Results 4,181-4,200 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I have not yet met formally with EU officials regarding this matter. However, it has been raised in the House a number of times recently and I am continuing my examination of the issues involved, which have budgetary and EU implications.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I can save the Senator a telephone call to the Commission because those calls are expensive nowadays. The directive states: With the exception of Article 19, member states may choose not to apply this directive in whole or in part to any institution located in their territories which operates pensions schemes which together have less than 100 members in total. It is quite clear from this,...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I thank the Senators for their consideration of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill. As I stated earlier, I deliberately used the word "pensions" in the legislation's title for the first time. It would normally be termed a Social Welfare Bill but I included the word to demonstrate my concern about the pensions issue and to acknowledge that an important directive was being transposed. I thank...

Seanad: Rural Renewal Schemes. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The rural renewal scheme was introduced in the Finance Act 1998 to address some of the problems facing the upper Shannon area. It was at that stage becoming apparent that this area, with its history of persistent high emigration, poor land and fragmented holdings, was not sharing in the economic turnabout experienced from the mid-1990s in other parts of the State. The 1996 census, for...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I wish to return to what Senator O'Meara asked about PRSAs. I agree that the take-up has been disappointing. It now stands at 46,000 — that is the number of individual contracts. For that reason, I have formally asked the Pensions Board to bring forward from 2006 to this year the review that it is required to carry out of pensions coverage and adequacy. I expect the board's report this...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I argue that a large proportion of that €2.5 billion is given in tax breaks to individuals against their wages and salaries so they can take out pensions. It is, therefore, given in tax relief to individuals.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I argue that the individual is benefiting, since he or she is not taking out a pension. By forgoing tax, the State is helping that individual pay the premium to build up a pension. Therefore, the individual will obviously gain by being in the pension scheme and in the business of building up a pension for himself or herself with State support. One could argue, if that State support were not...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The figure is so large that one must be very wary of a broad-brush approach. A very substantial proportion of it is going to ordinary working people to help them build up pensions for the future. I do not doubt that an element is going where one might argue that it should not go. We should examine that area. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, is constantly reviewing all those tax reliefs.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I thank Senator Terry for moving this amendment again. While I do not have any difficulty with the concepts in these amendments I am seeking a fair balance between the consumer and the provider and a code of protection for the consumer informing the participants about charges and so on. All of these are covered in the various regulations about which I spoke on Committee Stage. The Director of...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: On a point of information, in the case of PRSAs, IFSRA insists on advertising carrying the kind of warning the Senator is seeking. Therefore, what the Senator wants to achieve with regard to PRSAs is already the case. IFSRA insists upon it.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I presume that members of all occupational schemes are made fully aware of the conditions of the schemes and are fully informed of their contents.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Yes.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I thank Senators for raising this issue, which needs to be considered. It involves many complicated aspects. The Pensions Board has advised me that it does not support the immediate introduction of a protection fund. However, the board has recommended me to consider it in the medium term, taking into account the UK experience, in particular. The pension benefit guarantee corporation has...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: They were not wound up.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: They did not meet the funding standard, which was very conservative.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The Senator asks me to reverse an amendment which I put forward and dealt with on Committee Stage in the Dáil. When I spoke in the House on Second Stage, the amendment broadened the regulatory power to allow borrowing for more than liquidity purposes, as the Senator noted. I made the amendment to allow me flexibility to respond to concerns raised in a significant volume of correspondence...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I have made considerable changes in this area. Some 16 amendments were introduced last year. In the case of five or six amendments, depending on how one considers them, we have reverted to the previous situation. We made substantial amendments in another five or six areas and I will continue to review or discuss the remainder with the social partners, as necessary. We spent some time...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I thank the Senators. Child poverty is of great concern to me and to all of us. Different figures arise. There is a famous figure of 66,000 children in poverty in Ireland. The figure varies depending on whatever report one takes heed of. I have also seen substantially larger figures. Whatever the figure is, there is an issue which must be addressed. Child benefit this year will come to about...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I thank the Senator. I will try to get the report from the National Economic and Social Council as soon as possible and will bring proposals to the Cabinet and, if necessary, before the Oireachtas.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2005: Committee Stage. (8 Mar 2005)

Séamus Brennan: We discussed this at length on Committee Stage in the Dáil. This issue concerns prosecutions, a very important part of my Department's efforts to control fraud and abuse in social welfare schemes. Prosecutions are an important deterrent in combatting social welfare fraud. We have spoken at length about improving the lot of lone parents and others such as widows and the elderly, and of...