Results 26,601-26,620 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: In Cork county more than 100 people are anxious to take up this opportunity. I understand that some people in parties who wear badges about being left wing and for working people oppose this. I do not know whether the Deputy's party is involved in that particular county. I am not going to enter that discussion but, for heaven's sake, give people a chance to get back to work. That is what...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: I will answer the Deputy if he gives me an opportunity to do so. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has sanctioned 150 acting-up allowances for existing local authority staff to support the supervision of Gateway. That has been agreed with the trade unions and management in the county councils. I do not know if the Deputy's party colleagues are aware of that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: The Department has provided €2 million for health and safety training, for specific tasks and for personal protective equipment. Can the Deputy open his eyes and go out to visit some of the fine work that has been done by people who would otherwise be sitting at home? When the local authorities begin to recruit again, which I am sure will happen before too long given the way in which...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: Some 61 people are due to start this week and Deputy Ó Snodaigh wants to stop them. I think he is wrong.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: I will get the exact figures for the Deputy. The scheme also allows local authorities to take on people who approach them, provided that they qualify, namely, they have been unemployed for the requisite period. A number of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Deputies have reported that people approached them to seek to go on schemes. We provide for that but there is also an element of random...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: If people do not show up, we call them back and if they do not have a reasonable explanation -----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: It arose in the context of the pre-budget forum.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: As regards the number of appeals on disability, at the beginning of 2013 there were over 4,000 appeals on hand. By the beginning of 2014, a year later, that figure had gone down to just over 3,000. That was a fall of 1,000. I am happy to say that as of 1 September, the number has dropped to 1,700. We operate an open-ended repeat review system. We have been looking at the letter that is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: Yes. That is because we have improved the platforms and have really invested in technology at the Appeals Office. In the context of the recession, there was a vast increase in the number of applications and appeals. If one meets an application at an early stage and it is not successful, I would advise members to seek to obtain more appropriate and stronger evidence to support the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: Staff are aware - and the legend is - that if one withholds some of the stronger medical information until the appeal it will help the case. I think that goes back to a period when the times were a lot longer. My personal recommendation is that if one has the evidence and one is still in the application process or review - we allow multiple reviews which very few social welfare systems do -...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: As with the domiciliary care allowance, we looked at it and significantly reduced the waiting times. We also ran a number of information seminars for Deputies and their staff. If the Deputy feels that would be helpful, given the IT changes and other reforms in the Department, I would be happy to arrange that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: Would the committee let me know through the Chairperson?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: We will arrange it in the AV room.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: On the child and family income supplement, following the large amount of detailed, informative and good work that the Mangan group has undertaken, we have arrived at a general agreement to support families with children and, in particular, the activation of proposals. We are maintaining the child benefit system. What we have significantly increased levels of funding this year and last for...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: I am not in a position to answer that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Review of Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (17 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: My lips are sealed as regards the budget, with the exception of the agreement that the Taoiseach and I reached in public.
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: I thought the Deputy might want to talk about the economy and the fact the economy, according to the CSO, is actually performing very well-----
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Joan Burton: -----that it is not a credit-fuelled bubble recovery and that it is, in fact, around people going back to work. Irish Water - I say this in the context of Deputy Martin's own party's proposals in regard to the IMF plans - was to have a very significant investment package and a programme of water charges which were to be flat charges of, on average, €400. That is what-----