Results 19,701-19,720 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Other Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: Since taking up this post, I have gone around the country and spoken a lot to staff of my Department working in the Intreo centres with jobseekers. To my surprise, the vast majority of them, if not all of them, are enormous advocates of JobBridge and have asked me not to discontinue it.
- Other Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: Part of the Indecon report is a survey of people who have done it. While not everybody agrees, the vast majority of people had a favourable opinion on 18 of the 20 issues they were asked about in the survey. I know people who took part in JobBridge. We had some of them in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and they are all in good jobs now. They may not be the people who are...
- Other Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: There will always be a degree of displacement and dead weight in any employment activation scheme. The same applies to the community employment, CE, scheme. It is an employment activation scheme which I thing the Deputy supports. I have never heard him calling for it to be shut down. It provides services such as meals on wheels and home helps. People on CE schemes do very good work with...
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: The predecessors to the previous Government introduced two cuts to the weekly rate of the one-parent family payment in budgets 2010 and 2011. When the previous Government took office in March 2011, there was a commitment in the programme for Government to maintain core weekly social welfare rates. This commitment has been maintained as the rate of the one-parent family payment has been...
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I acknowledge that the disregards for some lone parents' payments has decreased. If the Deputy is referring to the "Morning Ireland" interview, I have no difficult in accepting that what I said, while it was not untrue, was not the full facts.
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I had in mind a lone parent who was in receipt of the basic payment, not also working and receiving benefits. I will give the Deputy the figures, if he is interested. As a result of the changes made in 2015, 47% of lone parents, 12,000, experienced no change in their incomes; 12%, 3,000, saw an increase in their incomes; and 19%, approximately 4,900, suffered an income loss, as did 5,700...
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: We can cite lots of statistics to each other. If the Deputy had been here for the-----
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I will give the Deputy some other facts.
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: It is remarkable how the Deputies asking questions during Question Time have no interest in hearing the answers-----
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: -----because they might have to tolerate a contrary-----
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: -----opinion or hearing some other facts.
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: These are the facts from the quarterly national household survey of the second quarter of 2016. In the year commencing 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016, the number of lone parent families in employment increased significantly by 3.6% to 56.4%. For those whose youngest children were aged between six and 11 years, the percentage in employment increased by 7.5% to 57.2%. More lone parents are...
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: What the Deputy seems to want to revert to is a system of more welfare. That is not right.
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: And the Deputy is not? Has he no ideology at all?
- Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: Should I take that as a compliment, then?
- Other Questions: Pensions Reform (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy is aware, the decline of defined benefit pension schemes accelerated during the financial crisis to the extent that the whole pension sector was possibly at risk. In recent years, the Government has amended pension legislation to protect the pension sector and ensure fairer and more equitable outcomes for all members of schemes. Neither the Minister for Social Protection...
- Other Questions: Pensions Reform (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I am not sure, to be honest. I am not familiar with that scheme. If the Deputy wants, I can set up something between her and my officials to tease the issue out and see if anything can be done. The fundamental job of trustees is to look after the interests of the people who are the fund's beneficiaries. Generally, but not always, the trustees are selected from among those people. One...
- Other Questions: Pensions Reform (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I do not want to comment on any individual scheme without knowing anything about it, but the members may have recourse, if not through the Pensions Authority, then through the courts. I will not pretend to be an expert in this area. It is a complicated one and I am only getting my head around the legislation, but I will ask one of my officials who understands this area well to make contact...
- Other Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: The overall concern in recent years has been to protect the value of weekly social welfare rates. Expenditure on pensions, at approximately €7 billion, is the largest block of expenditure in my Department's Estimate for 2016, representing approximately 35% of overall expenditure. Due to demographic changes, my Department’s spending on older people is increasing year on year....
- Other Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (6 Oct 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I met groups that represent the elderly in the course of my work and I am sure the Deputy, as a politician, meets them in the course of hers. When I ask them what they would most like to see done for them in the budget, many bring up issues of services like home-care packages. When they talk about these kinds of more budgetary measures, we hear of three issues. They are the €5...