Results 2,121-2,140 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (6 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department uses a mix of advertising media including national and provincial newspapers, radio and television, information leaflets, fact sheets, posters and direct mailshots to ensure that people are aware of their social welfare entitlements and are notified about improvements and changes affecting their payments and services. The amount spent on advertising in any one year is determined...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The setting of waste management charges and the introduction of waivers in respect of waste charges is, as stated by my colleague the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, a matter for each local authority. Tax credits are a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Finance. The introduction of a national social welfare scheme to address the issue would be complex given the...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (6 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents" which I launched in March this year, addresses the social exclusion and risk of poverty faced by many such families and their children. The process which led to the publication of the discussion paper included a number of submissions from organisations around the country representing lone parents as well as other...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: There is no application process for Early Childcare Supplement (ECS). The Early Childcare Supplement will be paid in respect of those qualified children who receive Child Benefit from my Department. Currently Child Benefit is in payment to 737 non resident families for 1332 children. Of these, 481 children are under 6 years and would qualify for ECS. The detailed statistics are as follows. ...

Written Answers — Education Schemes: Education Schemes (6 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Back to Education Allowance or BTEA is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The BTEA is not payable to people pursuing post-graduate qualifications because people with a primary degree are...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims. Under standard SWA rules rent or mortgage interest supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: People providing full-time care who are in receipt of Carers Allowance, Carers Benefit or Prescribed Relatives Allowance receive the Respite Care Grant automatically, without having to apply for it. The same applies where a Constant Attendance Allowance is in payment in respect of the person being paid for. Payment is made on or after the first Thursday in June of the year to which the...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: In 2002, my Department's Press Office engaged the services of Carr Communications for a short period to advise on a public relations strategy. The contract was for the period March 2002 to April 2002 and the cost was €6,534. My Department has not awarded any other contracts for public relations projects in the period 2002 to date.

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 331 to 333, inclusive, together. There are ten staff employed in my private office. These include 8 administrative staff, a Press Adviser and a Special Adviser. The 8 administrative staff are all established civil servants, one Higher Executive Officer, 1.5 Executive Officers and 5.5 Clerical Officers. The Higher Executive Officer is on a payscale of €42,180...

Written Answers — Departmental Advertising: Departmental Advertising (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department uses a mix of advertising media including national and provincial newspapers, radio and television, information leaflets, fact sheets, posters and direct mailshots to ensure that people are aware of their social welfare entitlements and are notified about improvements and changes affecting their payments and services. The amount spent on advertising in any one year is determined...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The detailed information requested in relation to the percentage of payments paid by EFT in each of my Department's schemes is set out in the table. Risk analysis is a key element of my Department's control strategy. This entails the identification of areas of high risk of fraud and abuse in the various schemes and putting in place appropriate measures to address them in a systematic way. Any...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: People providing full-time care who are in receipt of Carers Allowance, Carers Benefit or Prescribed Relatives Allowance receive the Respite Care Grant automatically, without having to apply for it. The same applies where a Constant Attendance Allowance is in payment in respect of the person being paid for. Payment is made on or after the first Thursday in June of the year to which the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The farm assist scheme, which introduced special arrangements for farmers on low incomes, was provided for in the Social Welfare Act, 1999 and came into operation with effect from 7 April 1999. There are currently 7,574 farm assist customers while the average weekly payment is €173.79. The cost of the scheme for the years 2004 and 2005 was as follows: Year Outturn €m ...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The most recent results from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Quarterly National Household Survey show a 0.9% point decline in supplementary pensions coverage from 52.4% of the working population aged 20-69 in quarter 1 of 2004 to 51.5% in the same quarter of 2005. The decline is within the margin of error for the survey so the position appears to be that there was little change in the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 415, 416, 429 and 436 together. The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. In line with other social assistance schemes, a means test is applied to the carer's allowance so...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The application for carer's benefit by the person concerned has recently been approved and carer's benefit was awarded with effect from 21 October 2004. All arrears of carer's benefit have been paid to the person concerned.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I understand that a date is not available for the oral hearing which is to be held in this case. It will be set as soon as it can be accommodated in the list for Mayo.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Regulations, which are the subject matter of the correspondence in question, provide that child benefit should be paid to one parent and give priority to the mother in determining which of two parents is entitled to the benefit. This policy was endorsed in a number of fora, for example the Commission on the Status of Women (1972 and 1974) and the Department's Child Benefit Review...

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I understand that the question relates to the multi-annual capital envelopes which were introduced by the Minister for Finance in Budget 2004. These provide for a 5-year rolling programme of capital investment. A key feature of the initiative is that Departments are able to carry over to the following year any unspent Exchequer capital allocations, up to a maximum of 10% of each annual...

Written Answers — Information Technology: Information Technology (4 Jul 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department is highly dependent on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems, some of which have been in place for over 20 years, to deliver its schemes and in particular, its payment services. For example, each week my Department is responsible for some 970,000 payments that, when dependants are included, directly benefit some 1.5 million customers. Each year almost 60...