Results 21,921-21,940 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has answered his earlier question. There is a monitoring system and had there not been, those 80 firms would not have been suspended from JobBridge.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: That is 80 out of 19,000 in total.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I will look into it again out of my own interest. The reason they cannot be published or named and shamed in the way a tax defaulter would be is that where they have been suspended from a scheme, it is done on an administrative basis. It is not that a finding has been made against them in the way a finding may be made against somebody who defrauded the State of taxes. It is not that anyone...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will understand, more so than most in this House, the potential consequences of impugning the reputation of others. That is definitely something I do not want to be a party to or responsible for. What has been determined in the interim-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Exactly that.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I will answer the Deputy's question. In a small number of cases, as a result of on-site inspection processes, the Department formed the view that non-compliance by certain organisations warranted a decision to terminate the internship concerned or to suspend them from future participation for a period depending on the nature of the transgression. In the cases concerned, the decisions were...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: First, as the Deputy is or at least should be aware, the scheme is entirely voluntary on the part of both the employers and those taking part in it. No one was ever required to take up a JobBridge internship. When I was at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, we had JobBridge interns, some of whom went on to full-time jobs. It is important to ask people who have taken part what...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: An independent review already is under way, commissioned by my predecessor as Minister, Deputy Burton. It is important to wait six or seven weeks to get that review in order that it can be considered fully. I certainly will take a look at Sinn Féin's paper with regard to its proposals on what should replace JobBridge. As stated previously, it was a scheme that was established at a...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department is responsible for compensating employees for the loss of their jobs where their employer is unable to pay statutory redundancy due to financial difficulties or insolvency. Payments are made from the Social Insurance Fund, essentially from the PRSI contributions paid in by those in employment, employers and the self-employed. Following the liquidation of Clerys in June...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As Deputy Penrose has described it, the €2.5 million that was required to pay the statutory redundancy to the employees who were entitled to it had to come from the Social Insurance Fund - that is, it came from the contributions of others rather than from the company. Section 599 is a mechanism by which it might be possible to recover those funds either from the company or from...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Penrose is as familiar with the Attorney General and her office as I am, and a conservative she is not. She is-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It certainly was what the Deputy implied.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: One thing about which I hope my bureaucrats are conservative is saving taxpayers' moneys. As a result of this, €2.5 million already has been lost-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Legal Cases (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: -----and I certainly am not going to risk losing millions more on a case that may not be successful or on a case against a company that might not have the funds to pay back the money. That would be throwing good money after bad. However, if there is a strong case to be made, then I believe it should be pursued. As I stated, my officials are in consultation with the Office of the Attorney...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Payments (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Child benefit is a universal payment to help families with the cost of raising children and plays an important role in tackling child poverty. It does not rely on a means test or social insurance contributions and is paid to the parents of qualified children up to the age of 18 years. It is paid to approximately 623,000 families for 1.2 million children with estimated spending of more than...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Payments (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to give further clarity to the Deputy on this matter. Child benefit is a payment that is not means tested and is not taxed and I have no intention of changing that. The payment will remain un-means tested and it will not be taxed. Child benefit for children aged under 16 is not linked to school attendance but children aged 17 and 18 do have to be attending school or have a...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Payments (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: On foot of what is in the programme for Government, what is there and what is intended for it is better co-operation. Tusla has a system, the Department of Education and Skills has a system and the Department of Social Protection has a system of registering children in school.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Payments (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, data. We will be sharing more and better data to perhaps identify children who are not attending school or children whose parents have left the country and are no longer entitled to the payment, but the basic principle that child benefit is universal, not means tested and not taxed remains and I have no intention or plans to change the law in that regard.

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Review (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: A commitment was given in Pathways to Work to develop and implement a programme of evaluations to assess the impact of the Pathways to Work initiatives. One of the first schemes selected for evaluation was JobBridge. The aim of the evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the scheme in terms of its key objective of improving employment outcomes for unemployed jobseekers. The evaluation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I understand that this question relates to the Telephone Allowance, which was previously part of the Household Benefits package. The decision to discontinue the telephone allowance was estimated to provide annual savings of €48 million. This followed on from earlier savings when the allowance had been reduced. These savings meant that my Department was able to retain the other...