Results 3,701-3,720 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department takes a number of measures to ensure that people are aware of possible entitlement to the family income supplement, FIS. These include advising all newly awarded one parent family payment recipients, advising all employers annually in PRSI mailshots and examining entitlement in all awarded back to work allowance cases. Information on FIS is contained in all child benefit books...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Following a Government commitment in Sustaining Progress, the National Economic and Social Council have been asked by the Government to consider the possibility of a second-tier child income support payment which would replace child dependant allowances and family income supplement, with a view to channelling resources to low income families without creating disincentives to employment. I am...

Written Answers — Departmental Funding: Departmental Funding (16 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The amount of unspent money surrendered to the Exchequer from my Department's Vote in each of the years 1997 to 2004 and the corresponding total voted budget in each case are as follows: Surplus Surrendered Budget Estimate â'¬ million â'¬ million 1997 199 3,455 1998 190 3,547 1999 169 3,593 2000 126 3,653 2001 61 4,166 2002 28 5,099 ...

Written Answers — Departmental Offices: Departmental Offices (16 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: There are no plans at present to change the status of the Finglas social welfare office. This office serves the customers of the Finglas area and currently handles a claim-load of 2,224 unemployed people. In addition, since October 2003 it also handles the claims for one-parent family payment for local customers. The building also houses the regional headquarters for the Dublin north region...

Written Answers — Appointments to State Boards: Appointments to State Boards (15 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The five statutory agencies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Pensions Board, the Combat Poverty Agency, Comhairle, the Family Support Agency and the Social Welfare Tribunal. I am satisfied that no person who is currently a member of any of the boards of these agencies is disqualified from holding a directorship of a private company.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned was awarded an electricity allowance with effect from 2 May 2005. The ESB has been notified to apply the allowance to her electricity account. She was also awarded a telephone allowance. However, as she does not yet have a telephone installed in her home, it is not possible for her to avail of the allowance at this time. However, if she obtains a telephone she should...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (15 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Child benefit is payable up to the age of 16 years and continues to be paid in respect of children up to age 19 who are in full-time education, or who have a physical or mental disability. The policy of the Government over the past number of years has been to substantially increase the amount spent on child benefit for all families. The Government's commitment to this policy is reflected in...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (15 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The total expenditure, including the specific expenditure on An Post services, incurred by my Department in respect of courier and packaging services in each of the past five years is as follows: Years Total Expenditure An Post â'¬ â'¬ 2000 326,502 98,602 2001 313,783 47,347 2002 396,581 82,873 2003 344,695 104,440 2004 375,181 83,385 2005 (to 1/6/05) 183,251...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The southern area of the executive has advised that the person concerned had never been in receipt of rent supplement of €150 a week but had been paid a weekly supplement of €137.50 until January 2005. In the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The Dublin and mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that, based on current financial circumstances, the person concerned is in receipt of the appropriate rate of rent supplement payable for the family...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Child dependant allowance, CDA, is an additional weekly payment made to male and female social welfare recipients in respect of each qualified child dependant. A full CDA rate of €16.80 for each child dependant is payable to recipients of disability benefit together with a qualified adult allowance where the spouse's gross weekly earnings do not exceed €220 gross per week. Where earnings...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 427 and 431 together. The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support for people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. The primary objective of the social welfare system is to provide income support and, as a general rule,...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I have no plans to change the payment methods currently available for old-age, widows and other pension customers. Current payment options for these customers include payment at post offices by means of a pension order book and direct payment to customers' bank, building society or post office savings accounts. My objective is to ensure that a range of payment options is available to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The operation of the habitual residence condition has been kept under review by officials of my Department since its introduction. The purpose of the review is to assess the impact of the condition on different categories of claimants, the organisational arrangements and the level of service provided for customers, to identify opportunities for improvements in the administration of the scheme...

Written Answers — Ministerial Travel: Ministerial Travel (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I travelled to Estonia to represent the Government at various ceremonies which celebrated St. Patrick's Day. I also had bilateral meetings with the Estonian Social Affairs Minister and the Vice-Chairman of the Estonian Parliament Social Affairs Committee and gave a number of press interviews. My official party travelled by Government jet to Tallinn on Wednesday night, 16 March, and returned...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: With effect from 1 June 2005 a new disability allowance personal expenses payment of €35 per week has been introduced for people in residential settings. These people did not previously qualify for a disability allowance. The allowance replaces the former pocket money allowances administered by the health boards. Social welfare legislation provides that payment may be made to a person other...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Disability allowance is a personal allowance normally paid directly to the recipient. Generally, no arrangements are made to split payments except in very exceptional or limited circumstances, for example, when a separate payment is issued directly to a qualified adult dependant. There are many different residential settings or services which recipients of disability allowance may attend,...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 434 and 435 together. Under the Government decentralisation programme announced as part of budget 2004, the Department is to relocate 230 posts to Donegal and 120 posts to Buncrana. According to figures received by the Department from the central applications facility, CAF, the number of applicants for Donegal and Buncrana is 104 and 35, respectively. The...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Half of any maintenance a lone parent receives can be disregarded as means for the purposes of assessing his or her entitlement to one-parent family payment. The means test for this and certain other social assistance schemes also provides for a disregard of up to €95.23 per week of maintenance payments in instances where applicants have rent or mortgage interest obligations on their family...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 437 and 438 together. Disablement benefit is payable under the occupational injuries scheme to an insured person who suffers a loss of physical or mental faculty as a result of an occupational accident or a prescribed disease. The person must have been in insurable, occupational injuries, employment at the time the accident happened or the disease was...