Results 21,301-21,320 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Work Initiatives (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Tús, the community work placement initiative was set up to provide short-term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. This initiative is being delivered through the network of local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta. Tús is designed to break the cycle of unemployment and maintain work readiness thereby improving a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 17 September 2015. CA is a means-tested social assistance payment, made to persons who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who has a disability such that they require that level of care. The person concerned was refused CA on the grounds that she was not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 4 May 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...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Social Assistance payments act as a safety net for people who have insufficient income and who do not qualify for a contributory payment. The use of a means test is to ensure that scarce resources are directed to those in greatest need. Payments from the United Kingdom (UK) are assessed as income under current legislation. If the person applying for a Social Assistance payment has a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Credit Availability (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: A Personal Micro Credit Scheme providing for small scale loans by Credit Unions to borrowers who have difficulty accessing low cost credit has been piloted in 30 credit unions. The loans under the scheme range from €100 to a maximum of €2,000, and have a maximum interest rate of 12% per annum. Over 1,200 loans have been drawn down under the Scheme to date with an overall value...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Eligibility (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: There are two costings in relation to the cost of restoring means testing rules to pre-Budget 2012 levels under the Farm Assist Scheme: a) To reintroduce the 70% means assessment of farm income as per the situation pre-Budget 2012; b) To reintroduce the additional disregards for children as follows (pre-budget 2012 rate was €254 for 1st and 2nd child and €381 for subsequent...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme Expenditure (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The rural social scheme (RSS) provides income support for farmers and fishermen who have an entitlement to specified social welfare payments. One of the key criteria for participation and continued eligibility for the scheme is that the participant must be underemployed in their primary activity i.e. either farming or fishing, and that their earnings are insufficient to support their family...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Data (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My department received applications for the carer’s allowance scheme as follows: Year Received Allowed Disallowed 2015 18,929 14,378 9,808 2016* 9,130 6,030 4,005* End May 2016 At the end on May 2016 there were 6,398 pending applications.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Administration (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The farm assist scheme provides support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker’s allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2016 Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of €85 million on the farm assist...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Data (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The average time taken to process domiciliary care allowance (DCA) applications in 2015 was 13 weeks and over the first five months of 2016 (to 31 May) it was 12.5 weeks. The numbers of DCA applications that were received from 2013 to 31 May 2016 are detailed in the following table. Information on applications is not collated or held on a county basis, so it is not possible to provide the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff Data (5 Jul 2016)

Leo Varadkar: In the time available it has not been possible to produce the information being sought. This is currently being prepared and will be sent to the Deputy shortly.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy has pointed out, nearly 40,000 people have been referred to JobPath, of whom thousands have managed to get employment. I do not doubt that there are individuals who have had bad experiences. In some cases, this is because the engagement is a tense one. When people have been on the carousel of CE schemes, training and more CE schemes, getting one-to-one attention is a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: If the Deputy has solid or empirical evidence of creaming or cherrypicking, my officials and I would like to see and study it. To avoid cherrypicking, we have included the use of PEX scores in contracts. People are assessed by departmental officials and assigned scores based on the likelihood of their finding jobs on their own at the top of the scale to having great difficulty finding jobs...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Labour Activation Measures (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Participation inJobBridge was always voluntary for the person taking part and the employer.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Labour Activation Measures (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Something that pays the minimum wage is a job, not a scheme. There is a difference between schemes and jobs. I do not necessarily agree with the Deputy that every scheme has to have a qualification at the end of it, although I do not rule that out. However, there is a value in gaining work experience. I am not sure if the Deputy has ever participated in an unpaid internship, but there is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Registration of Births (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for bringing this sensitive issue to my attention some weeks ago. As Members will be aware, I previously announced that I intended to look at the issue of the fee charged for a certificate of stillbirth registration. I am very pleased to inform the House that I have dealt with this matter quickly and that the fee for the certificate of a registration of stillbirth is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Registration of Births (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Section 12 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 provides for the provision of information on a death which occurs during the first seven days of life of a child born alive. This is known as an early neo-natal death. The section has not yet been commenced owing to industrial relations issues within the HSE. Once these issues are resolved, it is my intention to commence the section...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Registration of Births (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for bringing the matter to my attention and my officials and I were very happy to be able to make the change. There are approximately 240 registrations of stillbirths in Ireland every year. While waiving the fee has a small impact in terms of the loss to the HSE of some €5,000, there was no difficulty from the point of view of the Department of Health or the HSE in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The JobPath companies Turas Nua and Seetec have considerable experience in successfully delivering employment services. They are very conscious of the challenges faced by people who have been unemployed for a long time and the need to provide suitable supports for such persons to help them back into work. Thus far, approximately 38,000 people have been referred to JobPath and the response...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disability Activation Projects (30 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: First, this programme is not yet in place; therefore, there are no plans to have private contractors involved in it because it. It is being led by a coalition of groups, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Arthritis Ireland, the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP. I believe some people, either through misinformation or wanton deliberate misinformation are trying to...