Results 7,341-7,360 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (28 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The bereavement grant is a payment designed to assist families with death and funeral expenses. It is a scheme that relates specifically to those who have made PRSI contributions and is payable on the death of an insured person, his/her spouse and dependent children under age 18 or under age 22 if in full-time education. The grant is payable if the relevant insured person had: 156 PRSI...

Written Answers — Departmental Offices: Departmental Offices (28 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: Due to the untimely death of the Branch Manager in Dunmanway arrangements had to be put in place immediately to ensure continuity of service to customers. All claims originally catered for in Dunmanway were transferred to the Department's office in Bantry as an interim arrangement to ensure that payments were not interrupted. Arrangements were subsequently made to distribute the claims...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (28 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The amounts of Pay related Social Insurance (PRSI) received by my Department in respect of employer, employee and self-employed contributions, from 2004 to the 30 th of September 2007 are set out in the following table: 2004 2005 2006 Provisional Jan-Sept. 2007 € Million € Million € Million € Million Employer PRSI 4,000 4,512 5,167 4,344 Employee PRSI 1,258 1,218 1,380 1,189...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (29 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA), which is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare staff of the Health Service Executive, is one of a number of social assistance schemes which, with effect from 1 May 2004, is subject to a habitual residence condition. The Health Service Executive (HSE) has advised that the person concerned is not entitled to supplementary welfare...

Social Welfare Code. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: Child benefit may be paid in respect of every child under the age of 16 who is ordinarily resident in the State. Payment can be extended to the 19th birthday if the child is in education or incapable of self-support. The benefit is paid to the qualified person with whom the child resides and the qualified person must satisfy the habitual residence condition. The requirement to be habitually...

Social Welfare Code. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: Prior to the introduction of the habitual residence condition in 2004, full examination was given by my Department to the question of whether it was consistent with a number of international conventions to which Ireland was party, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention allows national legislation to prescribe the manner of provision of that benefit. The...

Social Welfare Code. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: I gave the Deputy detailed information in my reply. As I said, from January to August 2007, a total of 28,542 claims were decided. Of these, 3,430 required particular examination of the habitual residence condition. Some 90% of these satisfied the condition and only 341 were refused as the condition was not satisfied. I repeat we provide direct provision. I would be astonished if certain...

Social Welfare Code. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: It is about a balance. It is not only about a few people, as the Deputy rightly said. The generosity and flexibility in the system is indicative of the Irish people and the amount of resources we have put into this area. It would be wrong to be irresponsible and to attach no conditions for people coming to this country to access what is a very generous social welfare system.

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: The overall goal in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, NAPinclusion, is to reduce the proportion of our population experiencing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016. The goal is based on the trends since 2003 in the EU survey on income and living conditions, EU-SILC, conducted by the Central Statistics Office. It...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: I do not.

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: The measurement used is utterly meaningless and I will explain why. EU survey results for 2006 are not yet available from all EU countries. However, in the case of Ireland, given the progress being achieved in tackling poverty, it is expected that our comparative position should improve. Ireland has regularly pointed out the limitations of the use of at risk of poverty measures. They may...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: I am glad the Deputy shifted her focus and argued for dealing with the real picture where there are children living in consistent poverty. There is no question about that and we have been dealing with this issue. The figures are coming down. That is why under the NAP inclusion plan, the national development plan and Towards 2016, we want to eliminate it within that timeframe. That is...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: I want, again, to deal with what we know to be the factual position as opposed to some statistical analysis. I pointed out to the people who bombarded me with statistics that we are actually dealing with real people here.

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: Frankly, I am not interested in dealing with people who are using all sorts of very strange measurements to come up with certain figures. The fact is that we are targeting a huge amount of our resources to deal with children in poverty. In respect of the two big groups, children in families where there is unemployment and the children of single parents, there are two pilot schemes being...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Deputy wanted an answer to the question. It is not about the amount of money one simply gives somebody; it is about using the services to get them out of the situation and into employment, which is what we are doing — just so the Deputy knows what the strategy is.

Social Welfare Benefits. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: Rent supplement is administered on my behalf by the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Rent supplement is subject to a limit on the amount of rent that an applicant for rent supplement may incur. These rent limits are set at levels that enable the different categories of eligible tenant households to secure and retain basic suitable rented...

Social Welfare Benefits. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: As I said earlier, the review for this year has been completed. Clearly, there are issues within the system at which I would like to look. The system that is in place will run up to June next year. In the meantime, we will look at all of the issues, some of which were raised by Deputy Enright and some of which I am aware of, having interacted with many of these people who come to my...

Social Welfare Benefits. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: It would be wrong to provide a specific answer seven months in advance of what may happen because that would have a major effect on the market and the people with whom we are both trying to deal. When the review, which will involve voluntary organisations, the Private Residential Tenancies Board and various Departments, is complete——

Social Welfare Benefits. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: There was a review that set up the system that is effective from January 2007 to June 2008. We are now beginning a review for 2008.

Social Welfare Benefits. (4 Dec 2007)

Martin Cullen: Supporting and recognising carers in our society is a priority of the Government and has been so since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates to carers have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions for the carers 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...