Results 7,181-7,200 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: According to my Department's records, the person concerned has a total of 72 Irish insurance contributions paid over the 48 year period from 1953 to 2001. This gives a yearly average of 2, which is not sufficient to qualify the person concerned for a standard State Pension Contributory. A minimum yearly average of 10 is required to entitle a person to a State Pension Contributory. As the...

Written Answers — Disadvantaged Status: Disadvantaged Status (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: The school meals programme operated by my Department gives funding towards provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the long-standing statutory urban school meals scheme, currently operated by 36 local authorities. The second is the school meals community (local projects) programme through which funding is provided by my Department to...

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

Martin Cullen: The Parental Leave Act, 1998, allows fathers and mothers to take unpaid leave to look after young children. It may be taken either as a continuous block of 14 weeks or, with an employer's agreement, broken up over a period of time. The Act also allows limited paid leave, known as force majeure leave, of up to 3 days in any 12 months, or up to 5 days in any 36 months, to deal with...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: My Department spent €39,168.38 on official hospitality in the 12 month period to the end of September 2007.

Written Answers — Departmental Facilities: Departmental Facilities (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: My Department provides facilities for a canteen service for staff in a number of locations i.e. in Longford, Sligo, Letterkenny, Áras Mhic Dhiarmada and Kilmainham. However, it is not directly involved in the provision of meals or in the running of these facilities. Arrangements for the provision of services in these facilities are put in place by voluntary committees of staff in the...

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

Martin Cullen: Credited contributions, or 'credits' as they are termed, are intended to protect the entitlements, particularly the pension rights, of employees and other persons participating in the social insurance system when they are ill or unemployed. A person who is providing full time care and attention as a carer is awarded credits on the same basis as if they were out of the workforce due to...

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

Martin Cullen: The social welfare pension rights of those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties are protected by the homemaker's scheme which was introduced in and took effect from 1994. The scheme allows up to 20 years spent caring for children or incapacitated adults to be disregarded when a person's social insurance record is being averaged for pension purposes. However, the scheme will...

Written Answers — International Agreements: International Agreements (31 Oct 2007)

Martin Cullen: Ireland has social security agreements with Austria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the USA and Switzerland. These agreements came into effect between 1989 and 1999, except for that with the UK which covers the Isle of Man and Channel Islands and came into effect on 1st October 2007. Ireland also has a bilateral understanding with Quebec since 1 October 1994. In the...

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

Martin Cullen: My Department provides a wide range of second chance education opportunities to 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 back to education allowance (BTEA) is one of these second chance education opportunities schemes. It is paid at a standard weekly rate...

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

Martin Cullen: The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1st of May 2004. The basis for the restriction is the applicant's habitual residence. The restriction is not based on citizenship, nationality or any other factor. The question of what is a person's "habitual residence" is...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Green Paper on Pensions was published on the 17th October and sets out the key issues and challenges facing the Irish pensions system now and for the future, and some suggestions on how these might be addressed. In addition to the Green Paper, the Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund 2005 was also published and this provided important information and context that informed the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: Supporting and recognising carers in our society is, and has been, a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates to carers have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have been significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit and the respite care grant have been introduced and...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (1 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The scheme of performance-related awards in the civil service applies to Deputy and Assistant Secretaries and equivalent grades. It does not apply to Secretaries General. Details of awards to individual officers under the performance related scheme are not disclosed on the basis that they are confidential to the officer concerned. However, I can say that during 2007 awards totalling €89,000...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Payments: Social Welfare Payments (1 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The current range of payment options offered by my Department to customers includes payment to a bank or building society account, or at a local post office. Customers opt for a particular payment option having regard to their own circumstances. My Department administers a variety of schemes which have weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual payment cycles. For operational and administrative...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: In the most recent pension coverage statistics, from the Quarter 4 2005 CSO Quarterly National Household Survey, coverage of persons in employment aged 20-29 was 38.9 per cent. This represents an increase of 3.4 percentage points since the previous detailed coverage survey in Quarter 1 2002, and is above the ultimate target level for the age group set out in the National Pensions Policy...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The person concerned was in receipt of Disability Allowance from 30 June 1999. Following a review of entitlement in September 2006 it was found that the income derived from her spouse's earnings from insurable employment was in excess of the statutory limit for entitlement to Disability Allowance and accordingly the claim was stopped from 27 September 2006. She appealed the decision to the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: Further to my reply of 24 October 2007, there are two basic rates of child benefit; the lower rate which is payable in respect of each of the first two qualifying children, and the higher rate, payable in respect of the third and subsequent qualifying children. A qualified child is one who is under 16 years of age, or aged 16 to 18 and attending full-time education. In the case of twins,...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: One of the qualifying conditions for receipt of a State Pension Contributory is that a person must have entered into insurable employment before the age of 56. An amendment of this requirement was introduced for the self-employed in April 1999 whereby they could qualify for a partial State Pension Contributory if they were aged over 56 on the 6th April 1988, when PRSI for the self-employed...

Written Answers — Ministerial Staff: Ministerial Staff (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 282 to 286, inclusive, together. The details the Deputy has requested in respects of the staffing of my private and constituency offices, since my appointment as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, on 14th June 2007 are shown in the attached tabular statement. There has been no Minister of State formally assigned to my Department. However, Minister of...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: There are no EU directives within the competency of my Department that have not been transposed into law.