Results 4,741-4,760 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: My Department has data, for example, on lone parents who also are low income earners. Consequently, it would be able to target them for this information.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendment. PRSI issues had to be looked at in the round in the context of the budget. There is a commitment in the programme for Government envisaging abolishing the PRSI ceiling and reducing the PRSI rate. Both were predicated on there being an average growth rate of 4.5%, which has not happened. For various reasons, particularly from the point of view of...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The matter is complex. It has always been our intention to try to do it before the end of the year but it will be a long-term strategy. It is not essential that it comes out of the end of the year because it would not take effect for a couple of years in any event. For example, in the UK it does not take effect until 2012 and there is quite a long lead-in period. Any change in the pensions...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: There are two pensions issues. The first is the long-term strategy and the other is the immediate difficulties faced by some pension funds. Since the publication of the Green Paper over a year ago there has been a widespread consultation process, a summary of that consultation and a review at a conference in Ireland of the international situation, particularly looking at the experience in...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: There is no real need for people to be individually concerned about it. I understand that people are looking at the market and realising that the value of their pension plan has reduced. Naturally, that is something that will cause nervousness and fear. The memo that was prepared by my Department â not leaked, as Deputy Enright statedââ
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendment as no formal benchmark has been established because people could not agree on what it should be. Targets have been set at various stages and these have been surpassed. When the national anti-poverty strategy was being devised in 2002, the Government considered a report drawn up the previous year by the social welfare benchmarking and indexation...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: How long do I have?
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: As it is my second contribution, I believed that I only had two minutes, but I would be happy to take the time.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Yes.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Deputy Shortall raised a number of points that I wish to address briefly. There was a time when we had the luxury of a social insurance fund in surplus and there was more than sufficient income to cover the payments made from it each year. Given that expenditure is likely to exceed the fund by â¬200 million this year and â¬900 million next year, it is important that we try to take some...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: It is not as if the person is disadvantaged with regard to receiving an income from the State in order to support the children.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The individual in question is receiving a good foster care allowance. In cases involving incarceration, deciding officers tend to consider the length of time for which the person will be imprisoned. The position can be examined.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Just because a person is incarcerated, he or she is not deemed to have abandoned his or her child. That is fair enough. On child benefit, figures from the central database of the Department of Education and Science show that 72% of young people who completed the leaving certificate last year were under the age of 18. Whereas the majority of schools offer a transition year, the majority of...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Deputy Shortall referred to those in receipt of early childhood supplement losing the payment for the final three months. When the scheme was introduced â I am not stating that this was the correct way to proceed â a person could effectively be paid the allowance in respect of a child that had not yet been born. If one's child was due to be born in March, one received payment from the...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The aim of the scheme has always been to help fund child care for children not yet attending school. The vast majority of children who have reached the age of five and a half are now in school.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Yes, the age profile relating to the scheme was extremely generous.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: In the context of the need to make savings, the decision in this regard was difficult. All such decisions are difficult. However, the scheme will still cater for the needs of children in the age category â from birth to five and a half years of age â at which it is targeted. These children are of preschool age. Payment will no longer be made in respect of the couple of months before...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Deputy Shortall ignored the increases that were introduced in the budget. The Department's own budget for next year will be â¬19.6 billion, an increase of 15.5% on the figure for last year. We are aware of the pressures that will come to bear, particularly in the context of the live register and the unfortunate situation in which people are finding themselves. The rise in the numbers on...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: On the risk of poverty rate for older people, the CSO accepted that as a result of the blip with SSIA incomes last year, older people had not benefited from SSIAs to the same degree as others and that this has impacted on the figures. The report is clear on that point.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The CSO accepted this in a briefing this morning, and also did so during a public briefing. The information is contained in the report which is available for the Deputy to read. We know that numbers in respect of older people living in consistent povertyââ