Results 1,761-1,780 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: A fuel allowance of €9 per week is payable to eligible households during a 29 week winter heating period from end-September to mid-April each year. An additional €3.90 per week is payable in the designated urban smokeless fuel zones. Approximately 274,000 households receive a fuel allowance, and some 123,000 of these also receive a smokeless fuel supplement. The scheme is expected to cost...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The PRSI-free allowance for employees paying the ordinary rate of PRSI was first introduced in 1995. For that year, a weekly non-cumulative threshold of £50, €63.49, per week applied to employees covered under classes A, E and H and with weekly pay exceeding £178, €226.03. A corresponding allowance for individuals in classes B, C, D and S was £10, €12.69. In 1997, the PRSI-free...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The PRSI exemption on low earnings was first introduced in 2000. For that year, employees covered under classes A, B, C, D, E and H, with reckonable weekly earnings of not more than £226, €287, were exempt from paying PRSI for that week. The exemption threshold has not changed since. It is estimated that an upward change in the current €287 exemption level to €400 or €500 would...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The estimated cost of increasing child benefit by €40 per month across the board is €530 million in a full year. The cost of increasing child benefit by €40 per month for children aged under 5 years of age is estimated at €144 million in a full year.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned claimed farm assist on 18 April 2005. He was asked to supply certain documentation and information in connection with his claim. He failed to supply the relevant information. His claim was disallowed on the grounds that he failed to prove, to the satisfaction of the deciding officer, how he supported himself and his wife since February 2003, given that he has no recorded...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I, nor my Department, have any function in deciding entitlement in individual cases. The Dublin-mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that the person concerned applied recently for a supplementary welfare allowance. It has no record of a...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (24 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I understand that the Deputy's inquiry relates to recruitment policy in my Department, and the agencies for which I have responsibility, with particular regard to the decision taken by Government in December 2002 which set targets for staffing levels in the public service. In this regard my Department, the Family Support Agency, the Pensions Board, the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman and...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: There is no provision for payments made towards future pension provision to be exempted from liability for PRSI contributions for self-employed contributors who are outside the PAYE system. To narrow the base for social insurance by introducing such a provision would give rise to a significant loss of contribution income for the social insurance fund, while still maintaining responsibility...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Liability for social insurance contributions is governed by social welfare legislation and the provisions provided therein. The Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 sets out the income liable to social insurance contributions from self-employed contributors. The basis of assessment or reckonable income of a self-employed is defined as meaning the aggregate income, excluding reckonable...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which the applicant is unable to meet out of his or her own resources. The Dublin-mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that it has no...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 268, 269 and 273 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. From January this year the maximum rate of carer's allowance for a carer under 66 years increased...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Child benefit is payable in respect of all children up to the age of 16 years and continues to be paid in respect of children up to age 19 who are in full-time education, or who have a physical or mental disability. According to figures collected under the quarterly national household survey by the Central Statistics Office for the final quarter of 2004, there were an estimated 84,000...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: A deciding officer disallowed the unemployment assistance claim of the person concerned from 4 October 2005 on the grounds that he was not genuinely seeking employment. The deciding officer, taking into account all relevant circumstances based on the evidence provided by the claimant, was not satisfied he had been consistently seeking work. It is open to the person concerned to appeal this...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or health service executive payments towards their additional heating needs during the winter season. It is a long-standing policy within the scheme that fuel allowances are not payable in cases where a person has access to his or her own fuel supply, or is benefiting from a subsidised...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 274 to 277, inclusive, together. My Department's policy is to ensure that a range of payment options is available to customers and that service is continually improved by providing access to the wide range of payment options and new services and facilities now available. Current payment methods include payment at post offices by means of a pension order book,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for exceptional needs payments to assist with essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her household income or other resources. The Dublin north east area of the executive has...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department is due to decentralise all of its Dublin based headquarters sections to six locations throughout the country involving some 1,300 staff. It is scheduled to decentralise to Sligo and Carrick-on-Shannon early in 2007, to Carrickmacross in 2008 and to Drogheda, Donegal and Buncrana in 2009. In addition, the Combat Poverty Agency and Comhairle, agencies under the aegis of my...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned is in receipt of unemployment assistance at the weekly rate of €88.80 from 14 April 2004. His means, derived from the benefit of board and lodgings, are assessed at €260. In the case of wage earning families, means are calculated by deducting rent or mortgage and a parental allowance of €133.32 per week, or €120.63 in the case of a single parent family, from the...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department administers a range of back to education supports, under the umbrella of its employment support services, to encourage and facilitate single parents and others to return to work through the acquisition and improvement of skills and academic qualifications which will enable them to compete more successfully for employment. The programmes which the people concerned pursue range...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The purpose of the scheme is to assist long-term social welfare recipients who would benefit from full-time education....