Results 4,721-4,740 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Response to Industrial Action. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The overall response to the industrial action is being managed centrally by the Department of Finance with input from all Government Departments, including the Department, and other public service sectors. The industrial action is being closely monitored in the Department on a daily basis and the Department's management is maintaining contacts with the unions concerned to ensure, insofar as...

Response to Industrial Action. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Members experience delays across a range of services. These delays cause grief for people and are a huge challenge in any system. In my previous Department, I tried to minimise delays in making decisions across the range of the operation of the Department and discovered, as the Deputy suggested, that the number of queries decreased the more we reduced the list or queue. This led to even...

Response to Industrial Action. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Generally, where the industrial action has discommoded people, the unions have taken a responsible attitude and recognised that the people served by my Department are the most vulnerable. We will continue to work to try and minimise the disruption to people, but this is also contingent on getting co-operation from the staff and unions, something which has been given. Low level action has...

Pension Provisions. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Under the Pensions Act, defined benefit pension schemes must meet a minimum funding standard which requires that schemes maintain sufficient assets to enable them discharge their accrued liabilities in the event of the scheme winding up. Where schemes do not satisfy the funding standard, the sponsors or trustees must submit a funding proposal to the Pensions Board to restore full funding...

Pension Provisions. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: As I stated, the Department will defend this action vigorously.

Pension Provisions. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: All I can say is that the Department will defend the action vigorously and believes we have complied.

Pension Provisions. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I cannot-----

Pension Provisions. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I can answer the general question. A report from the Commission on 15 June 1995 analysing national laws transposing the directive found that in the case of Ireland there was no cause for objection. The Commission found that all of these provisions appear to meet the requirements of Article 8. Following the ruling in the Robins case, the Commission published a working document in April 2008...

Pension Provisions. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I cannot answer on this situation because the Commission is conducting it.

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Work on draft proposals for a partial capacity scheme is currently under way in my Department. The Deputy will be aware that the structure of welfare provision in Ireland for people with illnesses or disabilities reflects a view that people can be categorised as being either capable of full-time work or incapable of full-time work. The fact is that a strict binary approach fails to...

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department is very keen to proceed with this. When they came to me they were all very anxious with regard to timeframes. I would like to see the draft scheme first. No more than what I stated to Deputy Shortall earlier, I like to see what I am being presented with as a Minister prior to jumping in to make a decision. The principle is simple and I do not think anyone could argue with...

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There was talk about putting it into legislation, starting from the beginning of next year. I have not seen the detail; the devil is always in the detail of these things. The concept is fine. I am not going to commit myself here to doing that because I will not introduce a scheme unless I believe it is robust. I understand the idea of the scheme is to facilitate participation in the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The family income supplement is designed to provide support for people with families who are on low earnings. This preserves the incentive for them to remain in employment in circumstances where they might only be marginally better off than if they were claiming other social welfare payments. FIS is a central element of a strategy targeted specifically at addressing child poverty. The...

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In 2006, some €272,000 was spent on an advertising campaign.

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I can never get my head around this matter. I do not know how many people are eligible. I do not know if there is any way to find that out. Presumably the nearest we would get to it would be through an assessment through, for example, a labour force survey. It depends on household income which requires knowing both incomes of a couple to do the calculation. We must try to ensure that...

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: For existing recipients the supplement increased and potentially more people should have become eligible.

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: If my memory serves me right, the amount of money was increased by increasing the level. It is 60% of the difference between a person's income as assessed and the guide income. The way to increase FIS is by increasing the guide income. Therefore, it should have potentially made more people eligible for FIS. That is a fact.

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In addition, for people already in receipt of FIS, following the increase in the threshold income, if their incomes stay the same, 60% of a higher threshold also increases by the same amount.

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Moving people from welfare to work has been a life's mission with me, and I have done quite a bit of it in my time, long before I entered this House during which I got a very good knowledge of the social welfare system. As a young person going to work and creating employment in a community co-operative, I was appalled to find out how penal the social welfare system was given that, growing...

Social Welfare Benefits. (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: With regard to the means testing for people on jobseeker's allowance and so on, I am more than willing to engage in a detailed debate on all of these issues in committee. I would look forward to invitations from the committee and we can spend afternoons going through this in detail. Members will find me very open to ideas and suggestions as to how we can improve all of these schemes. There...