Results 29,681-29,700 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: I am going on the advice of the advisory group, which researched the matter very deeply, and also on the actuarial reviews which show that, for the 4% contribution that self-employed people currently make, they get widow's and widower's pensions, contributory retirement benefits, maternity benefit and guardian's benefit. Those are significant benefits for 4%. Many self-employed people are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection’s primary role is to provide income supports to sustain an adequate standard of living and to prevent poverty. It is for that reason that the Government has protected primary weekly rates of welfare since it came into office, notwithstanding the economic difficulties. In 2013, welfare payments and other social transfers, excluding pensions, reduced...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department spends €39 million per year on the school meals programme. I have been a strong supporter of the programme as well as the Healthy Food for All initiative, which is about all of us, including schoolchildren and their parents, learning about healthy food and how to eat healthily. One of the issues with food is that sometimes a great deal of money might be spent on it,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: I am happy to look at that. However, in many cases, not every child in the school will want or need a breakfast because, for the most part, they will have eaten a good, nourishing breakfast at home with their family. The reason for the emphasis on lunch is that by lunchtime, when the children still have another couple of hours in school, they need food. Perhaps we should agree to move to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: JobPath is specifically designed to help those jobseekers who are most distant from the labour market to gain sustained employment. JobPath companies will engage approximately 1,000 staff to provide services for up to 400,000 jobseekers over a four-year period. Following the completion of a public procurement process, two companies were selected to provide JobPath - Turas Nua Limited and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy is aware that my objective as a Minister is to get this country back to full employment, and he knows from the most recent statistics that, although the live register in Ireland has fallen very dramatically, it was 343,000 or 346,000 when the figures from the end of April were published last week. The existing services of the Department are not sufficient to get as many as...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Our model is a payment by results model. I am sure the Deputy is aware that it does not have anything to do with people with a disability. It concerns people who are receiving unemployment payments. It has nothing to do with people with a disability or invalidity, although I note that a few minutes ago, the Deputy seemed to be rightly concerned in calling for more opportunities for people...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: We have designed an Irish model for Ireland. That may upset the Deputy because he is tied into the Northern Ireland model and has a vested interest-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Deputy Ó Snodaigh has a vested interest in the British model.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: We want to get all of the people who are unemployed in Ireland back to work. A significant number of people are working in the Department and a number of companies like the local employment services are working with us. Those resources are not sufficient to help all those who want to go back to work to get back to work. We have looked at best practice around the world to see how we get the...

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Child benefit is the main policy instrument for assisting families in Ireland with the cost of raising children. It is a universal payment paid in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years, or to the age of 18 if the child is in full-time education or has a disability. It is paid to more than 615,000 families in respect of almost 1.2 million children, at a cost of...

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy is rightly concerned about the welfare of children attending school. The point I am making is that school attendance is not the province of the Department of Social Protection. I politely suggest to the Deputy that this question would probably be more appropriately taken up with the Minister for Education and Skills. As Deputy Naughten pointed out, the Minister for Education and...

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy and I share a common ground with regard to children or their parents who have problems with attending school, which is that those children and their parents should be encouraged in so far as possible to enable the child to attend school fully. However, the Deputy is in effect suggesting that a family which may already be on a low income or experiencing unemployment should have its...

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: I ask the Deputy to bear with me. We had a discussion earlier about the necessity of children's attendance at school. I refer to the small number of children who for some reason may not have had a proper breakfast before leaving home. Several agencies and the Department of Education and Skills are dealing with those issues. The Deputy is correct in his concern for the children, but I am...

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: -----because, in my view, the appropriate solution is for the teachers to work with those families and with the parents and, if appropriate, to involve the education and welfare service and Tusla. It is important that every child goes to school, but I would not suggest that the arbitrary cutting off of child benefit is necessarily the solution to the problem the Deputy has identified.

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Social transfers have provided a hugely important buffer in reducing poverty. Expenditure on this scheme is estimated at €607 million in 2015 with almost 70,000 recipients. The problem is that despite a major investment in the past in respect of lone parents and their children, lone parents remain particularly at risk of poverty. The first phase of the one-parent family payment...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Currently there are lone parents throughout the country calling into their local Intreo offices, which are provided by the Department of Social Protection, and looking at how they can significantly increase their income. In particular, if they move to 19.5 hours or more they will qualify for the family income supplement which, depending on the number of children they have, is an extremely...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy answered his own question when he said that lone parents had a higher risk of poverty. Unfortunately, that is true for them and their children. My objective is to end that situation for lone parents and to move them out of the category of being at risk of poverty, and particularly to remove their children from that risk. This will be achieved by first giving them opportunities...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Waiting Times (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The annual report of the Social Welfare Appeals Office was published last month and shows that the total number of appeals on hands for all schemes at the end of 2014 continued to fall to just over 9,600 or a reduction of 35% year on year. I am advised by the Appeals Office that the current average time taken to decide family income supplement appeals decided on a summary basis is 20.7 weeks...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Work Placement Programmes (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy will be aware, Gateway is a County and City Council work scheme which aims to provide short-term quality and suitable work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than 24 months. Participants benefit by being involved in work. They improve their work readiness and are able to apply their existing skills and learn new ones. The scheme is also intended to assist the...