Results 14,321-14,340 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Community Development: Community Development (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: Under the Community Initiatives area of responsibility in the Department of Social Protection (ie Rural Social Scheme, Tús, Community Employment Schemes and Community Services Programme), there is no provision to provide direct funding by way of grants to organisations. In the case of the RSS and Tús, organisations may submit a work plan requesting participants to undertake certain works...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 14 October 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 2...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: My Department endeavours to seek the maximum level of repayments from clients, who have received payments in excess of what they were entitled to, in order to encourage prompt repayment of all debts. We are fully committed to recovering 100% of all overpayments, including those arising as a result of suspected fraud or error. Effective debt recovery is seen an integral part of the deterrent...

Written Answers — Departmental Offices: Departmental Offices (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Office of Public Works, on behalf of my Department, is in the process of acquiring suitable accommodation for the establishment of new public offices in Balbriggan and Swords as a matter of priority. All available options are being examined in the context of a viable accommodation solution, taking account of the operational needs of the Department, the service needs of the local...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Act 2011, which was enacted on 19 December 2011, gave legislative effect to a number of social welfare measures arising from Budget 2012. It will also be necessary to bring forward a further Social Welfare Bill to enact a number of other measures announced in Budget 2012, which are due to take effect early in 2012. This Bill will also provide for a range of other...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department has been accepting new claims for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) since 1st April 2009. Statistics relating to the allowance for the period prior to April 2009 are a matter for the HSE, the previous administrators of the scheme. Statistics relating to the outcome of applications for children with specific disabilities or conditions in individual counties are not held. While...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 15th October 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 16th ...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection advertises vacancies notified to its employment service's job bank through its national call centre, and maintains a database of all such vacancies. During 2011, in the region of 69,000 job opportunities were notified to the job bank (then operated by FAS) and a further 9,500 jobs have been notified in the first two months of 2012. Currently, (February...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: Support for farmers on low incomes is available through the farm assist scheme. While this means-tested payment is broadly similar to the jobseeker's allowance scheme, it has a more generous means test, which takes account of the specific nature of farming and, unlike jobseeker's allowance, farmers claiming this payment do not need to be available for work outside of the farm in order to...

Written Answers — Child Support: Child Support (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The payment rate for the scheme remains at €188 per week – with a further €29.80 per week for each additional qualified child. Until 2011, the OFP payment provided long-term income support to lone parents until children were aged 18, or 22 if in full-time education, without any requirement for them to engage in employment, education or training. Such long-term welfare dependency and...

Written Answers — Child Support: Child Support (29 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection makes a number of payments to families with children which include child benefit, which is provided on a universal basis to all families. They also include payments to low income families including the family income supplement and qualified child increases to recipients of primary social welfare payments, both of which provide a level of assistance that is...

Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The new maximum rent limits were set after an analysis of the most up to date market data available. The emphasis of the rent limit review was to ensure that maximum value for money for tenants and the taxpayer was achieved while at the same time ensuring that people on rent supplement were not priced out of the market for good...

Social Welfare Benefits (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: I would be very grateful if the Deputy forwarded me details of the cases about which she is most concerned. The study carried out by the Department was carried out very much in conjunction with community welfare officers, who are now officers of the Department of Social Protection. The information used was check-marked against all the county information available on rates of rent and...

Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. Pathways to Work is a new approach to the provision of services to unemployed people, the objective of which is to reduce the level of long-term unemployment and, in so doing, to ensure the overall level of unemployment will reduce as the economy returns to growth. In developing the policy the Government is acutely aware that the level of...

Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department is currently evaluating the various models operating in other countries. I expect to be able to develop proposals following the evaluation. I am extremely conscious of what the Deputy has referenced, which is the negative experiences in some countries, as well as positive experiences. In this country, using the local employment services model, we have experience of taking in...

Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The Deputy's concerns are shared by everyone. This represents a major change for the Department, which took in an extra 1,000 employees from the Community Welfare Service, CWS, an extra 700 employees from the FÁS employment services and approximately 300 people who work in local employment service companies to provide one-to-one monitoring. We are also investing heavily in the roll-out of...

Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: Absolutely.

Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The new system of drawing a profile or picture of new applicants has been tested. In the roll-out and testing to date, approximately 7,000 such profiles have been done. The model for the prediction of exit was developed in conjunction with the ESRI. In May, we will launch four offices that will be models for the new integrated service. Their locations will be King's Inns Street, Tallaght,...

Tax and Social Welfare Code (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: In the first instance, responsibility for the terms and conditions of employment for public sector workers, including retirement and pension issues, lies with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin. As the Deputy will be aware, the previous Government introduced a moratorium preventing the recruitment of staff in the public sector except in limited...

Tax and Social Welfare Code (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: Deputy Fleming is proposing a form of sharing work, particularly among those who might wish to slow down as they get older. The public service already offers generous facilities in terms of jobsharing and family friendly hours. In the context of our current economic difficulties and the costs that would arise, we will need exit the troika programme before we can go further than that. We...