Results 33,401-33,420 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Community Services Programme (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: Last year.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Community Services Programme (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: There are 52 weeks this year.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Community Services Programme (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: It was in the Estimate.

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The Department launched Intreo in 2012 to provide a new integrated public employment service whereby people looking for work can access income support and employment services. This involved the merger of community welfare services, Department of Social Protection jobseeker income support services and the former FÁS employment and community services divisions. As part of this service...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: I would be grateful if the Deputy passed on information to employers in his constituency, Galway West. We welcome contact from employers who are seeking employees. We now have an employer service, which comprises a series of staff dedicated specifically to contacting employers when they are recruiting. We want to ensure that people who are unemployed have a chance to pitch for those jobs...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: We have seen much job recovery in big cities and towns and we want to spread it out to the entire country. In this respect, IDA officials and Enterprise Ireland officers deal with local Irish companies on a county by county basis and in the regions. They can deal with companies and look at Irish people who may have ideas for new enterprises. Where there is a training requirement, and I...

Other Questions: Labour Activation Measures (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: A personal progression plan is, as its name suggests, a document setting out the actions a jobseeker should take to enhance his or her prospects of finding employment. The plan is agreed between the jobseeker and an Intreo case officer as part of the activation service offered in Intreo centres. Similar plans are developed and agreed between jobseekers and local employment service providers...

Other Questions: Labour Activation Measures (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The purpose of this initiative is to bring the case officer and the unemployed person together and based on the latter's knowledge of what he or she would like to do, previous experience, educational levels and so on, find the best path to work or training for that individual. If there are particular problems, such as poor numeracy or literacy skills, the employment officer will seek to...

Flooding: Statements (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: When any of us thinks of those who have been suffering from the flooding, we only see the exhaustion, the pain and the emotion that they have been through over a prolonged period. It really is dreadful what has happened to different communities and individual families right around the country, not to mention the stress and the fear in homes where there was a danger of flooding, which in many...

Flooding: Statements (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: If it was, good for you. The Labour Party has also discussed it at length. Teams would take into account work on keeping rivers, ditches and drains clear, which is important. Flooding should not be a political football. What has happened to people is just so dreadful. Stand in a flooded house and you will know about it.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Support Services (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: This Government recognises the importance of increasing participation in employment on a voluntary basis for persons with a disability, including young persons. It is committed to removing any barriers that remain which prevent persons with disabilities from participating in activation programmes and employment. To this end, the Department provides a wide range of work related supports for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Waiting Times (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The Chief Appeals Officer assures me that, although significant progress has been made in reducing appeal processing times in recent years, continued improvement in this area remains a priority. The unprecedented increase in appeal receipts since 2009 placed considerable pressure on the appeals office and impacted adversely on processing times. The number of appeals received increased...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Administration (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The farm assist scheme provides support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker’s allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2015 Revised Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure of almost €89 million on the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The key achievement of this Government has been to stabilise the nation’s finances, to increase employment and to achieve economic growth. This endeavour is well underway and we are already reaping the benefits of these policies, including the ability to invest in the improvements I have announced over the last two years in welfare supports. One of the key Government’s...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Flood Prevention Measures (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies and the Office of Public Works has responsibility for capital flood relief activities. However, the Department of Social Protection has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events such as flooding The Department has...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The Department monitors all of the social welfare schemes that it administers, including the one-parent family payment scheme, on an on-going basis. The Department has published a social impact assessment of the main social welfare and tax measures of Budget 2016. The assessment found that employed lone parents experienced an increase of 2% in their household income while unemployed lone...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Poverty Data (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The CSO published the 2014 release of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) in November 2015. The key measure of poverty from a policy perspective is consistent poverty - the combination of at-risk-of-poverty and basic deprivation - as this is the basis for the national social target for poverty reduction. The rate of consistent poverty in 2014 was 8%, a slight though not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Poverty (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The CSO Survey on Income and living Conditions for 2014 shows that 11.2 per cent of children were in consistent poverty, a slight but not statistically significant decrease on the 2013 rate of 11.7 per cent. In the period since the economic crisis (2009-2014), the average rate of child poverty was 9.9 per cent. This compares with an average rate of 8.7 per cent in the years preceding the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: Reduced rates for young jobseeker’s allowance (JA) recipients were first introduced in 2009. These measures were further extended in 2014. Reduced JA rates for jobseeker’s who are under 26 years of age is a targeted measure aimed at protecting young people from welfare dependency. It aims to incentivise young jobseeker’s allowance recipients to avail of education and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (13 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting approximately 61,000 people for which the Government has provided approximately €267 million for 2016. In view of the reduction of supply in the private rented market and increasing rents at this time, the Department has implemented a policy approach that allows for flexibility in...