Results 28,941-28,960 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: Deputy Boyd Barrett's proposal is to tell people who are lone parents, be it because their relationships ended or they had children on their own, that they should remain on social welfare for 18 years during some of the best years of their lives or even longer if they have more than one child. What tends to happen in that scenario is that someone stops being a long parent in his or her late...
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: If the Deputy were to examine the situation he would find that if lone parents were in a position to increase their working hours to 19 per week, they would get a significant increase in support via family income supplement, FIS.
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: This year, we will spend at least €280 million of taxpayers' money on FIS to support families on low incomes in returning to work for at least 19 hours per week. I am unsure if the Deputy was listening, but the back-to-work family dividend-----
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: If a social welfare recipient has children, he or she is paid just under €30 a week per child. If he or she moves back into part-time or full-time work, he or she will receive a payment of €30 a week per child from the Department. The Deputy can scoff, but that is strong support.
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: We know from people who have transitioned how well they have done.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: As an experienced Member of the Dáil, Deputy Fleming will know that on a whole range of issues, Ireland supplies information via the Central Statistics Office, which is absolutely independent, to EUROSTAT, which is also absolutely assured of its independence under European regulations. Some years ago, when Greece got into some difficulty in regard to budgetary information and so on, the...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: If we are getting into remembering history, we all recall the sad occasion - it turned out very sad for the rest of us, in any case - when Fianna Fáil in government assured us the bank guarantee would be the cheapest little guarantee in the world and we would be in and out of it before we noticed. That has to be mentioned if we are talking historic promises. In regard to Irish Water,...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: As for the decision, notwithstanding the fact that the funding for the Central Statistics Office comes via the Department of the Taoiseach, it is important that its independence be recognised publicly and acknowledged and I thank the Deputy for doing so. It is up to the CSO to set the parameters within which it carries out this very important work. I have given the example of how it does...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: The national drugs strategy 2009-16 is cross-cutting in terms of public policy and public service delivery. Significant progress is being made in implementation of the strategy across the key areas of policy, namely, supply reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research. As I believe the Deputy is aware, the Department of Social Protection has ring-fenced 1,000 places in...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: I agree with the Deputy that it is a highly complex issue. From visiting communities, particularly visiting community employment schemes focused on rehabilitation, education, training and employment possibilities for people who have been involved in substance abuse, I am always shocked by the sheer calibre of the people it affects. They come from all walks of life. They are some of the...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: As I said, this can be kept under review. The Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, as the senior Minister, is taking a dedicated personal interest in it. That is significant and important. I also take a detailed interest as does the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: The women who are my heroes are the women who look after their families-----
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: -----and their parents, who go out to work and make a life for themselves, their partners and their children. There is a saying in Swahili that women hold up half of the sky.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: I do not know if Deputy Coppinger has ever had an opportunity to be aware that in terms of women’s responsibilities in this world, the women who every day look after their families, their partners, their children and their elder parents should be all of our heroes. For those of us who are elected to politics as women, it is an enormous privilege to serve. I do hope to see a higher...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: If the Deputy thinks about it, she will realise why. Notwithstanding all the work and contribution that women make, statistically they live longer than men by a couple of years. From the €6.7 billion that will be spent on pensions by the State this year, a slightly greater proportion of that will go to women than to men, particularly for those on a State contributory pension or a...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: We are changing the rules to allow people to combine getting a social welfare income or family income support or the new back to work family allowance----
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: ----which will give any lone parent going back to work an extra €30 per week per child. As the studies in respect of this year's budget show, we have also increased child benefit for every child by €5 a month. I am happy to say that as Tánaiste, I have prioritised getting people back to work because when people get some work, part time or full time, their at risk of...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: Yes it did.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: The Labour Party conference this weekend was very successful and worthwhile. It is a pity Deputy Coppinger was not there but maybe she was outside. In terms of our platform for the next election, the delegates agreed that we would be seeking to repeal the eighth amendment to the Constitution.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)
Joan Burton: I can only go on the legal advice that we get, which is that constitutional change is required to deal with the very distressing issue of fatal foetal abnormality. When we go to the people we will ask them to endorse a proposal that the Labour Party seek a referendum on the eighth amendment.