Results 4,261-4,280 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 84, 104, 119, 121 and 125 together. The results from the 2003 EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions, EU-SILC, released last month by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, are a valuable addition to the research already undertaken into income, living standards and the extent of poverty in Ireland. The new survey identifies groups at risk of poverty...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The objective of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, is to make up the difference between a person's means and his or her basic needs. Where a person has access to some resources in kind or in cash, through the social welfare system or otherwise, the relevant legislation requires that...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The Deputy is referring to the recently published EU second annual report on equality between men and women, which was requested, by the EU Heads of State at the Spring European Council, in March 2003. This report covers a range of issues including gender gaps in employment, part-time employment and unemployment rates, educational attainment, lifelong learning, working hours and elected...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: In the programme for Government and in Sustaining Progress, the Government has committed itself to increasing the payment for qualified adults, age 66 or over, to the same level as the personal rate of the old age non-contributory pension. The estimated cost of this commitment is €44 million. Considerable progress has already been made in this regard with the qualified adult allowance on...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 94 together. Child dependant allowance is an additional payment made to social welfare recipients in respect of eligible child dependants under 18 years of age. This age limit can be extended to 22 years in specified circumstances where the child remains in full-time education. While the loss of this additional allowance on gaining full-time employment...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 86, 97 and 126 together. It is Government policy to encourage people to participate in occupational and private pension arrangements so that they can, when they retire, maintain their pre-retirement standard of living at a reasonable level. To this end a range of measures have been introduced over the last few years including personal retirement savings...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent or mortgage interest. This is available to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The scheme is administered, on behalf of my...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 89, 106, 110, 114, 189 and 199 together. Family income supplement is designed to provide cash support for people with families on low earnings. This preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he or she were claiming other social welfare payments. The number of persons who...

Written Answers — Nursing Home Charges: Nursing Home Charges (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 90 and 105 together. In relation to payments to people in institutional care, the practice generally has always been that, when social welfare pensioners took up residence in long-stay residential care centres operated by the health boards, the board was appointed as an agent for the purpose of cashing the person's weekly pension or allowance and any charges...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. The basis for the restriction contained in the new rules is the applicant's habitual residence. The restriction is not based on citizenship, nationality, immigration status or any other factor. The effect of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: A special Christmas bonus payment was first introduced in December 1980 for social welfare pensioners and people who depend solely on their social welfare payments for income support. There have been a number of developments in this scheme since its inception, including changes in the level of the bonus payment, the introduction of a minimum payment and the extension of the categories of...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The comments to which the Deputy refers were made at a conference entitled, Being a Father at Christmas, which I opened and which was funded by my Department as an event marking the 10th Anniversary of the UN International Year of the Family. The comments particularly referred to the way in which the State intervenes in families where separation occurs and the approach of statutory agencies...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent to an eligible person whose means are insufficient to meet his or her accommodation needs and who does not have accommodation available to him or her from any other...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The homemaker's scheme was introduced in 1994 and is intended to protect the pension entitlements of those who take time out of the paid workforce for caring duties. The scheme allows up to 20 years to be disregarded when a person's insurance record is being averaged to assess entitlement for contributory pension purposes. The scheme will not of itself qualify a person for a pension as the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Families and family life in Ireland have been undergoing profound change in recent decades, which includes the significant growth in the proportion of families headed by lone parents. The Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, in inviting submissions, has specifically stated that account will be taken of these developments in their consideration of the possible need for changes to the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Free travel passes issued by my Department do not display a photograph of the passholders. However, it is a CIE requirement that passholders resident in the major cities — Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Galway — must obtain an ancillary photopass from CIE in order to use the CIE Group services in those cities. This photopass is obtained free of charge by eligible passholders, with the cost...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: People are only identifiable in the social welfare system as parents when they have child dependants. Traditionally, the father was the main and often the sole breadwinner, with the mother, as the main caregiver, being regarded as dependent on the father. Implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in recent decades has involved making the social welfare system both...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: According to the most recent census there were 154,000 lone parent families in 2002, comprising one in six of all families, with 85% headed by women. In terms of marital status, 40% were headed by a widowed person, 32% headed by a separated or divorced person and 24% headed by a single person. The number in receipt of the one parent family payment at end of December 2004 was 80,103 — up...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The measures introduced in the context of the 2004 Estimates included changes to the back to education allowance, one parent family payment, certain child dependant allowances, changes in the conditions of entitlement to short term social insurance payments and changes in the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. It is not possible to quantify precisely the numbers affected by the measures...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Feb 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to 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, only one weekly social welfare payment is payable to an...