Results 22,201-22,220 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: The free travel scheme is currently available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over, to carers and to customers under 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type payments. The scheme permits customers to travel for free on most CIE public transport services, LUAS and a range of services offered by up to 90 private operators in various parts of the country. Expenditure...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 115, 337 and 359 together. Community Employment (CE) is the largest employment programme administered by the Department of Social Protection and forms an important pillar in the strategy of returning long-term unemployed people back to the open labour market. There are currently 23,300 places (including supervisory positions) available on CE and the revised...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Homemakers Schemes (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 116 and 124 together. The State pension is a very valuable benefit and is the bedrock of the Irish pension system. Therefore, it is important to ensure that those qualifying have made a sustained contribution to the Social Insurance Fund over their working lives. The homemaker’s scheme makes qualification for the State pension (contributory)...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 117, 139, 146, 147 and 152 together. Decisions on statutory social welfare schemes are made by statutorily appointed deciding officers. The rules of natural justice and fair procedures are applied by deciding officers when making decisions that could have an adverse effect on the person concerned. The deciding officer must satisfy him/herself that the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Service (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 144 together. I welcome this report from FLAC as a valuable analysis of the Social Welfare Appeals Service from a human rights perspective. The recommendations made in the report are now being examined in the Department and in the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO). One of the recommendations relates to the independence of the SWAO. The SWAO is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Sick Pay Scheme (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: The position remains that the range of complex issues associated with the possible introduction of a scheme of statutory sick pay, including such matters as the provision of possible compensatory mechanisms for particularly vulnerable employers, the extent of coverage of such a scheme, the appropriate rate of payment involved and how a scheme would be enforced, continue to be examined in the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness-related schemes, can take longer to process. Similarly, means-tested payments can also require...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: The number of one-parent family payment (OFP) recipients stood at 88,620 in September, 2012. This year the cost of the OFP scheme is estimated to be €1.06 billion. The Government will consider the level of expenditure on all my Department’s schemes, including OFP, for 2013 in the context of the forthcoming Budget. The OFP has played an important role in providing income...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Eligibility (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 127, 130, 145 and 150 together. There are currently approximately 89,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for the scheme in 2012. Revised maximum rent limits came into force on 1 January 2012 and are in place until June 2013. These limits were set after an analysis of the most up to date market data...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Payments (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I am aware that, in their pre-budget submission, Inclusion Ireland calls for a review of agency arrangements for all persons in receipt of disability allowance living in residential care and to implement the revised Regulations governing agency arrangements set out in Statutory Instrument Number 378 of 2009. These Regulations provide for the payment of social welfare benefits and pensions to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Payments (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: There were 597,333 families in receipt of child benefit on 31st December 2011. At that time, there were 213,784 families in receipt of qualified child increases across the various means tested schemes administered by the Department of Social Protection. A table is attached detailing the number of families in receipt of a qualified child increase by means tested scheme. These data show that...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Eligibility (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 89,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement, with €436 million provided by the Government for 2012. I am aware of the comment made by the National Advocacy Service. There are no specific exemptions to qualification for rent supplement for persons with disabilities with all customers being treated equally. Entitlement to rent supplement is subject to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Applications (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: We are examining all the communication channels for the Rent Unit with a view to improving customer service. With the introduction of email addresses for the unit, customers now have access to the Rent Units beyond the traditional CWO clinic times (sometimes with public access limited to two and a half hours, three times a week). The means that customers can now email the unit outside of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: The household benefits package includes a free electricity or gas allowance, a telephone allowance and a free television licence. There are some 400,000 customers in receipt of the household benefits package. Between 2005 and 2011 the number in receipt of the electricity allowance rose by 20%. The cost of the package was almost €370 million in 2011. My Department has engaged in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Care Services (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 136 and 149 together. The role of the Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) on School-Age Child Care is to define the best model for the provision of school-age child care to meet the needs of the customers of the Department, including those of lone parents. The model will seek to address the child care requirements of children aged between 7 and 12 years...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Early Retirement Scheme (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: Since 2009 just over 450 staff in my Department availed of early retirement schemes while other staff left or retired as normal. Obviously, this has had some impact on service delivery in my Department. However, the Department moved very quickly to fill critical vacancies arising from retirement, and since 2009 almost 900 staff have been assigned to my Department to fill these vacancies and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Expenditure (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 89,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for 2012. The aim of rent supplement is to provide short term income assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. The maximum rent limits were set after an analysis of the most up to date market data...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: My Department has a primary role in delivering a wide range of disability related supports, in relation to both income-support schemes and employment services for people with disabilities. These services were provided previously by FÁS and are now delivered through the Department under a new national identity - “EmployAbility Service – which is aimed at supporting people...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Applications (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: It is the policy of my Department to standardise and simplify application forms. Plain English principles are applied to ensure that they are available in a simple, clear, easy to read format. My Department operates a network of some 125 social welfare local and branch offices throughout the country. Each local office has dedicated information officers providing information on all the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Eligibility (13 Nov 2012)

Joan Burton: In the recently published National Carers’ Strategy my Department committed to recognising the needs of carers by the provision of income supports. My Department currently provides a range of supports for family carers including carer’s allowance, carer’s benefit and the annual respite care grant, as well as secondary benefits such as free travel and household benefits....