Results 7,861-7,880 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The Document, Record and Information Management (DRIM) programme is a key part of my Department's Modernisation Action Plan. The Department aims to have all documents, records and information easily accessible, usable and managed in a manner that satisfies all stakeholders. The intention is to eliminate paper, in so far as is possible, from both the claim and administrative processes and to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The Government Discussion Paper on Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents put forward a proposal to introduce a new scheme, Parental Allowance, for all low income families with young children. It was envisaged that those in receipt of Parental Allowance would be able to earn up to €120 per week without affecting their payment and that 40% of the remainder would be assessed as means. It was...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

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 greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have 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 extended....

Written Answers — Registration of Births: Registration of Births (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The legislative provisions governing the registration of births are contained in the Civil Registration Act 2004. When a birth occurs in the State, it is the duty of the hospital to notify the registrar of the facts of the birth. When a birth takes place other than in a hospital or nursing home, and the birth was attended by a medical practitioner or midwife, it is the duty of that person...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 133 and 168 together. The programme for Government includes commitments to reduce long-term reliance on rent supplement. This will be done mainly by keeping the standard means test for rent supplement under review to provide enhanced financial incentives for people taking up employment and providing long-term housing solutions under the rental assistance...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: Risk management was identified in my Department's 2003 Control Strategy as a key element in the control of fraud and abuse of schemes. The objectives of risk management are to identify those schemes where there is a high risk of fraud and abuse, from internal and external control perspectives, and to identify the high risk areas within schemes. This ensures that control activity is focused...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: Attendance at approved full-time educational courses provides opportunity for personal development and progression to employment for those dependent on income support. The existing arrangements applying to the back to education allowance scheme, which excludes distance learning courses, are best suited to meeting the objective of the scheme, which is to enhance the employability skills of...

Written Answers — Departmental Bodies: Departmental Bodies (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The introduction of a personal advocacy service was provided for in the Citizens Information Act 2007. An organisational structure has been developed by the Citizens Information Board to meet the needs of the Personal Advocacy Service. The post of Director of the Personal Advocacy Service was advertised in December 2007. The Board is currently working through the recruitment process. It...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: Budget 2008 announced in December 2007, made provision for further improvements in social welfare schemes for low income families and children. It provided for an increase of €12, or 6.5%, per week in the personal rate payable to recipients of the various social welfare schemes for persons of working age. This brought the level of the lowest rate of social welfare payment to €197.80 per...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The social welfare system includes a number of provisions to provide additional support to widows and widowers in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement. The scheme of six weeks payment after death ensures that, if a person in receipt of a social welfare payment dies, the social welfare paid to the surviving spouse or partner is maintained at the same level for six weeks after the death of...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The state pension (transition) was introduced in 1970 when it was known as the retirement pension. It was designed to bridge the gap between the standard social welfare pension age, which at that time was 70 years of age, and retirement at age 65. A key qualifying condition for the scheme is that a person has to be retired in order to qualify for a payment. Retirement was defined as not...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: A claimant who is dissatisfied with the decision of a Deciding Officer of my Department, including a decision based on medical criteria, may appeal it to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. In addition to affording customers the right of appeal, all customers who receive an adverse decision are advised of their right to have their claim reviewed by a Deciding Officer where new facts or fresh...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: Waiting days have been a feature of the jobseeker's payments and illness benefit schemes since their inception. They are a feature of social security schemes in many countries. The application of a three-day waiting period avoids the disproportionately high administrative costs involved in processing large numbers of claims of a short duration. The waiting day rule is not applied in every...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over. All carers in receipt of carer's allowance and carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance, regardless of their age, receive a free travel pass. It is also available to people under age 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type welfare payments, such...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: Applicants for one-parent family payment are required to make efforts to seek adequate maintenance from their former spouses, or, in the case of unmarried applicants, the other parent of their child, and must satisfy the Department that they have made reasonable attempts to obtain such maintenance. Similarly, under the Liability to Maintain the Family provisions of the Social Welfare...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: Rent supplement, which is administered on my behalf by the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, is subject to a limit on the amount of rent that an applicant may incur. Rent limits are set at levels that enable different eligible household types to secure and retain basic suitable rented accommodation, having regard to the different rental market...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The Guardians' payment schemes allow for the provision of a weekly allowance to a guardian of a child who has either been orphaned or whose parents have deserted and failed to provide for the child. The review of the Guardians' payment within my Department commenced in late 2006 and involved a detailed analysis of a large sample of guardians' payment files. Statistics recovered from the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (13 Feb 2008)

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 1 May 2004. It was introduced in the context of the Government's decision to open the Irish labour market to workers from the 10 new EU Member States, without the transitional limitations which were imposed at that time by most...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The reviews of the work of the Combat Poverty Agency are at different stages of progression. The review of the Agency's Research Programme, initiated in May 2007 by the Agency and the Office for Social Inclusion of the Department, is being carried out by Goodbody Economic Consultants. It will, inter alia, assess the activities, output and outcomes of the research programme; review the...

Written Answers — National Carers Strategy: National Carers Strategy (13 Feb 2008)

Martin Cullen: The development of a national carer's strategy is a key Government commitment in the national partnership agreement, Towards 2016, and the Programme for Government. A working group, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach, has begun work on developing the strategy. My Department provides the secretariat to the working group which also includes representatives of the Departments of...