Results 1,881-1,900 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: As the Deputy is aware, in February of this year, because of slow progress on our pensions targets, I asked the Pensions Board to conduct a review of our overall strategy. I received the report of the Pensions Board on 7 November. The review encompasses an examination of the main strategic recommendations contained in the national pensions policy initiative, including those relating to the...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 77 and 97 together. The question of allowing older people to defer claiming their social welfare pension is something which has been under consideration by my Department and which features in the recently completed national pensions review. Generally speaking, the system would involve people being offered the option of deferring drawing their social welfare...

Written Answers — Financial Services Access: Financial Services Access (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I understand that this report, a joint study by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, on the issues concerning access to financial services in Ireland, will be completed in spring 2006. I expect that the findings of this research, which builds on earlier Combat Poverty Agency studies on money-lending and indebtedness, will assist in the development...

Written Answers — Farm Incomes: Farm Incomes (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My recent written reply to the Deputy stated that there had been a decrease of 781 customers in receipt of farm assist in the 12 months to September 2005. There are several reasons for that drop-off in numbers, not least of which has been the take-up of the rural social scheme, which is operated by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. That scheme specifically targets...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Widow's or widower's non-contributory pension is a means-tested payment payable to a widow or widower whose income falls below a certain limit and who does not satisfy the contribution conditions for contributory widow's or widower's payment. Widow's or widower's non-contributory pension is a payment for widows and widowers who do not have dependent children. In assessing means for social...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. The basis for the restriction contained in the rules is the applicant's habitual residence. The effect is that a person whose habitual residence is elsewhere is not paid certain social welfare payments on arrival in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities programme 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 conditions for entitlement to the third level option of the back to education allowance scheme were revised with...

Written Answers — Computerisation Programme: Computerisation Programme (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department has been allocated funding of €3.75 million for e-Government related projects in 2006. My Department is undertaking three specific e-Government related programmes of work, namely, customer object development, public service identity and the standard authentication framework environment, SAFE. The ultimate aim of these programmes is to improve the service the Department...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Tapers and income disregards are a feature of the social welfare system. They are generally designed to make schemes more employment friendly by removing the disincentives associated with the loss of benefits on taking up employment. Examples of such measures for people returning to work include: one parent family payment — the first €146.50 of weekly earnings is disregarded as well as...

Written Answers — Migrant Workers: Migrant Workers (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. It was introduced in the context of the Government's decision to open the Irish labour market to workers from the new EU member states without the transitional limitations which were being imposed at that time by...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: As detailed in the reply to a parliamentary question, reference number 36066/05, on 23 November 2005, the person concerned applied for carer's allowance in respect of two carers on 4 October 2005. The principal conditions for receipt of the allowance are that full time care and attention is required and being provided and that the means test that applies is satisfied. Additionally, the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The personal public service number is the citizen's unique reference number for all dealings with Departments and public bodies. A PPS number does not issue automatically except in the case of children born in Ireland. In all other cases application must be made in person at one of the Department's local offices. It is necessary to have effective controls around the PPS number registration...

Written Answers — Industrial Relations: Industrial Relations (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Staff concerns in general are addressed through contacts and communications between management and staff of my Department. This is the approach which has been adopted regarding the issue to which the Deputy refers. There has been no further contact with the Office of Public Works on this matter, so the meeting between staff representatives and the company contracted to oversee the...

Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 141 and 153 together. Some 7,880 farm families are currently in receipt of payments under the farm assist scheme from a high of approximately 8,700 in 2003. It was difficult to estimate the likely level of take-up of the scheme since the numbers availing of its predecessor, small-holders assistance, had been in decline for several years before farm assist was...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The number of people receiving family income supplement is 16,650. This represents an increase of approximately 40% in the past three years. It is difficult to estimate the number of families who fail to apply for their entitlements under the FIS scheme. However, research undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute in 1997, which was based on the results of the Living in Ireland...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The home-maker's scheme was introduced in 1994 to assist those who work in the home to qualify for an old age contributory pension. From 6 April 1994, periods of time spent out of the workforce, including self employment, caring either for children aged up to six years or incapacitated people are disregarded when calculating a person's pension entitlements. The Social Welfare Act 1996...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: In order to qualify for any form of social assistance a person must satisfy a statutory means test. This means test includes a value attributed to any capital a person may have. Capital refers to savings, investments, cash-on-hands and property, excluding the person's own home. The value of all of these items is added together and a formula is applied to their total value to calculate a...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: To qualify for an unemployment payment a person must be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work. Following a review, a deciding officer disallowed the unemployment benefit claim of the person concerned from 10 November 2005 on the grounds that he was not genuinely seeking employment. The person concerned had failed to produce sufficient evidence to show that he had been...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 149 together. The Irish Missionary Union in its submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs indicated that there are 2,600 missionaries working in 90 countries. The Irish Missionary Union estimates that some 826 missionaries could qualify immediately for a pension, with a further 500 or so qualifying over the next five years....

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Dec 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Ireland has social security agreements with seven countries, namely, Australia, Austria, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Switzerland. These agreements came into effect between 1989 and 1999, except for that with the United Kingdom, which came into effect in 1971. Ireland also has a bilateral understanding with Quebec since 1 October 1994. All of these...