Results 27,781-27,800 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Departmental Websites: Departmental Websites (30 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Department currently maintains five websites: www.welfare.ie www.groireland.ie www.nationalpensionsframework.ie www.socialinclusion.ie www.communitywelfareservice.ie The Department's main website, www.welfare.ie, contains information on the range of schemes and services provided, as well as policy publications and online services. This site was re-designed and re-developed in 2008...

Written Answers — Departmental Schemes: Departmental Schemes (30 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) has operated since May 2004 with the aim of providing income support for eligible persons in receipt of specified, long-term social welfare payments. The work undertaken by participants supports the provision of services of benefit to rural communities. The RSS currently funds the engagement of 2,600 participants and 130 supervisors. Supervisors are employed...

Written Answers — Departmental Schemes: Departmental Schemes (30 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) has operated since May 2004 with the aim of providing income support for farmers and fishermen/women in receipt of specified, long-term social welfare payments. The work undertaken by participants supports the provision of services of benefit to rural communities. The RSS currently funds the engagement of 2,600 participants and 130 supervisors. Supervisors are...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (30 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The prescribed time for submitting a redundancy lump sum claim is 52 weeks. From the information provided in the question it would appear that the person concerned was made redundant in December 2008. In these circumstances the time–limit for making a redundancy payment has elapsed.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (30 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all the evidence, including that adduced at oral hearing, disallowed the appeal of the person concerned. The person concerned has been notified of the decision. Under Social Welfare legislation, the decision of the Appeals Officer is final and conclusive and may only be reviewed by the Appeals...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Labour Court recommended in July 2008 that an agreed pension scheme should be introduced for community employment (CE) scheme supervisors and assistant supervisors, and that such a scheme should be adequately funded by FÁS. Notwithstanding the positions of the Department in rejecting that liability for these costs falls to be met from public funds, this matter has been the subject of...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Pensions Act sets out the order in which the assets of a pension scheme must be applied in the event of a scheme wind-up. The statutory order of priority is of no consequence where a scheme winds up with sufficient assets to meet all of its liabilities. In a wind–up situation, all benefits to pensioners except provision for post retirement increases are given the highest priority...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Any proposals of this nature would have to be considered in a budgetary context.

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 232 and 233 together. Current estimates indicate that an increase of 0.5% in the main employer rate of PRSI from 10.75% to 11.25% would yield an additional €268 million in a full year for the Social Insurance Fund. A 1% increase in the rate of employer PRSI would yield approximately €535 million. An equivalent 0.5% increase in the rate of PRSI paid by...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Rebates to employers and lump sums paid directly to employees are paid from the Social Insurance Fund (SIF). The total amount paid out in redundancy rebates to employers was €161.8 million in 2008; €247.9 million in 2009; €373.2 million in 2010 and €185.3 million to date in 2011. My Department does not compile information on redundancy payments paid in respect of enterprises which may...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 14th October 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Social Welfare Services on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the appeal in question will be referred to an Appeals Officer for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was assessed by a Medical Assessor of the Social Welfare Services who was of the opinion that he was capable of work. He appealed this decision and in that context the appeal was assessed by another Medical Assessor who also expressed the opinion that he was capable of work. In the light of this,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The following tabular statement shows the current number of rent supplement recipients by claim duration. It should be noted that the table relates to unbroken continuous claims and that the duration spent at a previous address is not be taken into account in these statistics. However, an in-depth analysis indicates that there are over 51,400 recipients who have been in receipt of rent...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of my Department which processes in excess of 2 million claims each year and makes payments to some 1.4 million people every week at a cost of some €21 billion per annum. However, it is important to recognise that the vast majority of people are receiving the entitlement due to them....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The person concerned was refused a back to school clothing footwear allowance on the grounds that the family income was in excess of the limits prescribed for the scheme. This decision was subsequently upheld on review of the claim.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who proposes to hold an oral hearing in this case. There has been a very significant increase in the number of appeals received by the Social Welfare Appeals Office since 2007 when the intake was 14,070 to 2010 when the intake rose to 32,432. This has significantly...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 24 November 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Social Welfare Services on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the appeal in question will be referred, in due course, to an...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 242 and 243 together. My Department has not incurred any expenditure which is attributable to the proposed relocation of staff to Donegal town under the Decentralisation Programme as announced in December 2003. The Central Applications Facility (CAF), which is administered by the Public Appointments Service (PAS), was established to allow staff to register...

Written Answers — Budgetary Measures: Budgetary Measures (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: As part of the deliberative process for Budget 2012, my Department will analyse, in so far as possible, the distributive and poverty impact, including the impact on children, of possible budget measures prior to the finalisation of Budget 2012. My Department undertook an analysis of the distributive and poverty impacts on families of the Budget 2011 tax and welfare package, in conjunction...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (29 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Receiving the full adult rate of a jobseeker's payment without a strong financial incentive to engage in education or training can lead to welfare dependency. While many young people with low levels of education and training were able to get work in construction and other areas when the economy was doing well, they are likely to find it much harder to get work over the course of the next few...