Results 20,061-20,080 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Any of those things are principally matters of family law. I am no expert in the UK system but at one stage there was a child support agency, a government agency that would, for want of a better term, go after fathers and get the money from them. If we were to make a decision to go down that road it would be a point of family law it would not be something that would be exclusive to social...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Expenditure on pensions, at approximately €7 billion, is the largest block of expenditure in my Department, representing some 35% of its expenditure. Demographic change alone increases this by about €200 million a year. Maintaining the rate of the State pension is critical to protecting older people from poverty. Entitlement levels are calculated by means of a yearly average...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: JobPath is a relatively new approach whereby the Department has procured additional resources under contract to enable us to provide high-quality case managed employment support services for people who are long-term unemployed. JobPath supplements the internal case management capacity of the Department's Intreo service and the local employment service. In the past year this additional...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The complaints process is as follows: a person initially makes a complaint to the service provider and if he or she is not happy with the outcome, he or she can make a further complaint to my Department. That is the number of 145 to which I referred. It is possible that many of those who have contacted the Deputy have not made a complaint to the Department or JobPath, but they can do so, if...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I am unsure what the Deputy means by "retaliation". If people are concerned that their payments will be reduced, that cannot be done. Neither of the JobPath providers has the authority to do so. It can only be done by my officials. Sometimes people who attend social welfare offices and Intreo centres have complaints. This may be down to personal interactions, for example, how they have...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate that. That may be an issue particular to the office involved, for example, and may be due to its size. That is the type of complaint - about the quality of the service provided, respecting people's privacy and so on - that we want to hear because we might be able to act and make improvements to the office, etc.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Law Acts are within the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality. They place a legal obligation on parents to maintain their children, regardless of whether they are the parents in receipt of welfare payments. In cases where the family unit has broken down, these obligations continue to apply and the relevant maintenance payments can be arranged either directly or through...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Waiting Times (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 52 and 58 together. My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. Over €19 billion will be spent by my Department on its various income supports and other programmes in 2016. Across the main...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Lower weekly rates for younger jobseekers were first introduced in the Supplementary Budget in 2009, and further extended in subsequent Budgets up to 2014. The rationale for these rates is to prevent young unemployed people from entering longer term welfare dependency by providing a strong financial incentive to take up a job, or a training or education programme. The CSO publishes...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department values quality social policy research and the contribution it makes in assisting it in terms of informing policy across its broad remit. As the Deputy will be aware from the title of the report, the report does not claim to be an analysis of the lone parent reforms. It was my Department’s expectation that the report would provide detail on the design of specific...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: School Meals Programme (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 60, 100 and 300 together. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to schools and organisations benefitting over 200,000 children at a total cost of €42 million in 2016. As part of Budget 2017, I announced an additional €5.7 million for school meals which will benefit over 50,000 children. Additional...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Direct Provision Data (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Since its publication in June 2015, the Report of the Working Group on the Protection Process has been under proactive consideration; in the first instance by the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform and thereafter by the Department of Justice and Equality and other relevant Government Departments and Agencies, including my Department. The report contains 173...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The various illness and disability payments administered by my Department provide income support for people with a disability and their dependants. These support payments are continually kept under review to ensure that they continue to meet their objectives. In addition to income support payments, my Department also provides a range of employment and employability supports. These are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Paternity Leave Scheme (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 84 together. The new paternity benefit scheme which was announced in Budget 2016 came into operation on 1 September 2016. The benefit is paid for up to two weeks to employed and self-employed people who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions. The rate of payment is €230 per week, the same as maternity benefit, with possible increases...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department operates a range of means tested social assistance payments such as jobseeker’s allowance, one-parent family payment and so on. Social welfare legislation provides that the means test for these schemes takes account of the income and assets of the person and a spouse/partner, if applicable. Income and assets include income from employment, self-employment, occupational...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 65 and 81 together. The majority of people in receipt of a payment from the Department of Social Protection receive what they are entitled to. Nevertheless, the Department recognises that abuse of the welfare system is an ongoing reality and must be tackled through a range of measures.These measures are governed by the Department’s Compliance...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Direct Provision Payments (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 66 and 98 together. A weekly direct provision allowance (DPA) is paid to asylum seekers who reside within the system of direct provision. DPA is administered by my Department’s Community Welfare Service (CWS) on an administrative basis on behalf of the Department of Justice and Equality at the weekly rate of €19.10 per adult and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 67 and 102 together. Some 60,000 jobseekers have engaged with JobPath since the service commenced in July 2015 with only 145 complaints recorded. This is 0.2% of the total. The majority of the complaints were about people’s initial reluctance to engage with the service or in respect of individual customer experience. All complaints have been...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 72 together. As the deputies are aware, I discussed the reforms to the one parent family payment with the Joint Oireachtas Committee during the Committee stage of the Social Welfare Bill 2016 last week. We are still at an early stage of the implementation of the reforms to the one parent family payment and I think it will take several years...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (22 Nov 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department provides a range of activation supports and programmes catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. These include the JobPath service and programmes such as Community Employment (CE). CE schemes provide part-time temporary work in their local communities, as a stepping-stone back to employment, for people in receipt of a range...