Results 3,961-3,980 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Apr 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 it was unaware of a bereavement in the family in question at the end of March. Payment of the rent supplement to the late spouse of the person...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: In accordance with formal procedures agreed between the Civil and Public Service Union, which represents clerical officers, and the Department of Finance, the names of officers applying for transfer to a location are entered in the Department's central transfer lists in the order in which they are received. Vacancies which arise in locations are then filled by reference to these lists. The...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: There is a general obligation on people to claim their social welfare entitlements on time and there are legislative provisions designed to cater for situations where they fail to do so. Regulations provide for payment to be made on foot of late claims in the case of a range of schemes, including family income supplement, for a period of six months prior to the date of the claim provided...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Social welfare legislation provides that, among other conditions, a person must satisfy the condition of being genuinely seeking work to be entitled to unemployment benefit, UB, or unemployment assistance, UA. A deciding officer will take a number of factors into account in deciding whether a customer is genuinely seeking work. The legislation requires a person to be genuinely seeking...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or health board payments and who are unable to provide for their extra heating needs during the winter season. A fuel allowance of €9 per week —€12.90 in designated urban smokeless fuel zones — is payable to eligible households for a 29 week period from the end of September to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Family income supplement, FIS, was introduced in 1984 to provide income support for employees on low earnings with families and thereby preserve the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where they might otherwise only be marginally better off than if they were fully reliant on social welfare payments. Weekly payments of FIS are made to families, including one-parent families,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Under the Treaty of the European Community and the European Economic Area, EEA, agreement, citizens of member states are entitled to travel to other member states to seek employment. As such, EEA nationals are treated in the same way as Irish citizens in respect of applications for social welfare payments and national legislation does not distinguish between nationals and non-nationals. In...

Written Answers — Bank Charges: Bank Charges (26 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The overall aim of my Department's payment delivery policy is to ensure that the most modern and widest range of payment methods are available to my Department's customers. Current payment methods include payment at post offices by means of a pension order book, electronic or manual post draft issued to the customer's designated post office each week, payment by cheque to the home address of...

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 143 and 144 together. In general, people in full-time education are excluded from receiving assistance, including rent supplements, under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. However, there is provision for continued payment of rent supplement to eligible people who wish to resume full-time education. People participating in approved courses under the...

Written Answers — Legal Aid Services: Legal Aid Services (21 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 145 and 146 together. The Northside Community Law Centre is one of a number of organisations which are funded under my Department's scheme of grants for the development and promotion of information and welfare rights. Since its establishment in 1975, the centre has been funded exclusively by State agencies with the Department taking over direct funding in...

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

Séamus Brennan: Responsibility for the disabled person's maintenance allowance, DPMA, scheme was transferred from the Department of Health and Children and the health boards to the Department of Social and Family Affairs in October 1996. On the transfer of the scheme the existing qualifying conditions were retained and the scheme was renamed "disability allowance". One of the qualifying conditions applying...

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 153 together. The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or health board payments with their additional heating needs during the winter season. Under the scheme an allowance of €9.00 per week —€12.90 per week in designated smokeless fuel areas — is paid to eligible households...

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

Séamus Brennan: I understand from my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, that there are two schemes dealing with the provision of caretaking and secretarial duties. Ancillary staff employed by schools whose salary costs are paid directly, or recouped from the Department of Education and Science and who work for the full year, including during school holidays, are entitled to agreed levels of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Contract: Social Welfare Contract (21 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: My Department currently issues approximately 1.1 million weekly payments of which 58% are paid through An Post. The Government's decision in 1999 to extend the Department's existing contractual arrangements with An Post gave rise to a complaint being lodged with the European Commission in 2000. That complaint was subsequently referred by the European Commission to the European Court of...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (21 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Customers of my Department are given a number of payment options to choose from when they apply for a social welfare payment. The majority of those who opt for payment of pensions by electronic fund transfer, EFT, do so at the start of their claim and are paid on a regular weekly basis once their claim is put into payment. From November 2004, the payment frequency for pension customers paid...

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

Séamus Brennan: I understand that the Deputy's inquiry relates to people seeking assistance by way of exceptional needs payments provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, HSE. Exceptional needs payments can be made at the discretion of the HSE to assist with essential, once-off expenditure...

Written Answers — Budget Submissions: Budget Submissions (21 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The submission in question includes three main issues which are relevant to my Department. These include submissions on the living alone allowance, pensions for older women and the role of modified insurance in qualifying conditions for contributory pensions. The living alone allowance is a supplement of €7.70 per week payable with certain social welfare payments. The allowance is an...

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

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive and I have no function in determining entitlement in individual cases. The Dublin mid-Leinster area of the Health Service Executive has advised that the person concerned made no mention of a health condition when applying for assistance under the...

Written Answers — Parental Leave Provisions: Parental Leave Provisions (21 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The four statutory agencies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Pensions Board, the Combat Poverty Agency, Comhairle and the family support agency. The Pensions Ombudsman's office also comes under the remit of my Department. The terms and conditions for maternity leave which apply in the agencies are in accordance with the terms provided for in the Maternity Protection Acts...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (20 Apr 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person's claim for old age non-contributory pension was disallowed on the grounds that her means, derived from the letting of her land, exceeds the statutory limit. The person appealed this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office and following an oral hearing of the appeal on 16 November 2004, the appeals officer disallowed the appeal. The appellant subsequently reported a change in...