Results 25,281-25,300 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Absolutely.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Not at all.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The CSO statistics do not capture what the Deputy is seeking. I contend, conservatively, that the figure runs to tens of thousands. As the Deputy says, many young parents are in good employment and do not claim any allowances at all. The Deputy is absolutely correct in that regard. I do not know how the CSO statistics are compiled. The Deputy may look at some of the statistics on women in...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: There is actually no minimum age. I have no knowledge of the relationship status. Since our system was introduced, it has always been very supportive. In the early 1990s, a person who received a lone-parent's allowance had to stay at home and do nothing, even if a parent or older sister was available to help with child care. The first move was to encourage very young lone parents to stay...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The overall aim is to provide short term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I was very pleased to launch the report Person or Number? in February and I welcome the research undertaken by Crosscare, Doras Luimní and Nasc into difficulties experienced by some migrants in their dealings with the Department. The report makes a number of recommendations and the Department is considering these. In particular, the recommendation that the Department establishes a Migrant...

Written Answers — Legislative Programme: Legislative Programme (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Since the publication of the Report, the Department have been engaged in discussions with the relevant medical health professionals and with representatives from interested NGOs. The Department has also sought advice from the Office of the Attorney General on the main issues arising in the context of these meetings. These discussions, and the advice that is received from the Office of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Where a person who is under 25 years of age is living with a parent or step-parent in the family home, an assessment is made of the yearly value of any benefit and privilege enjoyed by that person by virtue of residing with a parent or step parent. The value of the benefit and privilege assessed is based on the level of the parents' income. The information requested by the Deputy is not...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 19, 26 and 30 together. The Department is committed to providing a high quality service to our customers. It offers a range of payment options to customers which include payment at the post office of the customer's choice. Alternatively, most customers, other than those in receipt of jobseeker's payments, can choose to be paid into either a bank or...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 102 together. In the last four years the numbers in receipt of a jobseeker's payment who are also working on a part-time or casual basis has increased by almost 200%. At the end of March 2012 there were some 84,118 people in this situation on the Live Register and some 41,008 of these were claiming jobseeker's benefit. In line with other Budget...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 and 25 together. The average time taken to award an application for disability allowance in 2011 was 17 weeks. The average time taken to award an application for disability allowance in the first quarter of 2012 is not currently available, as claims are being processed on both a new system and the old system since the beginning of February 2012....

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: A total of 345 staff have retired from my Department since March 2011. There are currently 6,855 permanent staff serving in the Department, equating to 6,443 posts. The figure requested in relation to the amount of wages spent on contract and permanent staff is not readily available and will be forwarded separately to the Deputy. Since March 2011 some 180 critical vacancies have been filled...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 and 35 together. The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. As is apparent from the data in the following table, 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are currently approximately 95,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement, with €436m provided for in 2012. Under the relevant...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The one-parent family payment (OFP) has played an important role in providing income support to lone parents. Total expenditure on this scheme will be some €1.06 billion this year. Changes have been made to the payment since its introduction in 1991, reflecting the changes taking place in society, the labour market and the expectations and realities of parents' lives, and particularly of...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The staffing needs of my Department are regularly reviewed, having regard to workloads and the competing demands arising, to ensure that the best use is made of all available resources. The Department will continue to source available staff to fill critical vacancies by way of redeployment, or transfer from within the Department and other Government Departments, taking account of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The purpose of Rent Supplement is to provide short term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from another source. There are currently approximately 95,000 persons in receipt of...

Written Answers — Departmental Funding: Departmental Funding (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: A financial review has been requested of all Community Employment (CE) schemes. It is anticipated that CE schemes will see a reduction in the level of grant aid allocated in respect of materials and training in 2012 as funding will be allocated according to the needs of the participants and the project circumstances. The purpose of the review is to establish the level of need and this review...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 31, 36 and 99 together. Domiciliary care allowance (DCA) is a monthly payment to the parent or guardian of a child under the age of 16 with a disability so severe that the child requires care and attention and/or supervision substantially in excess of another child of the same age. Eligibility for DCA is not based primarily on the medical or psychological...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (25 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The general review of the provisions of the Civil Registration Act 2004 was completed in 2011. There are a range of issues to be considered in relation to the scope and implementation of any proposed changes to the provisions of this Act and some of these issues have cross-departmental implications, which need to be considered also. One of the main priorities of the review was to examine...