Results 2,821-2,840 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (8 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The living alone allowance is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone. It is also available to people who are under 66 years of age who are living alone and who receive payments under one of a n umber of invalidity type schemes. The increase is intended as a contribution...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to assist people who are unable to provide for their immediate accommodation needs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. In General, people in full-time employment are not entitled to rent supplement. For this purpose, full-time employment is regarded as 30 hours per week or more....

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The legislative provisions relating to late claims for social welfare benefits are set out in Section 241 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, and in Regulations made under that section. These provisions set out the times within which a person must make a claim, the disqualifications which apply where a claim is made late, and the circumstances in which the time limits may be...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The total expenditure incurred by my Department under the A. 2 Travel and Subsistence Subhead was €3,052,880 from 1 st January to 30th September 2007 compared to €2,787,448 during the same period in 2006. The increase is as a result of additional activities undertaken in the context of the Modernisation Action Plan, control activities, staff training, corporate development and associated...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The main income support mechanism for lone parents is currently the one parent family payment (OFP) — a payment for parents (either male or female) who are bringing up a child without the support of a partner. To qualify for payment, a parent must have main care and charge of at least one qualified child, must have earnings under €400 per week and satisfy a means test, must not be...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The living alone increase is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone. It is also available to people under 66 years of age who are living alone and who receive payments under one of a number of invalidity type schemes. The increase is intended as a contribution towards the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Legislation: Social Welfare Legislation (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 191, 192 and 194 to 196, inclusive, together. In the case of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 , all provisions other than Schedule 6, which comprises four (4) items, have been commenced. All provisions of the Social Welfare Act 2005, the Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act 2006 and the Social Welfare Act 2006 have been commenced. In relation to...

Written Answers — Citizens Information Legislation: Citizens Information Legislation (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 193 and 197 together. Section 3 of the Citizens Information Act, 2007, which changed the name of the statutory body, came into force on 21 February 2007 when the Act was signed into law by the President. Sections 1, 2 and 4 (except insofar as it provides for the insertion of paragraph (bb) in section 7 (1) of the Comhairle Act, 2000), and sections 6, 7, 8, 9...

Written Answers — Pensions Legislation: Pensions Legislation (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 198 to 200, inclusive, together. All sections of the Pensions Act 1990 and the Pensions (Amendment) Act 1996 have been commenced. In relation to the Pensions (Amendment) Act 2002, section 3 of the Act has been commenced in full except in so far as it relates to the insertion of a new section 122 into the Pensions Act 1990. Sections 39 and 43 of the Pensions...

Written Answers — Family Support Agency Legislation: Family Support Agency Legislation (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The provisions of the Family Support Agency Act 2001 were enacted in full by the Family Support Agency Act, 2001 (Establishment Day) Order 2003 (S.I. No. 181 of 2003), which was enacted on 6 May 2003.

Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: It is not worse.

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: In the most recent pension coverage statistics, from the Quarter 4 2005 CSO Quarterly National Household Survey, coverage of persons in employment aged 20-29 was 38.9 per cent. This represents an increase of 3.4 percentage points since the previous detailed coverage survey in Quarter 1 2002, and is above the ultimate target level for the age group set out in the National Pensions Policy...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The person concerned was in receipt of Disability Allowance from 30 June 1999. Following a review of entitlement in September 2006 it was found that the income derived from her spouse's earnings from insurable employment was in excess of the statutory limit for entitlement to Disability Allowance and accordingly the claim was stopped from 27 September 2006. She appealed the decision to the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: Further to my reply of 24 October 2007, there are two basic rates of child benefit; the lower rate which is payable in respect of each of the first two qualifying children, and the higher rate, payable in respect of the third and subsequent qualifying children. A qualified child is one who is under 16 years of age, or aged 16 to 18 and attending full-time education. In the case of twins,...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: One of the qualifying conditions for receipt of a State Pension Contributory is that a person must have entered into insurable employment before the age of 56. An amendment of this requirement was introduced for the self-employed in April 1999 whereby they could qualify for a partial State Pension Contributory if they were aged over 56 on the 6th April 1988, when PRSI for the self-employed...

Written Answers — Ministerial Staff: Ministerial Staff (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 282 to 286, inclusive, together. The details the Deputy has requested in respects of the staffing of my private and constituency offices, since my appointment as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, on 14th June 2007 are shown in the attached tabular statement. There has been no Minister of State formally assigned to my Department. However, Minister of...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: There are no EU directives within the competency of my Department that have not been transposed into law.

Written Answers — School Meals: School Meals (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The school meals programme operated by my Department gives funding towards provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the long-standing statutory urban school meals scheme, currently operated by 36 local authorities. The second is the school meals (local projects) programme through which funding is provided by my Department to...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 289 and 290 together. In order to qualify for a contributory pension a person must satisfy a range of conditions which include commencing payment of contributions 10 years before pension age, payment of a minimum of 260 contributions at an appropriate rate and reaching a minimum average annual contribution rate of at least 10 contributions paid or credited....

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (6 Nov 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Government is anxious to ensure that as many people as possible can be accommodated within the social welfare pensions system, with due regard being paid to the contributory principle underlying entitlement to contributory payments and, in the case of non-contributory payments, the need to ensure that resources are directed to those who are most in need. Over the last 10 years, means...