Results 841-860 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 88, 109, 113, 116, 124, 318 and 339 together. The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. The primary objective of the social welfare system is to provide income support and,...

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: 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 Department jointly funds the food costs with these local authorities, which also manage and fund the administration of the...

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

Séamus Brennan: I understand the Deputy is referring to a draft paper co-written by a researcher in the ESRI entitled Paying the Price for Reconciling Work and Family Life — comparing the wage penalty for mother's part-time work in Britain, Germany and the United States. I have no plans to commission research in this area but my Department will consider the issues raised in the context of its ongoing...

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

Séamus Brennan: Late last year, I conducted a review of the measures announced in November 2003 to assess their impact on affected people. During the course of that review I listened to the views expressed by members of this House, by the social partners and by voluntary groups and others I have met since becoming Minister for Social and Family Affairs. On budget day, I announced new arrangements and the...

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

Séamus Brennan: The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over. It is also available to carers and to people with disabilities who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments. It applies to travel within the State and cross-Border journeys between here and Northern Ireland. There have been a number of proposals for extending entitlement for free travel to...

Written Answers — Tax and Social Welfare Codes: Tax and Social Welfare Codes (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department liaises on an ongoing basis with the Revenue Commissioners at national and local level. Section 222(1) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 1998 provides specifically for the sharing of data between my Department and the Revenue Commissioners. The Revenue Commissioners provide my Department with details of individual earnings at the end of each year and with information...

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

Séamus Brennan: The social insurance system provides income support to those who are incapable of work due to illness and who have made the required number of contributions to the social insurance fund. This support is provided primarily through the disability benefit and invalidity pension schemes. For those persons without the required number of social insurance contributions, income support for long-term...

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

Séamus Brennan: At the end of March 2005, there were 208,050 people receiving an old age contributory or retirement pension and 84,878 receiving an old age non-contributory pension. An actuarial review of the social insurance fund, undertaken on behalf of my Department in 2002, projected that the number of recipients of old age contributory and retirement pensions will increase to 255,000 by 2011 and 321,000...

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

Séamus Brennan: Diet supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Any person who is receiving a social welfare or Health Service Executive payment, who has been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition and who is unable to provide for his or her...

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

Séamus Brennan: Family income supplement is designed to provide cash support for employees on low earnings with families. This preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might otherwise only be marginally better off than if he or she were claiming other social welfare payments. The number of persons currently in receipt of family income supplement is 15,040 with an...

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

Séamus Brennan: The report, to which the Deputy refers is, I understand, the Community Platform's mid-term review of the Sustaining Progress agreement. As Minister with overall responsibility for the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion, I could not agree with the platform's assertion that national partnership is not meeting the needs of people living in poverty. The Deputy will be aware...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: There are a number of schemes within the social welfare system to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses. A bereavement grant based on PRSI contributions is a payment designed to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses. It amounts to €635 and is paid by cheque to the husband, wife, next of kin or personal representative of the deceased or to the person...

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

Séamus Brennan: The Deputy is referring to the EU Commission's second annual report on equality between men and women, which was published last February. At the spring European Council in March 2003, EU Heads of State and Government asked the Commission to report annually on developments towards gender equality. This second report covers a range of issues including gender gaps in employment, part-time...

Written Answers — Child Care Policy: Child Care Policy (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 103, 108 and 138 together. Parents have the main responsibility for the care of their children. They may need to get others to share the caring role if a parent wishes to take up employment to maintain or improve their standard of living. This may be particularly necessary for lone parents. Formal child care arrangements, responsibility for the development of...

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

Séamus Brennan: The Deputy is referring to the target in the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion to increase the lowest social welfare rates to €150 per week — in 2002 terms — by 2007 and to set the appropriate equivalence level of child income support — child benefit and child dependant allowances combined — at 33% to 35% of the adult rates. We remain on target to achieve...

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 105, 151, 156 and 159 together. In the context of developing my Department's payment delivery systems, there are a number of important elements which must be taken into account. One of these is the fact that a wider range of payment options is now available which provides convenient and flexible access to payments for customers. It is Government policy to...

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

Séamus Brennan: The overall objectives behind the provision of child income support are twofold, namely, to bring about an improvement in the relative overall position of families with children compared with single persons or childless couples — horizontal equity — and to eliminate child poverty. While a number of social welfare financial supports have an additional child-rearing dimension, for example,...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (19 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 107, 142, 147, 157 and 161 together. Lone parents represent a significant proportion of the working age group, after people with disabilities and the unemployed, receiving weekly social welfare payments. At the end of 2004 there were 79,181 recipients of the one parent family payment, up from 58,960 in 1997. There are, in addition, 13,125 lone parents with...

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

Séamus Brennan: The current national action plan against poverty and social exclusion was submitted to the European Union in July 2003 and covers the period up to 2005. It sets out the commitments made by Ireland to meet the Lisbon pledge "to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty" by 2010. The plan incorporates the strategic approach to tackling poverty which was set out in the earlier...

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

Séamus Brennan: The elimination of poverty is a key objective of the Government which is committed to achieving the range of targets which are set down in the revised national anti-poverty strategy, NAPS, and the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion. The principal mechanism available to my Department for addressing poverty levels in low income families is through the social welfare...