Results 5,041-5,060 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Government's decision to integrate the Combat Poverty Agency and the Office for Social Inclusion within my Department was informed by the findings of a review of the Combat Poverty Agency which was undertaken on foot of a Government decision on 6 June 2007. The review will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas today. I intend through the integration of the Combat Poverty Agency...
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I intend to ask the new division to prioritise the development of procedures to ensure the views of all stakeholders, including people experiencing poverty, continue to be available to Government in developing and monitoring social inclusion strategies.
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Deputy will be aware that the process started in June 2007 with the review of the role of the agency and an examination of how it could be more effective. Although the main impetus was not financial, to answer the Deputy's question, the amount currently spent on the agency is â¬4.6 million, although some staff will transfer. There are costs with regard to staffing, community projects...
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: That was actually in the review.
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The agency has been in existence for 22 years, which was an issue. We must now find a mechanism whereby the views of the whole team of peopleââ
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: ââcan be taken on board in conjunction with those of all the other groups that have emerged since the Combat Poverty Agency was established. All these groups play a valuable role, particularly those in the community and voluntary area, although the community and voluntary pillar was unheard of at the time the agency was set up. The amount of statistical information we get on a national...
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: In fact, it is the other way around.
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Quite a substantial amount of work has been commissioned by the Combat Poverty Agency to be carried out by the ESRI.
- Departmental Staff. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Of the last 38 policy documents and reports drawn up in the name of the Combat Poverty Agency, 28 were done by outside bodies, while ten were done by the agency itself. There is very good expertise within the agency at research level and other levels. These experts will now be able to avail of the good expertise in the Office for Social Inclusion. By integrating these two bodies, which is...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 95 and 97 together. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. In recent years, a significant number of people have come to...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Deputy put her finger on it when she said it is important we do not drive up the rent. When we examined the rent limit in August, rents had fallen by 5% and the supply of rental accommodation had doubled. Given the number of tenants who come under this scheme, there is always a danger that our raising the limits would drive up rent. The fact that so many people benefit from it shows...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: As I clearly stated, the rent contribution has not gone up in a number of years. It is entirely reasonable to expect somebody to pay â¬18 per week when the State pays anything up to â¬1,200 in some cases on their behalf, depending on family size etc. That â¬18 per week is much less than those same people would pay if they rented from the local authority.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Increasingly the Government is anxious to try to bring it into line with some of the differential rents at local authority level. Some of those are, for example, â¬26 or â¬27 per week. When the levels were set in 2004, it was designed to be at approximately 10% of the social welfare rate and, having stayed the same over the last number of years, the new levels are only 8.8%.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Therefore it is entirely reasonable to expect people to do that.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: No, I am glad to see that so many people are able to benefit from the scheme. The fact of more rental accommodation becoming available should help keep the prices down. The rent supplement budget for next year is â¬462 million. There is pressure on that due to the number of people losing their jobs. Approximately 72,000 people will benefit from it. It is a lot of money but given that...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: We are anxious to do something about the poor quality accommodation and I am working with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on that. As a result of the supply of rented accommodation some of it is of very good quality for people's â¬13 per week to date and â¬18 in future. The rent limit must be kept under review and I will re-examine it probably at the...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: It is entirely defensible to ask people to pay â¬18 per week for their accommodation.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: It is entirely defensible on the basis that the changes introduced last year allow people to work. It is important that there should be no disincentive to people going to work. Many people on rent supplement will have additional income. If, in February, those same people were housed in Limerick in rental accommodation, they would pay â¬26 per week and in Dublin city â¬24.87 per week.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: That is the differential rent rate in those two counties. It is substantially more than we ask anybody to pay at â¬18. It is reasonable. In hindsight it should have increased every year between 2004 and 2008, and it did not, so that is what it has come to.
- Combat Poverty Agency. (11 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 96 and 121 together. As Deputies will be aware, the Government's decision to integrate the Combat Poverty Agency and the Office for Social Inclusion within my Department was informed by the findings of a review of the Combat Poverty Agency, which was undertaken on foot of a Government decision of 6 June 2007. As the Combat Poverty Agency is established under...