Results 28,561-28,580 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I understand the report from the pre-legislative process is awaited shortly and that legislation for the next stage will begin before Easter.

Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: There has been a significant amount of work and extensive discussion on the adoption (information and tracing) Bill. I understand it will be published before the end of this year. The postal services legislation came before Cabinet on Tuesday and the heads have been published.

Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I do not have a date for the family law Bill yet. The heads of the alcohol control legislation were brought to Government this week and have been published. The gambling control Bill is expected later this year.

Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: That Bill will be published later this year.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection plans to spend over €1 billion on supports for jobseekers under various community, activation and education schemes in 2015. Looking at individual schemes, I am pleased to confirm for the Deputy that: - The number of participants on the rural social scheme (RSS) is expected to remain at around 2,600 in 2015 at a cost of some €45...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: There are currently 69,884 lone parents being supported by the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme at an estimated cost to my Department of approximately €607 million in 2015. When introducing the OFP scheme age change reforms in 2012, a special provision was included for recipients who are claiming the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) payment for a disabled child aged under 16...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department will spend approximately €227 million this year on the household benefits package for approximately 415,000 customers. It will also spend more than €195 million on the fuel allowance. The fuel allowance of €20 is paid for 26 weeks from October to April. There have been no reductions in the fuel allowance since 2012. The electricity and gas allowance is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I am aware that many pension schemes are encountering funding difficulties at this time. A number of changes have been made to the Pensions Act to help both the employers and the trustees of defined benefit pension schemes respond to funding difficulties. These changes provide for the sharing of the risk of scheme underfunding across all scheme members. The issue of how these changes might be...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Guarantee (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Government’s primary strategy to tackle youth unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people. This strategy has been succeeding, with an increase of over 80,000 in employment over the last 2 years....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Services Programme (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: Funding of over €45m is being provided for the Community Services Programme (CSP) in 2015. This will support some 400 contracts that are in place with service providers nationally. The CSP is designed to address locally identified gaps in the provision of services to communities and to utilise the potential of community assets and resources that are already in place to support of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 71,500 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €298 million for 2015. I am acutely aware of the difficulties people are experiencing in maintaining affordable rented accommodation in areas of high demand in the current market, including those in receipt of rent supplement in the Dublin area. The Department is finalising a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 71,500 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €298 million for 2015. I am acutely aware of the difficulties people are experiencing in maintaining affordable rented accommodation in areas of high demand in the current market, including single persons in receipt of rent supplement in Dublin. The Department is finalising a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The rate in question does not arise out of consideration of benefit and privilege rules. Rather, adjusted rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009. Budget 2014 further extended the adjusted rates of jobseeker’s allowance to recipients under 26 years of age. This is a targeted measure aimed at protecting young people from welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes Expenditure (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department will spend more than €1 billion in 2015 on work, training and education places in support of jobseekers getting back to work. The rural social scheme (RSS), Tús and community employment (CE) continue to play an important role in this regard and the Department is continuing to work with implementing and sponsor bodies to improve the delivery of the schemes. These...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Mortgage Interest Relief Application (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Government’s strategy to assist those in mortgage difficulty is built around the following measures, as recommended in the 2011 Interdepartmental Mortgage Arrears Working Group (Keane Group), in four main distinct areas: - Lenders providing sustainable and durable resolution options to their borrower; - A social housing response sponsored by local authorities; - Comprehensive...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Payments (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: Child Benefit is a universal payment made to families with children. It assists those families with cost associated with raising children. It is paid to almost 1.2 million children in over 600,000 families. The estimated expenditure in 2014 was €1.9 billion. I am aware that in its Concluding Statement of the 2015 Article IV Mission the IMF suggests that further means-testing of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Poverty (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The CSO SILC release for 2013 shows that 11.7 per cent of children were in consistent poverty, a slight but not statistically significant increase on the 2012 rate. On the other hand, the at-risk-of-poverty for children decreased from 18.8 per cent in 2012 to 17.9 per cent in 2013. A key driver in reducing income poverty among children is social transfers, which reduce the at-risk-of-poverty...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Civil Registration Legislation (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 was enacted on 4 December 2014.The Act contains a wide range of provisions and these will be commenced on a step by step basis. The provisions of the Act will be put into operation on the basis of an implementation plan involving both procedural and system changes. It is intended that this work will be progressed as quickly as possible in order...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: From 1 January 2014 to 12 January 2015, a total of 129 jobseekers in County Tipperary completed a Personal Progression Plan while under 25 years of age on the date of completion. The completion of a Personal Progression Plan is a unique feature of the activation and case management service within the INTREO model. This figure does not, therefore, include Jobseekers under 25 years of age who...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department of Social Protection may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Government has provided €27.9 million for the scheme in 2015.An ENP is a means tested payment...