Results 19,681-19,700 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: All one–parent family payment (OPFP) applicants are requested to provide details of the other parent of their child (ren). This information includes the name, address and whether he/she is in employment or receiving payments from the Department or the Health Service Executive (HSE). The applicant is also requested to submit long version birth certificates for each child. In a significant...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The statistical information requested by the Deputy is not readily available within the Department. Ireland has Bilateral Agreements on Social Security with the UK, Austria and Switzerland. All three agreements are non-effective in so far as they have been superseded by EU Legislation following the entry of both the UK and Austria to the EU and an agreement between Switzerland and the EU...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The Department's facilitators work with social welfare recipients of working age, including people in receipt of jobseekers payments, people parenting alone, people in receipt of disability welfare payments and people providing care, to promote participation and social inclusion. Facilitators work with social welfare recipients to identify appropriate training or development programmes which...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 107 and 110 together. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The overall aim is to provide short term assistance, and not to act...

Written Answers — Humanitarian Assistance Scheme: Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: In recognition of the devastation suffered by people in many areas of the country as a result of the flooding from November 2009 onwards, the Government set up a humanitarian assistance scheme to provide income tested financial support to people who have suffered damages to their homes not covered by insurance. An initial sum of €10 million has been set aside by the Government for this...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: Social welfare legislation does not currently provide for the reimbursement to the Department by insurance companies of social welfare payments deducted from awards of special damages in respect of loss of earnings. Officials in my Department have been examining the range of issues involved in relation to this matter. In view of the fact that any changes in this area would require extensive...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 114 and 402 together. Staff represented by the CPSE, PSEU and IMPACT have been engaged in industrial action in my Department for the past number of weeks. The main purpose of the Department is to provide income maintenance services to the public and consequently, the Department's staff are engaged in work that either directly delivers services to the public...

Written Answers — Civil Registration: Civil Registration (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 115 and 123 together. The provisions and procedures governing the registration of deaths in Ireland are contained in Part 5 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 and these are as follows; Where a death occurs in the State it is the duty of a qualified informant (normally a relative of the deceased) to attend at a registrar's office and register the death on foot...

Written Answers — Money Advice and Budgeting Service: Money Advice and Budgeting Service (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: MABS assists people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems. The role of money advisers is to help clients to assess their financial situation, make a budget plan and deal with creditors. MABS is now dealing with increasingly complex debt situations in respect of clients who are presenting with multiple creditors and debts. It is important that people...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The Social Insurance Fund operates under the terms of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005. The Fund comprises a current account and an investment account. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs manages and controls the current account, while the Minister for Finance manages and controls the investment account. Benefits payments are paid from the current account. To the extent that...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The scheme primary purpose is to provide short term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is designed to provide support for people with families who are on low earnings, regardless of their occupation. Besides providing valuable financial support to such families, FIS preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where families might be only marginally better off than if they were claiming other social welfare payments. FIS...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: There is no restriction on any jobseeker taking up employment or training and returning to a Jobseekers payment when the work or training terminates provided they continue to satisfy the conditions for the Jobseeker scheme. Special arrangements have been put in place in local offices to ensure that these claims are fast-tracked into payment.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: Carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain older people or people with a disability with full time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. Persons who are in receipt of carer's allowance also receive the annual respite care grant, the household benefits package and the free travel pass. Carer's...

Written Answers — Civil Registration: Civil Registration (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The current position in relation to birth registrations is that no man who is not married to the mother can be named as the father of a child in an entry unless he consents, or unless he is found to be the father of the child by the Courts in proceedings relating to guardianship or maintenance, or by way of a declaration of parentage, made under section 35 of the Status of Children Act 1987....

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The Department endeavours to process applications for refunds of PRSI as efficiently as possible. However, the volume of applications for refunds of PRSI has increased dramatically in recent years. For example in 2009 some 23,400 applications were received compared to 14,000 in 2008 and 9,000 in 2007. The increased volume of applications has inevitably given rise to a delay in processing...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The current arrangements for paying child benefit are defined under the provisions of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 with the detailed rules set out in article 159 of the Social Welfare (Consolidated Claims, Payments and Control) Regulations, 2007. The day-to-day needs of the children are the priority consideration in the operation of the current child benefit payment...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The Department assists social welfare recipients with heating costs, through their basic payments, through the fuel allowance scheme and through the household benefits package of electricity and gas allowances. The household benefits package is payable throughout the year to almost 380,000 pensioners, people with disabilities, and carer households to assist them with their heating, light and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The Guardians' payment schemes currently allow for the provision of a weekly allowance to a guardian of a child who has either been orphaned or whose parents have abandoned and failed to provide for the child. The child must live with the claimant and they must be responsible for his or her care. The payment must benefit the child. The current weekly rate of Guardians' payment is €169 per...

Written Answers — Maintenance Payments: Maintenance Payments (23 Feb 2010)

Mary Hanafin: The one-parent family payment acts as a safety net for people caring for children on their own, who receive inadequate maintenance, where maintenance payments are irregular, or where efforts to secure maintenance in the first place fail. Applicants for one-parent family payments must satisfy the department that they have made reasonable attempts to obtain such maintenance. They are also...