Results 20,941-20,960 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: If we were to have a working family payment that genuinely reduced child poverty and incentivised work over welfare there would have to be no losers and that would be expensive, but not prohibitive. That is the type of initiative we will be seeking to come up with in the early part of next year. As I said, long-term employment is down to 4.4%. The target is to reduce that figure to below...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: What was the question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Chairman is asking me how much I believe the live register will fall next year, but we have not addressed that yet. We will need information from the Department of Finance and we would, of course, have to agree on the figure with that Department. The live register has been falling by approximately 40,000 per year and unemployment has halved but, as we get down to a smaller level, it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It is a fair question. As I said, with the rising number of old people it will cost an extra €200 million next year just to stand still. I did not say what savings could offset that. The live register could be one such area.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Disability and carer's allowances are also rising at a faster rate than we had projected. We will give the committee what we can. I take the Chairman's point. It is well recognised that poverty rates are higher among those living alone. The gap is not as big as I thought it was, but there is one, arising from the additional costs of running a house. An increase in the living alone...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My apologies for not answering Deputy Brady's question. We will have proposals for a replacement scheme for JobBridge in the next few weeks, in October if not in September. I do not want to pre-empt decisions that have not yet been made, and the budgetary impact has to be worked out in the context of the budget. We are moving towards capping the number of work experience placements and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: If we proceed with it, I will be delighted to give him full credit for it but we would need to know what it is going to cost. These things may cost more than one thinks and we would also need to know if there would be losers as well as winners. That said, if he has a proposal, we would like to see it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I am sure Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and other parties will be producing fully-costed budget proposals-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: -----so we will be able to see what choices they would make. I know the Deputy has done that in the past and I am sure he will do it in the next few weeks. I look forward to seeing his proposal.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Priorities for Department of Social Protection: Minister for Social Protection (7 Sep 2016)

Leo Varadkar: That is something that I would like to do and want to do. It would be a very useful exercise to do equality budgeting to determine the social impacts of the budget. Unfortunately, because so many budget decisions are made so late in the day, it is hard to do that analysis. It is a flaw in the budget process that so many decisions are made so late that we only find out about their impact...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The two pension schemes mentioned fall within the scope of the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the Insolvency Directive (2008/94). That ruling was in response to a reference by the High Court seeking clarification of the interpretation of European law emanating from EU Directive 2008/94EC on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer. ...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Community Employment (CE) is a non-statutory scheme put in place to support persons who are long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups to gain the confidence and skills to re-enter the labour market. Schemes are sponsored by local community and voluntary groups who provide valuable support services to local communities. These sponsoring organisations employ supervisory staff to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Health Services (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: This is a matter for my colleague, the Minister of Health.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Carer's allowance (CA) is in payment to the person concerned since 16 June 2005 in respect of one care recipient. I confirm that my department received an application for CA on 11 March 2016 from the person concerned in respect of a second care recipient. The application was referred to a local social welfare investigative officer (SWI) on 22 June 2016 to assess the level of care being...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer's allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 21 June 2016. Unfortunately, there are currently delays in the processing of new applications. Additional resources have been provided to the CA section in order to improve the waiting times for new applications and they are working hard to make this happen. Frequently, delays are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 16 June 2016. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers have been received in the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer's allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 7 April 2016. Additional information in relation to the person's application, which is necessary in order to make a decision but which was omitted from the application, has been requested by a deciding officer on 22 June 2016. Once the information is received from the person...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 7 December 2015. Carer's Allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment, made to persons habitually resident in the State, who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who has a disability such that they require that level of care. The requirement for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Partial Capacity Benefit Scheme Appeals (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 8 July 2016. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When these papers have been received from the Department, the case in question will be referred...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Primary Medical Certificates Applications (21 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: This is a matter for my colleague, the Minister of Health.