Results 4,601-4,620 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I certainly appreciate the interest and passion of the Senators on this matter. The interest and passion is more about combating poverty than in just having an agency, and everybody would share that. That will always be at the core of my policies, particularly in the portfolio I now hold. Senators will be well aware that the development of the DEIS scheme in education was about doing the...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: And his marriage.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: And six wives.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I fail to see how this fits in with stallion fees, stud greyhound fees and profit from woodlands, but I am always happy to take the Senator's questions. This has been an issue for a long number of years but the spouse, or both partners, has to be able to prove that a partnership existed. During the year my Department and the Revenue Commissioners agreed on what were the issues indicating...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I will certainly check that for the Senator.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I agree it is complicated.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept this amendment but I share Senator McFadden's views on the need to ensure we support lone parents. Senators will be aware that the Government published a discussion document on supporting lone parents and we have been working very actively on it in the past few months to try to bring new proposals to a conclusion. These proposals not only deal with return to work...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: There is a number of myths about lone parents. There is the myth that there are hundreds of teenage mothers, which is not so; the number of teenage mothers is substantially reduced. There is the myth that lone parents have a number of children, but the majority of lone parents have only one child. I launched some very good research which was published recently byOne Parent and which has...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The rent supplement scheme is important in helping people find accommodation. It is always intended to be a short-term payment. The way it complements the rental accommodation scheme is very important. I do not propose to accept the amendment but I will keep the rent supplement under review because of the amount of money we spend on it. Some 70,000 people benefit from rent supplement....

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I am not sure of the exact answer to the question but there was a Government decision to facilitate the move of 115 people so perhaps it is the exception rather than the norm.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendment. This is a valuable scheme which supports many people and the amount of money provided in the back to school clothing and footwear allowance covers what it is intended to cover, namely, a uniform and shoes. I would not pretend that it also covers school books and I appreciate the pressure on people in this regard. This year, €49 million is being...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Given all the various price increases, the prices of clothing and footwear have fallen over the past 12 months and I anticipate this will remain the case. I appreciate the value of the scheme and I will try constantly to ensure that more families benefit from it.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendment. An issue is raised with regard to children being at risk of poverty. As has been mentioned, most of these children tend to be the children of lone parents and they must always be a target group. Payment of child benefit has always been the way in which we have supported families. Child benefit is paid in respect of approximately 1.071 million...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The early childhood supplement is designed to support the cost of child care and not only that but to support parents in looking after their children wherever they choose to do so. It is a good scheme. Changes have been introduced by the budget, largely as a cost-saving measure and to ensure that we continue to target children at pre-school age. When it was introduced it was on a quarterly...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The savings from this next year will be €97 million, which is a significant amount of money. Given the way the scheme was devised in the first instance, the parents of a child born in March received the payment for the full quarter of January, February and March, which meant they received a payment for a child not yet born. If a child was six in January the parent received the payment for...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendment. The back to education allowance is an important benefit and one that I have promoted since my appointment. One of the positive statistics to emerge from the latest Central Statistics Office data is the 24% increase in the numbers participating in the scheme. This indicates its effectiveness. The scheme was designed to support the long-term...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendment as it is not necessary. Comprehensive legislation is in place which covers all aspects of control activity. Senators will have noted recent figures which show the Department's success in combating welfare fraud and error through prevention, detection, deterrence and debt recovery. This is done at various stages from the point at which a claim is...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Senator is correct that there have been some delays in processing child benefit claims. These largely occur in the case of claims made by non-nationals living in Ireland for children who are non-resident. Processing such applications requires a large number of checks to be made in the home country of the families in question to ensure the child exists and the family is not in receipt of...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Two separate issues have been raised. The length of time required to process claims is due to the pressure caused by the number of applications being received. Unfortunately, all offices have experienced a large increase in the number of people applying for jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit. To ensure we can expedite the processing of claims, approximately 30 additional staff...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2008)

Mary Hanafin: On Senator Brady's point on rent supplement, it is an area where, because we are spending €410 million, we must keep under control who is receiving it for whom. It can be difficult because we give it to the individual tenant rather than to a landlord. Records would not be kept under the name of a landlord but under the name of each individual tenant. I will check if we can have further...