Results 20,561-20,580 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Supports relating to housing are a key priority for this Government, as evidenced by the early implementation of our commitment to introduce increased rent limits under the rent supplement and housing assistance payment, HAP, schemes. The increased limits were introduced from 1 July 2016. The rent supplement scheme assists 50,700 tenants at a cost of €267 million this year. The...

Other Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As has been the case for quite some time, if people cannot find a place, they may apply for a top-up to the rent supplement. Until July, when the rent supplement was increased, that was happening on an almost daily basis and 10,000 people were in receipt of top-ups. The number requesting top-ups has since fallen dramatically, indicating that the real problem is a lack of supply. That is...

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: National Internship Scheme Review (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I did not have it at that time. When the Deputy sees the Indecon report, he will see, if he is interested in the facts, that it has been a highly successful scheme, given that those who took part in it were much more likely to be in employment subsequently than a similar control group with the same sort of background and education who did not take part in it. I hope the Deputy will read the...

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.