Results 27,961-27,980 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Humanitarian Assistance (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: In recognition of the devastation suffered by many families as a result of the recent floods, the Government decided on 8 November 2011 that it was to provide up to €10 million in income-tested financial support to people who have suffered damage to their homes. Officials from the Department of Social Protection have made house to house calls to individuals they have identified as being...

Humanitarian Assistance (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I had an opportunity privately to visit a number of areas and families in the Dublin region who suffered from flooding. I am very grateful to the families who let me into their homes which were badly affected by the flooding and, as the Deputy said, in quite a few cases by repeat flooding in parts of Cabra, Tallaght and Donnycarney. Certainly families and individuals have suffered...

Humanitarian Assistance (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Community welfare officers were employed by the HSE but are now in the Department of Social Protection. They used to go out and knock on doors in various parts of the city where they were aware of people enduring hardship, particularly older people or those on social welfare. I am sure Deputy Ó Snodaigh knows this and has seen the devastation caused. The devastation I saw was absolutely...

Humanitarian Assistance (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I will tell the Deputy later. It is a senior official in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Social Welfare Fraud (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 23, 34 and 37 together. The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department which processes in excess of 2 million claims each year and makes payments to approximately 1.4 million people every week at a cost of approximately €21 billion per annum. However, it is important to...

Social Welfare Fraud (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Yes, I do wish that some of the statements made about fraud savings could magic away the requirements of the IMF and the troika with regard to social welfare expenditure. All of my predecessors in this portfolio would be delighted if this were to happen. An example of what happens in most fraud control activity is finding people in a place of employment not registered for PRSI and who are,...

Social Welfare Fraud (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: What the Deputy is saying is well accepted by people, and certainly by myself. Whether the fraud concerns social welfare or tax evasion, both mean that honest businesses and taxpayers must pay for entitlements to which others should be contributing. According to an estimate I have used before, there is approximately a 1% fraud rate in the social welfare system. We do not know, however,...

Social Welfare Fraud (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Social welfare entitlements are set out in law, upon which the inspectors must make their decisions. The individual to whom the Deputy referred obviously has a particular difficulty. Confidence in the social welfare system is a separate issue to that of fraud. I have had numerous representations concerning difficulties in the taxi industry. That industry used to provide reliable...

Social Welfare Fraud (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The biggest problem society faces in this area is the rampant growth of the black economy, which is a big threat to legitimate businesses that are paying tax and have their employees properly recorded. It is important to inform the public about the work that is being done in this regard by my Department's special investigations unit, the Revenue Commissioners and the Garda Síochána. It...

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: Child benefit assists parents with the cost of raising children and it contributes towards alleviating child poverty. Expenditure on child benefit for 2011 is estimated at €2.08 billion in respect of some 1.133 million children. The Government is conscious that child benefit, as a universal payment, can be an important source of income for all families, especially during a time of...

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I have previously advised Deputies that I established an advisory group or commission on tax and social welfare in June this year. The first issue the group has been tasked with is to recommend cost-effective solutions to employment disincentives and achieve better poverty outcomes, particularly child poverty outcomes. As I indicated to the Deputy there has been a number of reports, with...

Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I stated already that I recognise the value of the universal payment, which is one of the few universal payments in the Irish welfare system. It is particularly valued by those parents providing the care, which is usually the mother, although there are increasing numbers of fathers parenting on a full-time basis. In reforming child benefit we must achieve a targeted system that will utilise...

Private Rented Accommodation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible tenants 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. Since 2005 rent supplement expenditure has increased from €369 million to €516 million in 2010. The number of persons on...

Private Rented Accommodation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I know the North Circular Road area very well. I am aware from the external appearance that issues potentially arise with much of the accommodation ones sees on the road. The solution is to transfer over a period responsibility for rent supplement so that in future it would be overseen by the local authority. As Deputy Donohoe is probably aware, in some cases people refuse offers of decent...

Illness and Disability Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: To set the question of statutory sick pay in context, the total expenditure by my Department in 2010 on payments in respect of illness and disability to almost 250,000 beneficiaries amounted to more than €2.8 billion. In 2001 the number of beneficiaries was less than 174,000 and expenditure was some €1.1 billion. A table setting out these figures in detail follows. The total amount in...

Illness and Disability Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: All our competitors, including those countries which have good social protection systems, have followed the advice of the OECD to develop schemes of statutory sick pay, under which the cost for first few days is taken care of by the employee before the employer and, after a period of time, the state steps in. North of the Border and in Britain the period is 28 weeks. We are proposing that...

Illness and Disability Benefits (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: I regret that the opportunity was not taken during the Celtic tiger years to build a structure of contributions by employees and employers to offer the social protections to which most of us aspire. It is unfortunate these reforms were not made when the money was available. Fianna Fáil in government signed the EU-IMF deal this time last year. The troika has been investigating the areas in...

Job Creation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: JobBridge, the national internship scheme came into operation on 1 July 2011. As of Friday, 18 November a total of 2,712 individuals had commenced an internship and there were a further 2,591 internships available to be filled. JobBridge is a Government scheme, which is being administered by the Department of Social Protection in line with normal accounting procedures. I have appointed a...

Job Creation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The Deputy continually seems to take a negative view of opportunities that have now been made available to 2,700 mostly young people to get a foot on the ladder of employment. Some weeks ago I launched a scheme whereby through Job Skills engineers who had lost their jobs in the construction industry were getting a new chance at employment and switching over to working in medical devices and...

Job Creation (23 Nov 2011)

Joan Burton: The scheme that operates north of the Border, where the Deputy's party is a participant in government, and in the UK is far less advantageous to the intern. The Deputy must realise that to open up the possibility of getting work again, people who are now coming out of training having changed direction because the construction sector in which they had been working hard has collapsed, need to...