Results 26,881-26,900 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (31 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 10th September 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 10th...

Community Employment Schemes (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: There is no shortage of reviews of community employment, of which there have been a great many right up to the time when community employment schemes joined my Department. They came under its aegis on 1 January, or in practice on 4 January, together with approximately 700 staff who previously had worked in the employment services side of FÁS and the administration of community employment...

Community Employment Schemes (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: Under the CE structure, there are over 1,000 voluntary companies which are run by voluntary boards. The participation of the latter is really important. The fact that these 1,000 companies are limited by guarantee gives rise to major costs. I have seen some preliminary indications that in many areas the cost of an audit for some of these extremely small entities is between €1,800 and...

Community Employment Schemes (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: I accept what the Deputy said and I would welcome it if the people in Clifden were prepared to take on more work. As already intimated, there are substantial savings to be made. During the period of the review - the other purpose of which is to collect data - I want to encourage the CE schemes to co-operate with the former regional and local management of FÁS who are now civil servants...

Community Employment Schemes (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: It is a one-year CE scheme.

Community Employment Schemes (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: There are three elements to the reviews. The first relates to identifying the services that are being delivered to communities. Like other Deputies, I recognise the importance of such services. I will not describe those services in detail but I am referring, for example, to meals on wheels, etc., which are extremely important to people in both urban and rural areas. The second element...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. At the end of 2011, there were almost 52,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance from my Department at a total cost of almost €500 million. Approximately 22,000 of these were getting half-rate carer's allowance...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The Department's document record and information management programme is being rolled out, in tandem with what is called service delivery modernisation. That has been underway for a number of different claims. The scanning of medical documents in the social welfare services office in Longford started in November 2010. At the beginning of September 2011, scanning was extended to include...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: Since I became Minister, I have asked the staff of the Department to provide a series of information seminars in the AV room for Deputies and Senators and the staff of all political parties about the Department's hotlines for Members. These are not based on party politics. They are for every Member of either House who has been elected, and for their staff. The feedback from Members on the...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: A significant number of applications fails in this and other areas because they are incomplete. The quality of the information that is submitted or the totality of the information submitted is not complete.

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: Let me continue. As carer's allowance is based on a medical assessment, the information has to satisfy not the clerical staff in the Department but the medical staff who are making the decisions. Once the changes I have spoken about are complete, we will need to look at the quality of the information provided at the initial application date, and I have already had discussions with the...

Social Welfare Code (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: Domiciliary care allowance is paid to more than 24,000 parents and guardians in respect of 26,000 children at a cost of approximately €100 million in 2011, with the accompanying respite care grant costing a further €45 million. In addition, the Department makes an extensive range of payments to support families with children. In 2011, approximately €2 billion was paid out in respect...

Social Welfare Code (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: This scheme came to the Department from HSE and the Department of Health in 2009 and its payment and structures need to be reviewed. As stated about carers, it is also subject to modernisation in terms of processing. Review dates are most often set by the medical reviewer suggesting a child may be looked at again after a particular interval. I am happy to speak to the chief medical officer...

Social Welfare Code (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: One of the reasons for the refusal of an application which is subsequently awarded is the required medical evidence is not presented in the required format. The medical people in the Department have much contact with various medical organisations with a view to improving communication. As the various schemes we have been speaking about today are modernised and the new technology is settled...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the cost of uniforms and footwear for children going to school. The survey to which the Deputy refers is a survey of the cost of sending a child to school which is not directly comparable. In 2011, more than 196,000 individuals received a back to school clothing and...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The country is in a major financial emergency and I was required to find extensive savings in terms of the social protection budget, which I did, but I also ensured that the core rates remained intact which I believed was very important. Regarding this scheme, the allowance that will be available this year is significant in terms of the needs of a primary or secondary school child. We are...

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: In regard to books, it is more than high time that primary schools in particular but secondary schools also had book rental schemes. A very large number of schools have book rental schemes for a modest contribution by parents and significant contributions by the Department of Education and Skills in the case of children who are disadvantaged.

Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: Enormous savings can be effected in that regard but also a huge reduction in the level of concern and stress parents face when their children return to school. I hope I will see the day when every school will have a good quality book rental scheme as is the case in many schools. Regarding school uniform costs, like the Deputy I have occasion to be involved on behalf of family members in...

Departmental Expenditure (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 41 together. In November 2010 the then Fianna Fail-Green Party Government negotiated an agreement with the European Union-ECB-IMF funding troika which included undertakings regarding the social protection area, each with a specific timeframe for delivery. That Government agreed a structural adjustment programme which we are now working through and...

Departmental Expenditure (26 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: In the language of high diplomacy, Deputy Ó Cuív was the Minister in the Department and a member of the Government that negotiated the deal with the troika. The format of structural adjustment programmes around the world - we are not the first country to be in such a programme - is that there is enormous discussion between the people in the IMF, which is overseeing and supervising the...