Results 18,921-18,940 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for Carer's Allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 5 November 2015. It is a condition for receipt of a CA that the carer must be providing full-time care and attention. It is a further condition that the person being cared for must require full-time care and attention. The evidence submitted in support of this application was examined...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Illness Benefit Appeals (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Illness Benefit is a payment for people who are incapable of work and who satisfy certain insurance contribution (PRSI) conditions. The person concerned was examined by one of my Department’s medical assessors in July 2015 who expressed the opinion that they were capable of work. This view was upheld by a deciding officer. The decision was appealed and, as part of the appeal process,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Public Services Card (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Public Services Card (PSC) is designed to replace other cards within the public sector such as the social services card and free travel pass and to make it easy for providers of public services to verify the identity of customer. A PSC is issued following a registration process called SAFE, which involves the capture of an individual’s photograph and signature and the verification...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Review (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Community Employment (CE) is a labour market activation programme which helps long-term unemployed people (those 12-months or more in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment) and other disadvantaged groups to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. It is designed to be a temporary fixed-term activation intervention. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Community Employment (CE) is a labour market activation programme which helps long-term unemployed people (those 12-months or more in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment) and other disadvantaged groups to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. It is designed to be a temporary fixed-term activation intervention. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The free travel scheme provides free travel for those with eligibility on the main public and private transport services which includes road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann, Luas and services provided by over 80 private transport operators. There are currently approximately 853,000 customers with direct...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department monitors on an ongoing basis all social welfare income support schemes including the one-parent family payment scheme (OFP). The majority of customers affected by the reforms to the OFP scheme transitioned to the jobseeker’s transitional payment (JST). My Department, at the request of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, intend to carry out a Value for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Poverty (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions shows that 134,000 children were living in consistent poverty in 2014 and 222,000 children were at-risk-of-poverty (relative poverty). Neither Eurostat nor the OECD produces a measure equivalent to the Irish measure of consistent poverty. Eurostat data find that 209,000 children were living in relative poverty in Ireland in 2014. This is a lower...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (29 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Ireland’s Public Employment Service (PES) is managed by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and delivered directly by its own Intreo service as well as by contracted private companies under the JobPath service; the Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Clubs. The JobPath element of the service is a new approach to employment activation designed to support long-term unemployed...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: JobPath is an activation service that supports long-term unemployed people and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid, suitable employment. Two companies, Turas Nua and Seetec, have been contracted to deliver JobPath services. The suitability of employment is a key factor in ensuring jobs are sustainable. If people are not placed in suitable jobs,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: To date, there have been either 28,000 or 50,000 referrals - I cannot remember the exact figure - to JobPath, which has been running for approximately a year. I am sure with any service there will be people with complaints or who have had a bad experience and I do not think they should be allowed to characterise the entire service, but I would encourage individuals who do have complaints...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, I am aware of allegations from reading newspaper reports from the UK. One will have allegations against the Department as well, never mind contractors. It is important to point out that there is a huge fundamental difference between what is being done in this country and what was done in the United Kingdom. None of the outsourced providers, whether they are local employment services...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. It is not intended to cover the entire cost of going back to school, but, rather, to give parents a helping hand. It is not intended to cover items other than clothing and footwear....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, the Deputy is correct. The payment was cut twice by the Fine Gael-Labour Government, of which I was a member. Yes, I will be considering the rules around the scheme and the amounts paid in the context of the budget. However, I cannot make any commitments on the budget now. Speaking of Governments, the Deputy’s party has been a member of the Government in Northern Ireland...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: No one doubts the enormous cost of sending a kid to school every year. In the context of the budget and as part of the package for children in families, we will be looking at measures to make it more affordable, whether it is increases in the back to school clothing and footwear allowance or more assistance with school meals and school books schemes, which arguably could be more targeted....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I know the Deputy does not want to hear this but the cost of living is not half what it is here. It may be lower but it is not half. One action Sinn Féin can take to prove it is an all-Ireland party is to commit itself and its Democratic Unionist Party coalition partners to increase welfare rates to what they are in the Republic of Ireland, rather than prioritising the reduction of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Tackling poverty continues to be a priority for the Government. The updated national action plan for social inclusion identifies a wide range of targeted actions and interventions to achieve the overall objective of reducing poverty. The goals include a focus on early childhood development, youth exclusion, access to the labour market, migrant integration, social housing and affordable...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It is an absolute priority to improve those figures and to improve the lives of people in the coming years. As the Deputy said, consistent poverty stood at 8% in 2014. It is worth noting that in 2005, during the boom, it was 7%, so it is only 1% higher now than it was at a particular point in boom. This is not just about cash transfers. I attended a very good conference on child...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The figure was 8% for 2014 and, as we will not have the figure for 2016 until the end of 2017, we will not know how much lower it is than 8% until then. These will be difficult targets to meet and understanding them is a science in itself. Interestingly, the reason the number of children we have to take out of poverty has gone up from 70,000 to 97,000 is not because living conditions for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The programme for Government clearly states the Government’s commitment to actively encouraging payments at post offices. While responsibility for An Post and the post office network rests with my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, I want to highlight the size of my Department’s business with An Post, which was over 38 million transactions...