibility (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 239 and 241 together. The fuel allowance is a payment of €20 to low income households to assist them with their energy costs. The allowance is paid for 26 weeks from October to April. The payment represents a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. Only one allowance is paid per household....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Expenditure (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The fuel allowance is a payment of €20 to low income households to assist them with their energy costs. The allowance is paid for 26 weeks from October to April. The payment represents a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. Only one allowance is paid per household. The allowance is paid to approximately 400,000...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Eligibility (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The free travel scheme is currently available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over. People who are aged under 66 must be in receipt of a qualifying payment from the Department to qualify for a free travel pass. These payments include carer’s allowance, disability allowance and invalidity pension. Free travel for those under 66 is generally based on a means tested...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 243, 251, 252, 257, 263 and 264 together. The estimated cost of restoring maternity benefit rates of payment to those which applied before Budget 2014 is €32 million in 2015 and a full year. The estimated cost of paying the maximum weekly rate of €188 to all recipients of jobseeker's allowance and basic supplementary welfare allowance aged under...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 244, 253 and 260 together. Based on number of starters in 2014 to end of June, it is estimated that 11,844 individuals will start internships in 2014. The average weekly cost per participant was €233.67 in May, 2014. €82.3m has been budgeted for 2014 for the JobBridge scheme. The Department does not keep separate figures for the total cost of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 245 to 248, inclusive, together. The information that the Deputy has requested is currently not available in the Department. Given the complex nature of the request, the Department will provide the information directly to the Deputy in due course.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Rates (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: It is not possible to provide this figure in the time available. I will revert directly to the Deputy with the figure as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Data (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The most recently available estimates relating to employers PRSI for 2014 show that the estimated share of employers’ class A PRSI contributions paid at the higher rate relative to the percentage derived from employments with respect to which the lower rate is paid is as follows: --- % Lower Rate 5.4 Higher Rate 94.6 The total number of persons in class A insurance in 2012 was...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: School Meals Programme (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,600 schools and organisations which benefits some 205,000 children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Benefit Payments (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. The 2014 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseekers’ schemes of €3.28 billion. The profile of the schemes has changed significantly over recent years, in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobs Initiative (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department is currently in the process of finalising the evaluation of tenders for the provision of employment services under the JobPath initiative. This is a confidential process and is being conducted in accordance with EU and national public procurement rules. No information in relation to the tenders will be released during the process. In order to respect the procurement process...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme (BSCFA) provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The Government has provided €46.3 million for the scheme in 2014. In 2013, approximately 176,000 families, in respect of approximately 324,000 children were assisted under the scheme. It is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The overall concern of Government in Budget 2014 and previous Budgets has been to protect the primary social welfare rates. To allow the Department to protect core payments, we have had to look very carefully at other additional payments such as the household benefits package. In Budget 2014, I regretfully had to make the decision to abolish the telephone allowance, which was €9.50...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Data (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: In the twelve month period January to December 2013, 13,118 components of learning accredited by FETAC were started and completed by CE participants. Table 1 shows the award level of these components of learning accredited by FETAC. Fifty eight per cent (7,622) minor awards were at FETAC Level 5, a further 22 per cent (2,849) minor awards were at Level 4 and 12 per cent (1,578) were at Level...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: There were 19,535 recipients aged 24 and under within the total of 34,521 recipients reported to the Deputy in Question No. 240. While the number of young people in this category can be related to activation measures that are also paid from the jobseeker's payment system, many activation measures are either not paid from this payment system or are provided by the Department of Education and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Appeals (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who has decided to convene an oral hearing in this case. Every effort will be made to hear the case as quickly as possible and the appellant will be informed when arrangements for the oral hearing have been made. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Services Programme (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: This community-based company is supported by funding from a variety of sources to provide a range of shared and specialised services to other community and voluntary bodies. The Department of Social Protection supports service provision under the Community Services Programme (CSP) and the company also acts as a scheme sponsors for the Community Employment (CE) Programme. As indicated in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff Data (9 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: One member of staff in the Department, the Chief Medical Advisor, has been rehired on a temporary contract on a pay scale of €87,741 to €106,423. Payment of his pension is abated pending the termination of his temporary contract. The Department held a competition to recruit a new Chief Medical Advisor in late 2013, however, no candidate was deemed suitable at interview. The...