Results 29,401-29,420 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Occupational Injuries Benefit (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The person concerned applied for occupational injury benefit on 28 January 2015 with effect from 20 January 2015. Award of the claim was delayed as the claimant was a dependant on her spouse’s state pension contributory claim. To ensure that the person concerned got the best financial outcome it was necessary to check with the pensions section the rate of payment she was in receipt of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Status (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence including that adduced at the oral hearing, has decided to allow the appeals of the person concerned. The person concerned has been notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 5 December 2014. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers have been received in the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Work Family Dividend Scheme Administration (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: As announced in Budget 2015, the back to work family dividend (BTWFD) scheme aims to help families to move from social welfare into employment. It will give financial support to people with children who were getting jobseeker and one-parent family payments and who take up employment, increase their hours of employment or become self-employed. The BTWFD provides support for up to two...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Respite Care Grant Applications (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The Respite Care Grant is paid automatically to people in receipt of Carer’s Allowance, Carers Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance or Prescribed Relative’s Allowance. Carers who are not in receipt of one of the above payments, may qualify for the stand alone Grant, subject to satisfying certain conditions. One of these conditions is that the carer provides the ill person...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Appeals (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the person concerned was refused jobseeker’s allowance by a Deciding Officer of the Department on the grounds that he was not available for full-time work and was not genuinely seeking full-time employment. The appeal by the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who will make a summary decision on the appeal based on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The expenditure on the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme in 2008 was €1,067 million, having risen from €480 million in 2000. The estimated expenditure for the scheme in 2015 is €607 million. The majority of this reduction can be attributed to lone parents on foot of the OFP age reforms, transitioning from the OFP scheme onto another social welfare payment such as...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Data (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The number of DCA applications received, processed and awarded in the years 2013, 2014 and to date in 2015 is detailed in the table. There were 1,423 applications pending decision at the end of March 2015. Table: Domiciliary Care Allowance applications Year Applications received Applications processed Allowed by Deciding Officer Allowed on Appeal Total allowed and as % of processed 2013...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Semi-State Bodies (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: There are no semi-State commercial companies operating under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection.

Seanad: One-Parent Family Supports: Motion (15 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: At the outset, I thank Senators Zappone, van Turnhout, Mary Ann O'Brien and Mac Conghail for raising this important issue. The one-parent family payment scheme has played an important role in providing income support to lone parents since its introduction in its present form in 1997. The period from 1997 to 2010 saw the number of recipients increase by 50% and the annual expenditure...

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: In respect of the issue of homelessness, it is a very difficult issue in Dublin.

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Many individuals and unfortunately some families with children have been affected by it. As the Deputy knows, before Christmas, in conjunction with all of the agencies and indeed with most of the political parties, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, moved a series of special measures to deal with the situation which have been very favourably...

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Emergency accommodation is not a permanent solution to anybody's homelessness difficulties. What the Government did before Christmas, to much praise from some of the organisations to which the Deputy has referred, was initiate an emergency response over a number of areas. While that seems to have passed Deputy Ó Cuív by, it has been widely written about as being very successful....

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Our current system, which we have had for quite a period, involves inviting Mandy to go onto social welfare for somewhere between 18 and 22 years as opposed to moving towards a system which Sinn Féin has operated in the North for a long time as part of the Government there. In the North, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, when the youngest child reaches five years of age, a person...

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: ----- which means that there is no compulsion on a lone parent whose child is between seven years of age, unlike in the North where it is five years of age, and 14 years of age. All of the options in terms of education, training, community employment and other participation will be available. If the lone parent does not want to seek any of those opportunities, there is no compulsion. ...

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: That may be meant as a kindness but the consequence of Sinn Féin's policy and its policy in the South is to trap lone parents-----

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: ----- in particular younger lone parents, in, unfortunately, what might become welfare dependency. We have spent as a society billions extra on lone parents. That is important because they are at a greater risk of poverty than almost any other group. Yet, with all of that spending, notwithstanding additional spending made by the previous Government during the boom, the actual outcomes for...

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy's lecturing and hectoring tone-----

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: ----- does not do anything to help lone parents in Ireland.

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Sinn Féin should engage seriously in this issue. In fairness to Fianna Fáil, during the time of the boom-----