Results 20,441-20,460 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code Reform (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The €1 billion we spent helping lone parents, who are doing a great job of raising their children, should help them to get back over a period of time to full financial independence.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Supplementary Welfare Allowance Eligibility (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Government has provided over €47 million for the scheme in 2013. Exceptional needs payment are payable at the discretion of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code Reform (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: When compared internationally, our payments to lone parents are extremely generous. The Deputy probably agrees with me that when a parent is alone, it is desirable that, particularly after the child is well settled in school, the parent, especially if he or she is young, should be given every encouragement and support to get back into work or education and, ultimately, employment so that he...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I have been determined and have succeeded in protecting the weekly pension payment and for those elderly people I know, that is the most important and significant part of their income. People speak to me as well as to the Deputy and-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: -----the second point they make to me is that elderly people value in particular concessions such as the free travel allowance. Again, although the Government must make all its schemes as efficient and as cost-effective as possible, these nonetheless are highly important benefits to which the taxpayers contribute. Moreover, they are happy to see that our elderly people have one of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: Let me say to the Deputy-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: -----that keeping intact the weekly social welfare payments of the pension and retirement payments was emphasised in all the submissions made to me. Second, in view of the more than €500 million the Government is spending on heating, I want to have a stronger system for insulating and retrofitting homes.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: My colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, is working on this at present and fairly ambitious targets are being set.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: Construction-related work has become cheaper and the key point-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: -----is to use the money to retrofit homes to avoid situations where, as the Deputy and I both are aware, in some cases smoke is going up the chimney and is heating the air above the house, not the house itself.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code Reform (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The number of one-parent family recipients stood at 87,824 in January 2013. The cost of the one-parent family scheme was €1.06 billion in 2012 and it is estimated to cost approximately the same in 2013. The current reforms to the one-parent family payment aim to prevent long-term dependence on social welfare support and to facilitate financial independence among lone parents, to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I appreciate that Deputy Healy is talking to constituents who find the price of electricity and fuel difficult to afford. These prices have risen enormously in recent years internationally, so that is reflected in Irish prices as set by the regulator. Ireland's older population, however, has the lowest rate of consistent poverty, at 1.9% compared to the whole population rate of 6.9%. As a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Rates (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: We should recognise it is to Ireland's credit that we pay such high levels of social welfare payments and it is the single greatest factor in reducing the risk of poverty. Unlike some very well-off European Union countries where the average effect of social transfers is to reduce poverty by approximately 40%, in Ireland the actual reduction through social transfers of the risk of poverty is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: In 2013, my Department will spend an estimated €284 million on the household benefits scheme, providing 410,000 customers with a package worth almost €700 per year. We will spend approximately €176 million on electricity payments and almost €19 million on gas payments. In addition, 410,000 customers will receive a fuel allowance of €20 per week for 26...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Rates (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: On the Deputy's points regarding poverty, during the period from 2004 to 2010, which is the period for which the most recent data on children are available, the poverty reduction affect of social transfers rose continuously from 43% to 62%. As far as I am aware, although we do not yet have the detailed statistics, this has continued. As I said, our direct payments in cash to families with...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: We have already had a detailed and thoughtful debate in the Seanad on the report. As the Deputy correctly said, the report will be discussed in some detail when it is presented before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection. It is important that as many Deputies as possible from all parties and none in this House should give the report serious consideration. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Rates (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: In 2013 the estimated expenditure on child benefit will be approximately €1.9 billion to around 609,000 families in respect of some 1.16 million children. Child benefit is a monthly payment made on a universal basis to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I just want to add that some members of the group found that taxation of child benefit is an attractive reform option but it was recognised that there are difficulties in this regard. As it is focused only on child benefit, it would not contribute to a better overall design of the family and child income support system. Additional information not given on the floor of the House According to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I received the report roughly a year ago. On receiving the report, I had the poverty impact of the different recommendations in it examined in some detail. I refer to changes in big systems such as social welfare. With over 600,000 families getting child benefit for nearly 1.2 million children, there was a need to look at what the changes in operations would require and how long would they...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare (5 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: In 2013, my Department will spend over €2.8 billion on supports to families and children, of which €1.9 billion will be on child benefit, €220 million on FIS, €694 million on qualified child increases and €49 million on the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. This amounts to a very significant part of the Department of Social Protection budget,...