Results 14,761-14,780 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Departmental Records. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The five laptops and three mobile phones relate to the six years since 2002.

Departmental Records. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: None of them was recovered but none contained sensitive information so people need have no worries in that respect. Encryption is an important aspect where information is being passed from one agency to another. Of all Departments, my Department is conscious that it holds personal information such as identity, PRSI contributions and claim activity. Some 6.8 million datasets are held by the...

Departmental Records. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Any breach of confidentiality is inexcusable and is not tolerated in the Department. Disciplinary action, up to dismissal, has always been taken in cases over the past few years. Given the number of staff and the amount of information held, the number of incidents is small and few staff have been involved. That is not to excuse it because people need the comfort of knowing their...

Departmental Records. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not know how many are issued but I am quite sure it is more than the five that were stolen over a six year period. I will check if the information is available.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The vision for older people as set out in the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, is to enable people to maintain their health and well-being and to live full and active lives in an independent way in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. The agreement already includes a wide range of commitments regarding older people in the area of pensions, long-term care,...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I did outline who the appropriate Minister was, stating that basic health services was a matter for the Minister for Health and Children, discrimination in employment is dealt with by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and equality issues are the responsibility of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The area of concern to my Department is income...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy asked where the areas of responsibility lie. The Minister of State, Deputy Hoctor, is assigned to the Departments of Health and Children, Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Social and Family Affairs. Her job is to co-ordinate a strategy for older people, drawing on those three areas.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Pensions and income support is a central role of mine. I see the pensions strategy as one of the major items that must be addressed.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I accept that pensions and the development of a long-term pension strategy are significant issues requiring to be addressed. The consultation process runs until the end of this month. A major forum will be held at the end of this month in Dublin Castle following which all ideas will be brought together. I should point out, however, that there is no consistency of approach in the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Pensioners are not in receipt of the average industrial wage.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: This also illustrates that the rate of consistent poverty for older people in this country has reduced from 3.1% to 2.2% which means that the targets to be achieved by 2012 have already been met. This says a great deal about the Government's commitment in this regard.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: There has been some discussion in regard to the over 80 age group. Obviously, I would like to work towards ensuring there is equality for women in social welfare services.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 89 together. In 1992, my Department and An Post entered into a five-year contract for the delivery of payments. This contract was renewed in 1997 for a further three years to the end of 1999. The award of a further extension of the contract in 2000 became subject to complaints to the European Commission under competition and procurement law. On 13...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: As Deputy Enright stated, my Department must comply with competition law, European regulations, services directives and so on and cannot do anything that goes against them. At the same time, however, everybody appreciates the value of the post office in terms of accessibility for recipients of social welfare payments. An Post currently plays a major role in regard to the provision of such...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I am sure the Deputy appreciates fully that from the perspective of the Department of Social and Family Affairs any future contracting arrangements will have to be in the form of tender and must be transparent. It is significant to note that 46% of payments made to 1.8 million recipients every week are made through post offices.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: People now have a wider choice and can have their payments made through the post office, bank, credit union or other recognised financial institution.

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: It is interesting to note that people on long-term schemes use their books. Some 384,000 people and 272,000 child benefit customers are paid electronically while others such as job-seekers, one-parent families and early child care supplement recipients receive their payments through the post office. A significant number of people continue to choose to use post offices. I see it as...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I am not yet aware what talks have taken place in this regard.

Live Register. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I am aware of the increase in the national live register in recent months and I am satisfied that the Department is monitoring the impact of this on local offices on an ongoing basis. At present a network of 40 facilitators work closely at local level with social welfare customers, including those on the live register, in order to determine training and development needs. They arrange,...

Live Register. (14 May 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy is being a little bit dramatic. While he is right to state increases have taken place in certain offices, such as Clones, Portlaoise and Macroom, the overall live register saw a reduction on last month.