Results 2,181-2,200 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The recently published study referred to reviews the levels and duration of maternity benefits across Europe and shows wide variations. The headline results which state that Ireland has one of the lowest levels of statutory maternity pay in Western Europe, however, warrants closer examination. The study does not take into account the net value of the payment received by the woman during her...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department has adopted challenging performance targets in relation to the timescale for the processing of claims and these are published in its customer action plan. I will provide the deputy with a tabular statement that sets out those performance targets and the actual performance achieved for the month of April. These targets refer only to new and repeat claims and do not reflect the...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Senior officials from my Department meet with FÁS on a regular basis to discuss policy and operational issues arising in the management of the National Employment Action Plan. They have met with their counterparts in FÁS in that context on eight occasions in the past year. Discussions took place at recent meetings on the Government discussion paper "Supporting Lone Parents" and proposed...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 60, 118 and 128 together. I recently launched the Combat Poverty Agency study on the dynamics of child poverty. The study's key findings are that children tend to move in and out of poverty and that child poverty, and its duration, are affected by a wide range of factors, including the employment, education and health status of parents, and by the number and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 61 and 106 together. The Back to Work Allowance Scheme is part of my Department's programme of initiatives designed to assist long term unemployed people, lone parents, people with disabilities and other social welfare recipients to return to the active labour force. There are two strands to the scheme, the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance for the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The part-time job incentive is a weekly in-work income supplement which provides an allowance for people who are in receipt of long-term unemployment assistance and employed on a part-time basis for up to 24 hours per week, provided they continue to make efforts to find full-time work. The allowance is not taxable or subject to PRSI. There is no income limit to continued receipt of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 115 together. The primary objective of the orphan's payments administered by my Department is to provide income support in respect of children whose parents are deceased or who are unable and have failed to provide for them. The definition of an orphan for the purpose of the allowance was extended in 1995 specifically to include children where the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their immediate accommodation needs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. My...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 65 and 74 together. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. While my Department has responsibility for devising an overall control strategy for the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the development, implementation and...

Written Answers — Child Poverty: Child Poverty (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 66, 84 and 93 together. The EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which commenced in Ireland in 2003, is conducted annually by the Central Statistics Office and collects information on poverty, deprivation and social exclusion. The results of the most recent survey, announced in December 2005, show continuing positive trends in relation to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 67, 94 and 98 together. The living alone allowance or living alone increase as it is now known, is an additional payment of EUR7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone. It is also available to people under 66 years of age who are living alone and who receive payments under...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68, 77 and 319 together. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to a scheme of all-Ireland free travel for pensioners resident in all parts of the island of Ireland. The scheme will enable pensioners resident here to travel free of charge on all bus and rail services in Northern Ireland. Likewise, pensioners in Northern Ireland will travel free of...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Construction Federation Operatives Pensions Scheme operates as a Registered Employment Agreement under the Industrial Relations Acts. There is a statutory obligation on employers to register eligible employees in the scheme and to pay the necessary contributions. Compliance with the terms of the scheme is enforced through the Construction Industry Monitoring Agency, The Labour Court and...

Written Answers — Departmental Reports: Departmental Reports (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Applicants for one-parent family payment are required to make efforts to seek adequate maintenance from their former spouses, or, in the case of unmarried applicants, the other parent of their child, and must satisfy the Department that they have made reasonable attempts to obtain such maintenance. Similarly, under the Liability to Maintain the Family provisions of the Social Welfare...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jun 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 now 7,609 farm assist customers. The current average weekly payment is EUR 174.07. The level of take-up is less than had been anticipated when the scheme was first introduced in April 1999....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 72, 78, 85 and 119 together. In every case where a one-parent family payment is awarded, the Maintenance Recovery Unit of my Department seeks to trace the other parent in order to ascertain whether he or she is in a financial position to pay maintenance either directly to the recipient of the one parent family payment or to contribute towards the cost of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 73, 88, 124 and 130 together. The major 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 report puts forward proposals for reform of the income support system for all parents on a low income. The report proposes...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I have examined the research carried out by the Combat Poverty Agency on the issue of a waiver system for refuse charges. In 2003 the Combat Poverty Agency published a report entitled "Waste Collection Charges and Low-Income Households". This report identified the privatization of waste collection charges and the abolition of waivers as factors causing indebtedness among some households. In...

Written Answers — National Partnership Agreement: National Partnership Agreement (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Social partnership has played an important if not pivotal role in Ireland's dramatic economic and social development since 1987. Through the partnership process, we have helped to ensure that the policies of Government and the efforts of the social partners create the right environment for sustainable economic and social development. The prosperity secured in partnership has a purpose — it...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (20 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 96, 108, 117 and 131 together. As the Deputies will be aware, in early 2005 I asked the Pensions Board to bring forward by one year a review of our overall pensions strategy because I considered that, on the basis of the progress being made, there was little prospect of reaching our targets for pensions coverage in any kind of reasonable timescale....