Results 7,121-7,140 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Pension Provisions. (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Pensions Board has been doing what the Deputy has suggested. She identified a key sector in which pension penetration is poor, namely, general hospitality. Many women are employed in that sector and the awareness and uptake of pensions therein is among the poorest by a long way. The report of the Pensions Board will be the largest and most fundamental of its kind and is due by the end...

Pension Provisions. (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The situation is more complex than that and I would not accept that we are putting everything on the long finger. In recent years, investment in the National Pensions Reserve Fund has been significant and innovative. Many European countries would like to do the same. The investment in the social welfare system and the increase in the non-contributory pension in recent years have been...

Pension Provisions. (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Pensions Board has embarked on this campaign. The awareness of pensions has risen dramatically in the past number of years and will continue to do so.

Pension Provisions. (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: Incentives through the tax system are a legitimate part of a package of measures to encourage people to take up pensions. We need to get many more people to take up pensions, particularly young people joining the jobs market. I have said this publicly and clearly. People must see a pension as an asset and as desirable as owning one's own home. The SSIA scheme was a specific type of...

Pension Provisions. (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: There are no statistics available on those affected by the public service marriage bar. However, the requirement to leave work on marriage also applied in many private sector areas, where it was customary. The Department estimates that approximately 30,000 women do not receive support through the social welfare system in their own right or as qualified adults. Regarding farming, at the...

Pension Provisions. (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: All workers, self-employed and PAYE, who join the jobs market at 18, 19 or 22 years of age must participate and be accounted for in the overall context of how we will deal with pensions as a society over the next 30 or 40 years. As we know, the starting age is increasing while the retirement age is decreasing, which means we are being squeezed at both ends of the scale. We are fortunate that...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 67, 76, 77 and 112 together. The Programme for Government features a number of commitments in relation to social welfare pensions. These include the commitment to increase the basic State pension to €300 per week by 2012. Over the last number of Budgets, pension increases have been well ahead of inflation ensuring that not only is the real value of pensions...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 93 together. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that statistics on a county basis are not maintained for the number of oral hearings held each year. During 2006, 4,220 oral hearings were conducted by the Social Welfare Appeals Office at 59 venues around the country with a further 1,700 held at its headquarters in Dublin. Overall, Appeals...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 69 and 70 together. There are currently some 84,400 people, with approximately 137,700 children, in receipt of the one parent family payment. The annual cost of the scheme is €835 million. The Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents," put forward a range of proposals for removing obstacles to employment for lone parents and other...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: My Department through its various social insurance and assistance schemes provides income supports to people to meet their basic living needs, including food, clothing, heat and light. Supplements are also payable in certain circumstances for specific needs, for example fuel allowances, rent supplements, living alone allowance for older people or the household benefits package for pensioners,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: Widows and widowers can qualify for one of a number of different schemes depending on their particular circumstances. The contributory widow(er)'s pension is available to those who satisfy the necessary PRSI contribution conditions, either on their own record or that of the deceased spouse. Those qualifying for this benefit are not subject to a means test. Those without the necessary PRSI...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: Responsibility for questions relating to entitlement to paternity leave rests with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The question of a social insurance funded payment for paternity leave would be contingent on an underlying entitlement to statutory paternity leave. While male employees are not entitled under Irish law to either paid or unpaid paternity leave, they may be...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The scheme enables people to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time course of study....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: There are no plans to transfer the administration of the rent supplement scheme to local authorities. The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, which includes rent supplement, is currently administered on my behalf by the community welfare division (CWS) of the Health Service Executive. As the Deputy will be aware, in February of last year, the Government decided to implement the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 127 and 135 together. The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but only to provide assistance towards these costs. A person...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The qualifying criteria for entitlement to Blind Person's Pension are that a person must be over 18 years of age, satisfy a means test and be so blind that he or she cannot perform any work for which eyesight is essential or cannot continue his or her ordinary occupation. In that regard, Blind Person's Pension has always been regarded as a scheme providing income maintenance for persons of...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 82, 89, 95 and 111 together. The second Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund, which was required under Section 10 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005, was received by my Department on the 8th of June, 2007, following its completion by Mercer Human Resources Consulting, and was approved for publication at the Cabinet meeting of July...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: Since the early 1990's my Department has been developing its policy to move from largely passive income support provision to a more active social welfare system. Under the National Employment Action Plan all persons, including the young unemployed, who are approaching 3 months on the Live Register are identified by the Department of Social and Family Affairs and referred to FÁS for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 85, 347 and 348 together. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support, in the form of a weekly or monthly payment, 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. Rent...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The decision to transfer certain functions from the Health Service Executive (HSE) to my Department follows on from recommendations made by the Commission on Financial Management and Control Systems in the Health Service. In its report, the Commission noted that over the years, the health system had been assigned responsibility for a number of activities that are non-core in the context of a...