Results 4,761-4,780 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department, formerly provided pensions forecasts on request to PRSI contributors. The service was stopped for a number of reasons. For example, it is not possible at a given point in time to indicate with certainty what a person's future entitlements might be. Entitlements obviously will depend on the accuracy of their record to date, future employment patterns and contributions made to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Government believes that the current arrangements, whereby a lone parent can receive the One-Parent Family Payment until their child is 18 or 22 if in full-time education, without any requirement for them to engage in employment, education or training, are not in the best interests of the recipient, their children or society. Despite improvements made to the One-Parent Family Payment...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I presume the Deputy is referring to employees on farms when refers to "farm operators". If the Deputy was referring to self-employed farmers, the information he requires will be provided on request to my office. My Department currently operates a range of schemes for people with an illness or disability including the insurance based illness benefit and invalidity pension schemes, the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: At the end of 2009 there were some 90,500 lone parents in receipt of the One-Parent Family Payment at an estimated cost of €1,113 million. When other related supports and entitlements are taken into account, including Child Benefit and, where appropriate, the Rent Supplement and the Family Income Supplement, total expenditure in this area exceeds €2 billion. Despite this significant State...

Written Answers — Response to Industrial Action: Response to Industrial Action (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The industrial action undertaken by members of the Civil Public and Services Union and the Public Service Executive Union involved, amongst others things, the withdrawal of staff from public counters for some periods. It was a decision of management in those offices to close the office to the public on health and safety grounds. The overall management response to industrial action is managed...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 75 and 85 together. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The overall aim is to provide short term assistance, and not to act as...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 80, 94, 102, 113 and 718 together. The purpose of the mortgage interest supplement scheme is to provide short term support to people who have difficulty meeting their mortgage repayments due to changes in their employment circumstances and whose means are now inadequate to meet their basic day to day needs. The scheme, working within the overall social...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79 and 111 together. Article 8 of Directive 80/987/EEC provides that Member States shall ensure that the necessary measures are taken to protect the interests of employees and of persons having already left the employer's undertaking or business at the date of the onset of the employer's insolvency. Article 8 was implemented by section 7 of the Protection of...

Written Answers — Unemployment Levels: Unemployment Levels (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The monthly live register is published by the Central Statistics Office on the basis of data collated by my Department in respect of the last Friday of each month. At the end of March, 2010, the live register stood at 435,121. This represents a decrease of 1,835 on the February figure of 436,956. The February total was almost unchanged from the January figure of 436,936. While these trends...

Written Answers — Fuel Poverty: Fuel Poverty (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 87 together. The Government has announced its intention to introduce a carbon tax, which will come into effect on heating products from May 2010 and on solid fuels at a date to be set by commencement order. Arrangements are being made to assist those most at risk of fuel poverty. In his Carbon Budget Statement, the Minister for the Environment,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Since 1 April 2009 this Department has been accepting new claims for Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA). This follows the transfer of the scheme from the Health Service Executive on foot of a Government decision to reallocate certain functions between Departments and Agencies as part of the health service reform programme. The main change to the qualifying conditions for the scheme is that...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Control savings are calculated by applying validated multipliers to the difference in the rate of payment before and after the control activity. Multipliers used in assessing control savings estimate the total future savings to the Department of a revocation or reduction resulting from a control action. The multiplier used is based on the average amount of time the person who ceases to claim...

Written Answers — National Carer's Strategy: National Carer's Strategy (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: During 2008, an interdepartmental group, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach, with secretariat support provided by my Department, undertook work, including a public consultation process, to develop a National Carers' Strategy. However, because of the prevailing economic situation, it was not possible to set targets or time limits which could be achieved. In that context, rather than...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department. A key objective of the Department's control strategy is to ensure that the right person is paid the right amount of money at the right time. There are over 620 staff working in areas related to control of fraud and abuse of the welfare system. At the end of 2009 over...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 91 and 659 together. The recently published National Pensions Framework is the Government's plan for future pension reform. It encompasses all aspects of pensions, from social welfare to private occupational pensions and public sector pension reform. Development of the framework was informed by the range of views raised during the comprehensive consultation...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that during 2009 the average time taken to process all appeals (i.e. those decided summarily and by way of oral hearing) was 24 weeks. However, if allowance was made for the 25% most protracted cases, the average time fell to 15.8 weeks. This represents an increase of 2 weeks in the time taken to process appeals when compared to 2008, but...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The farm assist scheme which was introduced in the Social Welfare Act, 1999 is a response by the Department to the situation of low-income farmers and it represents a long-term safety net for them. It benefits farm families with children and also provides increased payments to farming couples without children and to single farmers on low income. While this means-tested payment is broadly...

Written Answers — Ministerial Responsibilities: Ministerial Responsibilities (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The process of transferring functions from one Department to another is carried out by means of Government Orders. Each Order needs to be carefully drafted so that all relevant legislation is listed in the Schedule to the Order. The Departments which currently hold the functions which are being transferred to my Department are fully engaged in this task at present. The draft Orders will...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department's facilitators work with social welfare recipients of working age, including people in receipt of jobseekers payments, people parenting alone, people in receipt of disability welfare payments and people providing care, to promote participation and social inclusion. Facilitators help people to identify appropriate training or development programmes which will enhance the skills...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Apr 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The rent supplement scheme provides short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The scheme's primary purpose is to provide short term assistance, as opposed to acting as an alternative to the other social housing schemes...