Results 661-680 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: A person applying for unemployment benefit is required to make reasonable efforts to find employment. The person concerned applied for unemployment benefit from 29 July 2004. Her claim was disallowed as the deciding officer decided that she had not made sufficient efforts to find alternative employment. She appealed this decision. Following an oral hearing, an appeals officer upheld the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department provides people receiving social welfare payments with a range of payment options. People who choose payment of pensions by electronic fund transfer, EFT, to personal bank accounts do so on a voluntary basis. The majority of those who opt for the facility do so at the start of their claim and are paid on a regular weekly basis once their claim is put into payment. Customers who...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides assistance to eligible people whose means are insufficient to meet their basic needs. The Dublin and mid-Leinster region of the executive has advised that the people concerned had been in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance while...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of rent or mortgage interest supplements to assist eligible people who are unable to meet their housing costs from their own resources and do not have accommodation available to them from another source. Supplements are...

Written Answers — Official Engagements: Official Engagements (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I will be representing the Government at various ceremonies organised in Estonia as a celebration of St. Patrick's Day. During the visit, I will also have a bilateral meeting with the Estonian social affairs minister as well as meeting the chairman and vice-chairman of the Estonian Parliament social affairs committee. I will be based in Tallinn and will depart Ireland on Wednesday, 16 March...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: An overpayment amounting to €1,619 occurred in the case of the person concerned because old age contributory pension and widower's contributory pension were paid concurrently for a period of ten weeks due to departmental error. It was decided, having regard to all of the circumstances of the case, to seek recovery. The code of practice for recovery of overpayments, SI 227 of 1996, requires...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: This person was in receipt of a reduced blind person's pension from August 1998. She was assessed with means of €63.59 per week derived from her husband's earnings. Following a review of her circumstances by the Department, the person's current means were assessed at €222.81 per week. These are derived from her spouse's earnings and a pension from the Western Health Board. As this amount...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The effective dates for increases in social welfare weekly rates of payment are determined by reference to the payment weeks for each scheme, which may commence on different days of the week and by the fact that some schemes are paid in advance and some in arrears. Accordingly, the effective dates vary for different schemes and do not necessarily coincide with the first day of January. The...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Existing provision for pensions include pensions under the social insurance system which require a certain level of social insurance contributions and pensions under social assistance which depend on satisfying a means test. A number of measures have been introduced in recent years which make it easier for people to qualify for pensions. These include extended social insurance coverage and an...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Tackling child poverty continues to be one of the key priorities of this Government. It is also one of the special initiatives under the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress. The Government recognises the importance of supporting and protecting families and children and is fully committed to achieving the NAPS target of eliminating consistent poverty amongst children. The most...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned applied for unemployment benefit on 6 October 2004. Her claim was disallowed by the deciding officer on the grounds that she was not genuinely seeking employment. The person appealed against this decision to the social welfare appeals office, which was received on 29 November 2004, and an appeals officer is of the opinion that an oral hearing is required. She will be...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned ceased employment on Saturday 22 January 2005 and applied for unemployment assistance on Monday 24 January 2005.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Second Stage. (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I am pleased to introduce this, the second of two Bills intended to implement the €874 million social welfare package announced in budget 2005. The sum represents a €244 million, or almost a 40%, increase on the 2004 package of €630 million. It brings the projected level of social welfare expenditure in 2005 to more than €12.25 billion. That represents an increase of €1 billion, or...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Second Stage. (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill builds further on the development of social inclusion measures adopted by this Government over recent years. It safeguards the living standards of those who rely on social welfare income and other supports and prioritises the allocation of resources in favour of those most in need. My priority in this Bill is to make significant progress in delivering on...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Second Stage (Resumed). (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I thank Senators for a very good debate. There has been more than two hours and ten minutes discussion and I listened carefully to what was said. Almost every issue raised could be the subject of a debate in this House. We could have a debate for a whole day on issues such as child poverty, child benefit, pensions, child care and carers, so I will not try to get through all of them. Senator...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Second Stage (Resumed). (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I have a duty to protect pension funds that might include 100 or 1,000 recipients. Any Member of this House, or any other individual, might buy a property as their pension for the future. Someone who owns a shop and has no pension might decide that instead of giving their money to Irish Life or a pension fund to invest in equities and so on they would buy an apartment or a shop. However, in...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Second Stage (Resumed). (2 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: There is no guarantee because these are private pension schemes. I know of no party that has recommended nationalising these schemes. We have a choice to make. Should we press the company so hard that it says, "To Hell with this, we are out of here", or should we take companies under the wing of the Pensions Board and, over a longer period, nurse them to a situation where they can get their...

Written Answers — Free Travel Scheme: Free Travel Scheme (3 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years, or over. It is also available to carers and to people with disabilities who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments. European nationals aged 66 or over who are permanently living in Ireland, qualify for free travel in the same way as Irish citizens aged 66 or over. The issue of extending the free...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (3 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Social welfare legislation provides that a person must satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work in order to be entitled to unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance. The person concerned had made an application for asylum in the State and on 28 January 2005 the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform refused this application. He was given leave to...