Results 3,201-3,220 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Pension Provisions. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I am aware that I indicated that it might be sooner than now but the Government has decided to give it further consideration and that is its prerogative. However, the paper circulated to the social partners this week indicated that it would be done this year. As I outlined, we have genuinely been working very hard on a number of issues that are most relevant to people today and the fact...

Pension Provisions. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I certainly do not mean during the summer but as soon as possible thereafter when we get agreement from the Government. It is crucial and it will impact on private pensions, social welfare pensions and public sector pensions-----

Pension Provisions. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: As I indicated previously, a good lead-in time to the implementation time is required and I hope this will not have been affected by the fact that it has not been published.

Pension Provisions. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I think that 2012 is a reasonable timescale which would allow people to prepare for it and to have the legislation and structures in place to allow it.

Tax and Social Welfare Codes. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The PRSI system is based on the contributory and solidarity principles. The contributory principle ensures there is a direct link between the contributions paid and the range of benefits and pensions to which the person is entitled. The solidarity principle relates to the redistributive nature of the system which ensures supports are provided to more vulnerable workers. Current estimates...

Tax and Social Welfare Codes. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: As I indicated, €103.5 million will be raised through the change in the ceiling this year. Abolition of the ceiling would have to be seen in the context of all other financial measures introduced in the most recent budget including the income levy. The main aim of that budget with regard to income was to ensure that money was made available to the Exchequer. Any funding through PRSI...

Tax and Social Welfare Codes. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I am not aware of this specific issue and I will check it out.

Tax and Social Welfare Codes. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: As I stated, I will check it out.

Tax and Social Welfare Codes. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The important issue is that it will not have any implications for workers or anyone benefiting from claims made under the social insurance fund. When a deficit arises in the fund, as it inevitably will, the fund will be subvented by the Exchequer. Sufficient money will, therefore, be available to make pension and other payments which are currently paid from the fund. This year, the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 10, 13, 16, 27 and 32 together. The live register has increased from 207,100 in May 2008 to 396,871 at the end of May 2009, an unprecedented increase of more than 96%. I assure the House that staff in the Department are working extremely hard to process claims as expeditiously as is possible, having regard to the conditions of the schemes. The average...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The target for jobseeker's benefit is to process 90% of claims within three weeks. In May, 60% of claims were processed in that timeframe. The Deputy will note from the tables that processing times in many offices are significantly shorter than three weeks. In some cases, the average processing time is two weeks, one week or only a few days. The major problem is not in this area. The...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Clearly, the Department will examine staffing in local offices that are experiencing problems. I must be fair to offices throughout the country. The Deputy asked about offices with the longest processing times. The Secretary General has also been examining management issues and so forth because these must be considered from an operations perspective, with a view to ensuring people are...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Suffice to say, the agreement with the branch officers goes back to April 2008, but agreement has not been reached with the CPSU on the issue because it says it is outsourcing.

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Deputy Crawford raised that issue with me and I am aware there are some issues with regard to the capital valuation being placed on properties. There have been significant changes and improvements throughout the country with regard to benefits for the self-employed. It has not been brought to my attention that there is significant difficulty in any individual office, but if there are,...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I wanted to mention the value of the central units in making decisions. When, for example, the SR Technics redundancies came on stream, all of those, instead of going to local offices, went to the Finglas central unit and the decisions were made there. The same happened in the case of Dell and the applications from there went immediately to Sligo. These central offices were able to deal...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: No, I gave a separate example.

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: We recently streamlined procedures for people moving to jobseeker's allowance from jobseeker's benefit. We have also made an improvement in the IT system, which will generate automatic letters to people before they come to the end of jobseeker's benefit so that assessments can be done. We have also streamlined a process for people who have had a claim in the previous two years, so that if...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: That is what I understand, because it is outsourcing from the local office to the branch office. The second issue on which it has not been possible to make progress was the project that allowed decisions on jobseeker's benefit to be made on the day. That had to be stopped and there has been no progress on it. Lest the Deputy is confused about what I said, what has progressed is that the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Two issues have not progressed and one initiative started and stopped but has now progressed very successfully in 16 different offices. That is the appointment system and it has the full co-operation of the staff. Staff in our offices throughout the country are genuinely working flat out. This can be seen in their productivity. Some 200,000 claims cleared in one month is extraordinary...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: What has happened is that claims will be processed more smoothly, given the person made a claim in the previous two weeks. That issue has been streamlined. I think what the Deputy is saying is that although the money comes from two different Departments, it all comes from the Exchequer and that these people should not have to make repeated claims. That has not been changed. However, we...