Results 18,341-18,360 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Payments (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, data. We will be sharing more and better data to perhaps identify children who are not attending school or children whose parents have left the country and are no longer entitled to the payment, but the basic principle that child benefit is universal, not means tested and not taxed remains and I have no intention or plans to change the law in that regard.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: A commitment was given in Pathways to Work to develop and implement a programme of evaluations to assess the impact of the Pathways to Work initiatives. One of the first schemes selected for evaluation was JobBridge. The aim of the evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the scheme in terms of its key objective of improving employment outcomes for unemployed jobseekers. The evaluation...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: First, as the Deputy is or at least should be aware, the scheme is entirely voluntary on the part of both the employers and those taking part in it. No one was ever required to take up a JobBridge internship. When I was at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, we had JobBridge interns, some of whom went on to full-time jobs. It is important to ask people who have taken part what...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: An independent review already is under way, commissioned by my predecessor as Minister, Deputy Burton. It is important to wait six or seven weeks to get that review in order that it can be considered fully. I certainly will take a look at Sinn Féin's paper with regard to its proposals on what should replace JobBridge. As stated previously, it was a scheme that was established at a...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department is responsible for compensating employees for the loss of their jobs where their employer is unable to pay statutory redundancy due to financial difficulties or insolvency. Payments are made from the Social Insurance Fund, essentially from the PRSI contributions paid in by those in employment, employers and the self-employed. Following the liquidation of Clerys in June...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As Deputy Penrose has described it, the €2.5 million that was required to pay the statutory redundancy to the employees who were entitled to it had to come from the Social Insurance Fund - that is, it came from the contributions of others rather than from the company. Section 599 is a mechanism by which it might be possible to recover those funds either from the company or from...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Penrose is as familiar with the Attorney General and her office as I am, and a conservative she is not. She is-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It certainly was what the Deputy implied.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: One thing about which I hope my bureaucrats are conservative is saving taxpayers' moneys. As a result of this, €2.5 million already has been lost-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: -----and I certainly am not going to risk losing millions more on a case that may not be successful or on a case against a company that might not have the funds to pay back the money. That would be throwing good money after bad. However, if there is a strong case to be made, then I believe it should be pursued. As I stated, my officials are in consultation with the Office of the Attorney...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As Members of the House will be aware I have already announced that I plan to replace JobBridge with a more targeted scheme later this year. I believe that economic and labour market conditions have changed for the better since the scheme was introduced in 2011 and that the time may now be right for a more targeted scheme. JobBridge was developed in 2011 in response to the unemployment...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I am aware of the NUI and IMPACT surveys on JobBridge, but I am not aware of the one to which Deputy O'Dea has specifically referred. It was a scheme for a particular time and I have no doubt that there has been some degree of displacement. That is something that I want to ensure changes in any replacement scheme, but any scheme will cause some degree of deadweight or displacement. That is...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has answered his earlier question. There is a monitoring system and had there not been, those 80 firms would not have been suspended from JobBridge.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: That is 80 out of 19,000 in total.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I will look into it again out of my own interest. The reason they cannot be published or named and shamed in the way a tax defaulter would be is that where they have been suspended from a scheme, it is done on an administrative basis. It is not that a finding has been made against them in the way a finding may be made against somebody who defrauded the State of taxes. It is not that anyone...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will understand, more so than most in this House, the potential consequences of impugning the reputation of others. That is definitely something I do not want to be a party to or responsible for. What has been determined in the interim-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Exactly that.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I will answer the Deputy's question. In a small number of cases, as a result of on-site inspection processes, the Department formed the view that non-compliance by certain organisations warranted a decision to terminate the internship concerned or to suspend them from future participation for a period depending on the nature of the transgression. In the cases concerned, the decisions were...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The new partnership Government aims to create an additional 200,000 jobs by 2010, including 135,000 outside Dublin. This will be achieved by continuing and enhancing a supportive environment for enterprise and employment. In particular, the role of entrepreneurs and the self-employed will be central to this ambition. The new programme agreed with our partners in Government contains a...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: There is an under-used voluntary scheme in existence in Ireland, the class P, under which people can make voluntary contributions but very few do. That is often the difficulty with voluntary contributions. Only small numbers will contribute and the contributions often have to be high to cover the inevitable risk that occurs. When something is voluntary, those who are most likely to avail...