Results 12,561-12,580 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (22 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all the evidence, disallowed the appeal of the person concerned by way of summary decision. The person concerned has been notified of the Appeals Officers decision. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (22 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 25th August 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 31st...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: In processing claims for illness benefit the Department does not distinguish between claims made by public sector employees and those made by private sector employees. A person, whether employed in the public or private sector, may qualify for illness benefit if s/he is unable to work due to illness, satisfies the Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) conditions, and is under age 66.

Written Answers — Departmental Schemes: Departmental Schemes (22 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I can confirm that there have been no cutbacks in the number of participants on the various schemes in 2011. The community employment scheme currently provides opportunities for 23,300 people, the community services programme supports the employment of an estimated 2,800 people and 2,730 continue to be engaged on the rural social scheme. The Local Employment Service operates through Local...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (22 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2001-2016 (NAPinclusion) identifies a wide range of targeted actions and interventions to achieve the overall objective of reducing consistent poverty. My Department is currently preparing the third annual report on social inclusion. This report will outline progress in implementing the NAPinclusion over the two-year period from January 2009 to...

Written Answers — Appointments to State Boards: Appointments to State Boards (22 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The three statutory bodies operating under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection are the Social Welfare Tribunal, the Citizens Information Board and the Pensions Board. In addition, the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman, which does not have a board, comes under the remit of the Department. No former holder of the Office of the Attorney General has been appointed to the board of...

Illness and Disability Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: To set the question of statutory sick pay in context, the total expenditure by my Department in 2010 on payments in respect of illness and disability to almost 250,000 beneficiaries amounted to more than €2.8 billion. In 2001 the number of beneficiaries was less than 174,000 and expenditure was some €1.1 billion. A table setting out these figures in detail follows. The total amount in...

Illness and Disability Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: All our competitors, including those countries which have good social protection systems, have followed the advice of the OECD to develop schemes of statutory sick pay, under which the cost for first few days is taken care of by the employee before the employer and, after a period of time, the state steps in. North of the Border and in Britain the period is 28 weeks. We are proposing that...

Illness and Disability Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I regret that the opportunity was not taken during the Celtic tiger years to build a structure of contributions by employees and employers to offer the social protections to which most of us aspire. It is unfortunate these reforms were not made when the money was available. Fianna Fáil in government signed the EU-IMF deal this time last year. The troika has been investigating the areas in...

Job Creation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: JobBridge, the national internship scheme came into operation on 1 July 2011. As of Friday, 18 November a total of 2,712 individuals had commenced an internship and there were a further 2,591 internships available to be filled. JobBridge is a Government scheme, which is being administered by the Department of Social Protection in line with normal accounting procedures. I have appointed a...

Job Creation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Deputy continually seems to take a negative view of opportunities that have now been made available to 2,700 mostly young people to get a foot on the ladder of employment. Some weeks ago I launched a scheme whereby through Job Skills engineers who had lost their jobs in the construction industry were getting a new chance at employment and switching over to working in medical devices and...

Job Creation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The scheme that operates north of the Border, where the Deputy's party is a participant in government, and in the UK is far less advantageous to the intern. The Deputy must realise that to open up the possibility of getting work again, people who are now coming out of training having changed direction because the construction sector in which they had been working hard has collapsed, need to...

Social Welfare Code (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: 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. The effect of the condition is that a person whose habitual residence is elsewhere would not normally be entitled to social welfare assistance or child benefit payments on arrival in Ireland. The reference from the...

Social Welfare Code (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Deputy's question relates to returning Irish emigrants. I refer to a number of developments that have taken place. The HRC distinguishes between people who return to the State for a temporary period and those who return with the intention of settling permanently or at least on a long-term basis. The Department's guidelines indicate the evidence that enables a deciding officer to...

Social Welfare Code (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Deputy should refer that question to the Department of Education and Skills.

Social Welfare Code (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I know people affected by that issue as well, particularly the children of Irish people who have worked abroad for years, for example, in Africa and whose children are Irish. When they return home, their children want to go to college here but the Department of Education and Skills has specific rules because it cannot discriminate in favour of people who are Irish. Crosscare indicated the...

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Between 2005 and 2010, rent supplement expenditure increased from €369 million to €516 million. The number of persons claiming the allowance increased from almost 60,200 in 2005 to more than 96,100 as at 18 November 2011, a 60% increase. The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot discuss measures under consideration for inclusion in budget 2012. However, in framing the budget proposals,...

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Discussions have been taking place, particularly involving the former Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, with NAMA in regard to utilising NAMA properties, where appropriate, for housing solutions and the social dividend to which the Deputy refers. Obviously, these are very difficult issues. I have spoken with and met the local authority managers in this regard. There is a series of...

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: In an ideal world, the payments ought to be made directly to the landlords, which is the idea of RAS. In that way, we can ensure the landlord is tax compliant and the local authority, where it is operating the allocation, will be in a position to vet the property and establish its standard. Most importantly, the tenant is free to take up work, subject to the differential rent scheme....

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: There are almost 52,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance from my Department and approximately 22,000 of those are getting half-rate carer's allowance in addition to another social welfare payment, an increase of almost 40% since 2008. This year, we will spend more than €650 million on carers across several schemes. I am very conscious of the needs of people on social welfare and...