Results 17,341-17,360 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Redundancy Payments (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: An application for a redundancy lump sum payment in respect of the person concerned was received on 27 June 2012. The claim has recently been awarded and the payment will shortly be issued to the person’s bank account.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers. Currently the average time taken to award a carer’s allowance application is 28 weeks. I acknowledge that the time taken to process carer’s allowance claims at present is not satisfactory but I am satisfied that the Department is taking appropriate action to resolve the situation. ...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal, by the person concerned, was registered in that office on 10th July 2012. 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. When received, the case will be referred to an Appeals Officer who will...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Numbers (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: The JobBridge Scheme has made significant progress since it came into operation on the 1st July 2011. 10,326 internships have commenced to date with 4,813 participants currently on an internship as at 21th September 2012 and over 2,200 opportunities presently advertised on www.jobbridge.ie. For your convenience please the tables for a breakdown of current participants by age, company size...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Standard Authentication Framework Environment (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection has developed, in conjunction with a number of other Government Departments, a rules based standard for establishing and authenticating an individual’s identity for the purposes of access to public services. This programme of work, which is known as the Standard Authentication Framework Environment or SAFE for short, also provided for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I wish the Chairman well in chairing this committee. This is our first opportunity to meet formally. The upcoming meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, EPSCO, will be in Luxembourg on 4 October. I wish to brief the committee on my priorities during the forthcoming EU Presidency. As the members are probably aware, the EPSCO Council covers a wide...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I will start with Deputy Ó Snodaigh's questions. The youth guarantee has been under discussion for a number of years at EU level. The important political aspect of this is that the European Union, for understandable reasons, has been focused on the banking crisis and the economic crisis, but, as the committee will be aware, there is an enormous human dimension to that crisis,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: We are just starting on the Pathways to Work process and, as Deputy O'Dea noted, it is a question of identifying these people and their skills levels. These data were not gathered in the past but they form part of the new Pathways to Work profiling project. It will take a number of years to build up the profile as new people come into the system. In regard to Senator Moloney's related...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I wish to make one point in response to Deputy Joan Collins. Child poverty and social policy issues are obligations and competencies of member states. The European Union provides oversight and comparison of policies in the different member states. It tends not to act directly because that is the prerogative of national states and governments. In dealing with social exclusion and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: In response to the question by Senator Healy Eames there are no proposals at EU level on payments in respect of children being tied into vaccinations. That is an issue for a national competence and not an EU matter. The naming of the father on the birth certificate is a national issue for each country. I have responded to parliamentary questions indicating that I favour it. We are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I did not say that. It would be very rare for the EU, as the Deputy knows, to fund anything in its entirety. It would be a question of allocating resources when the EU budget is being decided. In this field much of the resource allocation is matched by member states and organisations which may draw down the funds. This has long been the practice in the EU. I am not aware of any proposals...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: If it is helpful, I will be covering the social insurance fund in the discussion on the budget.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I thank the committee for the invitation to consider the budget and Estimates process for 2013. I welcome this new initiative, which has been put in place on foot of a commitment in the programme for Government to enhance the role of Oireachtas committees in engaging with the whole-of-year budgetary process. As I outlined at our meeting on 22 May 2012, the Department will spend...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: That is the figure for next year. We got it down to €485 million for this year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I did not catch that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I will reply first to Deputies Willie O'Dea and Aengus Ó Snodaigh. On the issue of landlords and rent allowance, I share the concerns of Deputy Willie O'Dea. Everybody who represents constituencies where there is a great deal of rented accommodation available has experience of the same problems. As a result of this, when I entered the Department I changed the legislation in very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: Yes, but those growth rates, unfortunately, turned out to be not very sustainable and, similarly, the numbers who were unemployed were far higher. That Government set many of those figures the previous September but it turned out the numbers on which they were predicated were optimistic, to use the kindest word, or extremely optimistic. I can understand why that may-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: I cannot understand, from the point of view of the Department of Finance, why that may have been so because that Government was obviously being optimistic about figures. It thought the bank guarantee would be an in and out job. The Deputy possibly had a much tighter take on it because I remember some of his contributions being very thoughtful. All I can say is that his Government was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Social Protection (26 Sep 2012)

Joan Burton: Can I say what I said to the Deputy's predecessor and to Deputy Ó Snodaigh last year? No decisions have been made in regard to the budget in December. When the decisions are made on the budget, they will be made by all the members of the Cabinet around the Cabinet table. I am not at liberty to say anything because I do not have the information as no budgetary decisions have been made....