Results 821-840 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Social Insurance. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The personal public service number is the citizen's unique reference number for all dealings with Departments and public bodies. In order to ensure a person receives only one number, and that the number is allocated on information that is accurate and verified, certain procedures are set down to be followed by offices of my Department when dealing with applications. It is necessary to have...

Social Insurance. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I confirm again that the officials will be in touch with the Deputy to discuss these matters with him in detail. People are normally informed of their PPS numbers by post within five days. The Department will certainly offer advice and assistance to anyone who has difficulty in obtaining documentation that is required for identification.

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 77, 114, 134, 137, 144 and 155 together. For people in working age households, the main route out of poverty is employment. Despite the great increases in employment participation in Ireland in recent years and in opportunities generally, the proportion of lone parents in employment is low compared with other developed countries. This was borne out by a recent...

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: This is one report of which I have taken account. It has not covered everything. If it had, I would simply be able to implement it. It rehearses many of the main issues and suggests certain directions in which to proceed. However, there is much small print to be worked out. As I indicated to the Deputy, the group meets on a fortnightly basis and will send its report to the full senior...

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I will be happy to discuss the review group's proposals with the committee at the appropriate time. I found discussions with the committee to be useful in the past. Deputy Penrose is correct that this is a complex area. When removing poverty traps and attempting to build incentives, one has to be careful not to create other poverty traps. That has bedevilled the system for some time. I am...

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I acknowledge the excellent work of One Family and my Department has taken account of its submissions in the past. Localisation is well under way, with 19 local offices processing one parent family payment claims in an attempt to bring the individual closer to the service. That system will be fully rolled out to ensure all one parent payments are localised. There were also improvements in the...

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I am not referring to service officers but attempting to devise a system whereby we can intervene individually with lone parents. The NESF report concentrated on the broader family services. There is an action programme for combating child poverty. On a broad level, higher employment obviously helps because employment is the key to dealing with this. We have increased child benefit...

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: It has been increased substantially and total welfare payments have doubled in five or six years.

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: As I have stated many times, welfare payments take a third of the State's budget.

Family Support Services. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Substantial funds are going to low-income families. However, I accept the Deputy's point. Despite the expenditure, there are too many children at risk of poverty, regardless of whether the figure is the 66,000 quoted in one study or the 120,000 quoted in another. That is the reason we are trying to design something that will target them. All the reports, however, indicate that there is a...

Personal Debt. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department has overall responsibility for the money advice and budgeting service, MABS, which provides assistance to people who are over indebted. A total of €13.6 million in funding has been allocated to MABS in 2005. The service is targeted at those who are on low income or are in receipt of social welfare payments and also those with poor literacy and numeracy skills. There are 52...

Personal Debt. (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I accept the Deputy's point. For the present, however, it is best to work through the MABS. A total of €64 million has been provided to the service since 1992. The figure for this year is €13.62 million. The first half of 2004 saw an increase in the numbers calling to MABS offices, when approximately 8,500 clients used the service during that period. There was an increase from 9,000 in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79 and 153 together. The principal eligibility conditions for receipt of the carer's allowance are that full-time care and attention is required and being provided and that the means test that applies is satisfied. The number of applicants refused payment as a proportion of claims received has declined in recent years arising from various improvements...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 80, 123, 129 and 166 together. As the House will be aware, it is Government policy to encourage people to participate in occupational and private pension arrangements so that they can, when they retire, maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. To this end, a range of measures have been introduced over the last few years including personal retirement...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 96, 97, 120 and 139 together. Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent or mortgage interest is available to assist 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 any other source....

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Credited contributions have been an integral part of the social insurance system since its inception. Credits are awarded to protect the entitlements of insured workers by covering gaps in insurance wherein the worker is not in a position to pay PRSI. A common situation where credits are awarded is where a person is unemployed for a period and is in receipt of a payment. However, over time...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I understand that the Deputy is concerned, in particular, about the current arrangements applying in the case of old age pension where a landholder leases land or is otherwise in possession of land which is lying fallow or idle. Where land is let on short-term lettings such as the 11 month system, the income from such lettings is calculated as cash income for the purpose of the means...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 84 and 87 together. Since first taking office, the needs of older people have been a priority for this Government. We have sought, through significant increases in pensions and changes to other schemes, to improve the position of older people. Since 1997, we have increased pensions by up to €80.26 per week or 81%. During the same period, the increase in the...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The minimum funding standard, which applies to defined benefit, DB, occupational pension schemes under the Pensions Act 1990, is a discontinuance or wind-up standard. The standard is designed to ensure that, if a funded DB scheme winds up, there are sufficient assets available to meet the liabilities of the scheme at that point in time. In general, schemes must fully assess their position...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department's policy is to ensure that a range of payment options is available to customers and that service is continually improved by providing access to the wide range of payment options and new services and facilities now available. Current payment methods include payment at post offices by means of pension order books, electronic or manual post draft issued to the customer's designated...