Results 3,201-3,220 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Social Welfare Benefits. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: I welcome the support offered by the Deputy and Members on all sides for the new half rate carer's allowance that comes into effect from tomorrow. This payment will be enormously beneficial to many people. There is no doubt that when a change of this magnitude is introduced, anomalies will arise in the system. The latter is particularly true in the case of a Department such as mine, which...

Social Welfare Benefits. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: I should have answered the question raised by Deputy Shortall about people in receipt of the qualified adult allowance. My understanding is that the arrangements do apply and include people on the qualified adult allowance, if I am reading my note correctly. That is certainly my understanding of it. It also applies to people on social welfare payments generally. That goes across the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: Disability allowance was one of the payments which formed part of the expenditure review of illness and disability payment schemes that was carried out by my Department in 2003 and subsequently published in 2004. The review examined and reported on the trend and level of expenditure and found that disability allowance is well targeted in addressing income maintenance requirements of...

Social Welfare Benefits. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: The final point, with which I would agree, is that they may be looking at this in the wrong way to some degree by concentrating on the disability rather than on everybody having ability, irrespective of whether there are some areas where they are unable to work. We want to identify what the ability spectrum is with regard to many of these people and see whether we can get them into the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: Yes, it is, but we can reverse how we look at it. The numbers in this area have grown substantially in the past several years. We would all like to know the reason for the jump from 36,000 people in receipt of this allowance some years ago to 82,000 this year. That will form part of a broad-ranging review regarding what we will do in the future.

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: People who are homeless are among the most vulnerable in society. There are a variety of reasons people end up homeless including, poverty, unemployment, poor health, loss of contact with family and friends, alcohol and drug dependence and leaving institutional care. The variety of causes of homelessness and of services required to address them underlines the need for a co-ordinated,...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: There is a huge range of services available which all people in society but specifically homeless people can access. The issue of homelessness is complex. There are various reasons why people end up homeless in different parts of the country. There are issues in Dublin currently, to which the Deputy referred, that affect not only homeless people but also people returning to college. There...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: I do not agree that people are unable to access services. A large number of voluntary groups, principally the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, work in this area. We work with those groups. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to persuade individuals to work with the services. It is part of our role to ensure that people can get into a secure environment where we can work with them and...

Anti-Poverty Strategy. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: The problem has reduced. Certain issues have compounded the problem in recent times. The population has expanded, for obvious reasons. Nevertheless a clear strategy has been agreed by the social partners and the stakeholders working at the coalface to eliminate this problem over the next few years. I wish the Deputy well in her appointment as spokesperson for Fine Gael.

Social Welfare Appeals. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: Deputy Shortall shadowed me when I was the Minister for Transport and now she is the Opposition spokesperson on Social and Family Affairs. I congratulate her and wish her well. The report to which the Deputy refers was produced by the Social Welfare Appeals Office, SWAO, of my Department in accordance with legislative requirements. It contains details of the activities of the office in 2006...

Social Welfare Appeals. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: When the number of appeals is put in context of the 1 million payments per week, I think the system is working extremely well. We can always learn from the issues that arise. There is constant contact between the officials from my Department and the Social Welfare Appeals Office to see how to improve and get consistency in the decision making process throughout the country. While there...

Social Welfare Appeals. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: This issue is encountered by all Members when we deal with people who have serious medical problems and are going through an appeals process. While the vast majority of appeals are dealt with satisfactorily, there are always some which are more complex. As a non-medical person, I find it difficult when one medical opinion gives one outcome and a second opinion gives a different outcome.

Social Welfare Appeals. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: I am glad the Oireachtas appointed an independent body to make these assessments. I agree that it can be difficult for people who have serious medical conditions. I would like to see consistency wherever possible and I have raised this issue in the Department. We can achieve this by talking to the Social Welfare Appeals Office and I have done so. I would like consistency in the parameters...

Pension Provisions. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: The case in question relates to a customer who had requested a pension forecast from my Department on two separate occasions in 1989 and 1995. On both occasions the forecasts provided made reference to 260 contributions, which led the customer to believe he had sufficient contributions to qualify for a pension. In October 2003, the customer applied to my Department for a retirement pension....

Pension Provisions. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Social Welfare Appeals Office upheld the decision of the Department. Officials provided the information in good faith in 1989 and 1995, confirming that 260 contributions were required. However, it was not made clear that these should be at the full rate, which they were not, and therefore did not qualify as payments towards a full pension. That should have been made clear when the...

Pension Provisions. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: We must consider the context. Given the scale of involvement and the customer base with which the Department deals — over 1 million people per week, benefiting 1.5 million individuals — the number of errors is small. Nevertheless, I would like to reduce it further. Most would say the quality of the information provided by the Department over the past years and long before I came to it...

Financial Services Regulation. (26 Sep 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, is the main Government funded service which provides assistance to people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems. There are 53 independent companies nationwide with over 230 money advice staff operating the service. Many voluntary and statutory bodies such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the credit...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) Scheme is administered on behalf of my Department by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE). Applications for the allowance may be made between the beginning of June and the end of September each year. A person may qualify for payment of a back to school clothing and footwear allowance if he or she is in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2007)

Martin Cullen: The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. It is paid at a standard weekly rate equivalent to the maximum rate of the relevant social welfare payment that...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Jul 2007)

Martin Cullen: The person concerned applied for supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) in June 2007. The scheme is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE). Apart from a number of excluded categories, anyone in the State who satisfies a means test, has applied for any other benefit or allowances to which they maybe entitled, has registered for work...