Results 27,301-27,320 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: In the budget, there have been modest but significant tax reductions, USC reductions and increases in social welfare payments as well as significant increases in areas like health and education. The effect is that everyone, including one-parent families, will share in the dividend. I have outlined what one-parent families will share. It is really important that as a society we make...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Invalidity Pension Appeals (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: One of the main reasons there is a high disallowance rate of invalidity pension applications is that, in common with all the illness and disability schemes, claimants and their doctors often do not provide full and comprehensive details of their condition or disability until they receive notification of a disallowance. In this regard, it should be noted that invalidity pension is a long-term...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Invalidity Pension Appeals (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The new system will identify people who can be transferred based on information the Department has on file. This information will include a description of the illness or disability and the period for which it may be endured. Improved information technology, IT, has made this possible. When I became Minister, I inherited an enormous backlog in this area and there were many discussions in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Invalidity Pension Appeals (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: In 2013 there were 9,640 applications, while this year 6,933 applications were received by the end of September. Some 9,494 claims were awarded in 2013, while this year 5,373 claims were awarded by the end of September. Obviously, they are not the same people because there is a considerable period during which claims are processed. With the new information technology, I can put it...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Personal Public Service Numbers (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: Social welfare legislation specifies that the PPS number can only be used by specified bodies and agents acting on their behalf and only for the purposes of public service transactions. Provision is also made for sharing a person's PPS number between specified bodies. The PPS number is a unique identifier. It was introduced in 1998 and is used to provide access to an important range of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Personal Public Service Numbers (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: My view with regard to Irish Water, and I said this a number of weeks ago and before other people commented, is that the undertaking is of such a significant size that it will take a considerable number of years to roll out. I said that in the Dáil more than a couple of weeks ago. That is the first point. Second, PPS numbers are already used in communications with utility companies...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Personal Public Service Numbers (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The PPS number has been in existence for a long time. It is one of the factors that enables much better delivery of public services among the wide range of services I mentioned earlier. It is governed by extremely tight data protection regulations and it is a criminal offence to misuse PPS numbers. I appreciate the concerns people have expressed on this issue but in the case of Irish Water...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: I understand the question relates to the Christmas bonus.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: May I deal with the first part of the question, which relates to the Christmas bonus?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The Christmas bonus, which was paid each year in the period from 1980 to 2008, inclusive, was abolished by the previous Fianna Fáil-led Government in 2009. I am pleased that I am partially restoring the bonus this year, with the result that a bonus of 25% will be paid in early December to more than 1.1 million recipients, including all long-term welfare recipients, such as pensioners,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The social welfare package in this budget is the first since the fatal bank guarantee introduced by the previous Government to benefit very significant numbers of people. The restoration, on a partial basis, of the Christmas bonus has been very widely welcomed by the 1.1 million people who will benefit. One of the reasons for the different numbers quoted by the Deputy is that water charges...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: If the Deputy reads the analysis on people being better or less well off, he will find it has been my concern in the budget to ensure that 80,000 people are lifted out of the universal social charge. The two lower rates of the universal social charge, which mostly apply to the people on lower pay to whom the Deputy referred, have been reduced by half a percentage point each. That of course...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: That has been widely welcomed.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The Deputy's suggestion is that somehow or other the payments to people in the budget are not significant.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: For instance, in the first week of January parents will receive an additional €5 per month per child. I understand the Deputy might not welcome improvements in social welfare payments but I must confess that I am disappointed that Sinn Féin is so negative about increased payments to people on social welfare who need and welcome those payments.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: I understand, and we are making provision for extra income for people on social welfare. The Deputy is just a bit sour.

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection will spend €230 million this year on the household benefits package for almost 415,000 customers. The fuel allowance is paid for 26 weeks from October to April to almost 415,000 households, at an estimated cost of €208 million in 2014. That means well over €430 million will be spent between the two schemes in 2014. I announced in...

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: It probably escaped Deputy Joe Higgins's notice - perhaps he was away at the time - that I announced the water support payment as far back as July. Not only that, it is written into the document that myself and the Taoiseach agreed on in the first week of July. It has been a matter of public record for some time. While it might have escaped the Deputy's notice, it was fully and publicly...

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The difficulty that the Deputy does not recognise-----

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: -----is that it will require a huge level of State investment over the next ten years in order to fix all those issues which mean that people do not have proper drinkable water. This time last year, the entire Dublin region was threatened with the closure of pubs and hotels due to inadequate water supplies.