Results 20,821-20,840 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Live Register Data (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The key objective of current activation policy and labour market initiatives is to offer assistance to those in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency. This policy objective prioritises resources to those in receipt of qualifying welfare payments. Accordingly, the employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused, in the first...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 696 to 698, inclusive, together. There are six credit cards administered by my Department. Five are held by officials and one is held by the Pensions Ombudsman. No credit cards have been issued to Ministers of my Department. Credit cards are only issued following approval by the Department’s Accounts Branch. The amount spent on credit cards and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Paternity Leave Scheme (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 provides for 2 weeks paid paternity leave for children born or in the case of adoption from the date of placement on or after 1 September 2016. Eligible parents can avail of paid Paternity Leave at any time within the first 26 weeks following the birth or date of placement of the child. Paternity Benefit is available for employed and self-employed...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The entitlement to a one-parent family payment (OFP) in the case of the person concerned ceased with effect from 25 August 2016 due to age related budgetary changes. Upon cessation of this payment a review of her family income supplement (FIS) entitlement was undertaken, and her FIS payment increased to €125 a week with effect from 25 August 2016. The person concerned may also have an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The BSCFA is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but to provide assistance towards these costs. The Government has provided €38.8 million for the scheme in 2016. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) is designed to support second chance education. It enables social welfare customers in receipt of certain payments to pursue full-time education courses and to continue to receive income support in the form of an allowance. The BTEA is paid for the duration of the course of study, subject to the customer continuing to meet the conditions of the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Eligibility (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Child Benefit is currently paid to around 624,000 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated expenditure in the order of over €2 billion in 2016. Child Benefit is an important source of income for all families and in Budget 2016 the Government increased Child Benefit by €5 per month, at a cost of €72 million. Budget 2009 reduced the age for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Insolvency Payments Scheme Payments (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Under the provisions of the Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act 1984, a company shall be regarded as being insolvent if the company is placed into receivership or a winding-up order has been made or a resolution for the voluntary liquidation of the company has been passed. The Act does not cover informal insolvency where employers cease trading without engaging in any...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Insolvency Payments Scheme Eligibility (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Under the provisions of the Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act 1984, an employer company shall be regarded as being insolvent if the company is placed into receivership or a winding-up order has been made or a resolution for the voluntary liquidation of the company has been passed. The Act does not cover informal insolvency where employers cease trading without...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As advised in the reply to the Deputy’s most recent questions in this matter (ref: 17871-16), the person concerned received their jobseeker's allowance payment on 21 June 2016, including any arrears that were due from the date of their claim. Child dependant allowances were not payable to the claimant for the period they were out of the family home as these payments had been...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Eligibility (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The current free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by almost 80 private transport operators. Persons resident in Ireland...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The State pension contributory is a very valuable benefit and is the bedrock of the Irish pension system. Therefore, it is important to ensure that those qualifying have made a sustained contribution to the Social Insurance Fund over their working lives. To ensure the individual can maximise their entitlement to a State pension, all contributions paid or credited over their working life...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions Reform (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 provided that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition) available from 65 for those who satisfied the qualifying conditions, thereby standardising State pension age for all at 66 years, which is the current State pension age. This will increase to 67 in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: In January 2016, provision was put in place under the Community Employment (CE) programme to enable older jobseekers (62 years and over) participate on the scheme on a continuous basis until they reach the State Pension age, subject to scheme limits. The provision is available on a pilot basis and is being monitored by the Department until the end of the year when a review will be undertaken...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Expenditure (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Supports in relation to housing and the provision of financial supports, including the rent supplement scheme, which is currently supporting some 51,800 recipients at a cost of €267 million in 2016, are a key priority for Government. Expenditure on the scheme for the period from January to July 2016 is some €164.5 million. The national monthly average expenditure for rent...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Since 15 June 2016, the person concerned has been awarded Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) at a rate equal to the maximum payable for a family of 1 adult and 1 dependent child. However, as she has an outstanding overpayment, an amount equal to 15% of the adult JA rate is deducted from her weekly payment. I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Guardian's Payment (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Guardian’s payment (contributory) and guardian’s payment (non-contributory) are, respectively, social insurance and social assistance (means-tested) payments made to a person caring for a child, where that child is defined as an orphan under social welfare legislation. These payments were known as orphan’s payments until they were re-named in July 2006. Both payments...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Defined Benefit (DB) occupational pension schemes typically commit to paying the beneficiary a certain percentage of their final income in retirement on a pro rata basis factoring in their overall years of service in the relevant employment. Broadly speaking, data from the Pensions Authority indicates that approximately 340,000 public sector workers and 125,000 private sector workers are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The client exhausted his Jobseeker’s Benefit on 21/06/2016 and applied for Jobseeker’s Allowance which is a means-tested payment. A meeting with a Social Welfare Inspector is required to complete the means report to process this payment. Because the client had been working casually, he was unavailable to attend a number of appointments made with him by the Inspector. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Data Protection (16 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that to date neither the Department nor I have had correspondence with the Data Protection Commissioner regarding the ability of a Minister or a Department to comment on an individual case. The Department does not comment on individual cases and it takes its data protection responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. It is my intention to seek guidance from the Data Protection...