Results 5,161-5,180 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 121, 137 and 152 together. There is no delay in processing the majority of Child Benefit applications. Awards on behalf of Irish born children are processed either automatically or in a partially automated way using the child's birth details when they are registered with the General Registrar's Office. The average processing time for these claims is 10...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: 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. Over 45,500 rent supplements have been awarded since January 2008. In recent years, a significant number of people...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents," put forward proposals to tackle obstacles to employment for lone parents and other low income families. These included proposals for the expanded availability and range of education and training opportunities for lone parents; the extension of the National Employment Action Plan to focus on lone parents; focused...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: In the recent Budget, the Government's main priorities are: to restore order and stability in the public finances; to increase productivity and competitiveness; and to protect those who are most vulnerable in our country. In his speech on Budget Day, the Minister for Finance announced that the expected rate of inflation for 2009 would be 2.5%. In Budget 2009, all weekly income maintenance...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 125, 165 and 175 together. The Department's role is to assist social welfare recipients with heating costs, both through their basic payments and through the household benefits package with fuel, electricity and gas allowances. These schemes have been improved significantly in recent years. The national fuel allowance scheme assists householders on long-term...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Social welfare spending has been prioritised in this Budget. Next year, total funding for the Department of Social and Family Affairs will be €19.6 billion. This represents an increase of €2.6 billion or 15.5% over the Estimates allocation for 2008. Over 1.7 million people and their dependents will benefit from this expenditure. Unfortunately, it has been necessary to take some steps to...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Since its establishment in 2007, the Sign Language Interpretation Service has been allocated funding of €300,000 for each of the years 2007 and 2008 from the Citizens Information Board. The 2007 allocation was fully utilised by SLIS and it is expected that the full allocation for 2008 will also be required. The service is a national service providing a limited number of sign language...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 129, 166 and 171 together. The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to cover the cost of sending children to school, rather, as the name suggests, it is intended to assist with clothing and...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 132 and 156 together. The Pensions Act provides for a minimum Funding Standard which defined benefit pension schemes must meet on an ongoing basis. Generally speaking, the Standard requires that schemes maintain sufficient assets to enable them to discharge accrued liabilities in the event of a scheme winding up. Where schemes do not satisfy the Funding...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 133 and 149 together. The Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents," put forward proposals to tackle obstacles to employment for lone parents and other low income families. Under the proposals the lone parenthood category of payment would no longer exist. Instead, a new payment would be made to all parents (living alone or with a...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: As the Deputy will be aware, Ireland's social welfare system is based on two quite different types of entitlement — a social insurance system for people who have paid sufficient PRSI contributions and a social assistance system for people without adequate contributions who have little or no household means of their own. Social insurance is intended both to enable people to insure themselves...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for a weekly or monthly supplement to be paid in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs. 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...

Written Answers — : (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 138, 151, 177, 441 and 442 together. The Department is committed to providing a high quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued as expeditiously as possible having regard to the eligibility conditions which apply. These conditions vary between the two jobseeker...

Written Answers — Departmental Agencies: Departmental Agencies (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: It is proposed to take Questions Nos. 139 and 143 together. As Deputies will be aware, a review of the Combat Poverty Agency was undertaken on foot of a Government decision on the 6th of June 2007. The purpose of the review was to examine the role of the Agency in light of the emergence since 1986 of comprehensive strategies and new institutional arrangements to promote social inclusion...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: This report, Tackling Health Inequalities — A Social Determinants Approach, shows how social, economic and environmental conditions play a major role in determining health in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Combat Poverty and the Institute of Public Health in Ireland jointly published this all-Ireland report, which makes a major contribution to our understanding of this subject. Full account...

Written Answers — Departmental Agencies: Departmental Agencies (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: There are no plans to merge the Employment Support Services of FÁS with the Department of Social and Family Affairs. FÁS and the Department work together in a complementary way and I have not made any such proposals to the Government on behalf of people on social welfare payments. A high degree of cooperation and coordination exists at both policy and operational level between the...

Written Answers — Live Register: Live Register (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Department collects information from people on the Live Register to establish entitlement to payments, to ensure that conditions for receipt of payment continue to be satisfied and to assist in the activation of those who are not progressing into employment or accessing training opportunities. The Live Register is profiled by scheme type, gender, age, duration on the Live Register,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Department has consistently publicised the FIS scheme in order to maximise uptake by qualified families. Significant improvements in the qualifying income limits and ongoing awareness campaigns have resulted in a strong upward trend in the levels of claims received. There are currently some 26,000 people in receipt of a weekly FIS payment. In 2007 the Department received 36,900 new and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the Department by the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Rent supplement is subject to a limit on the amount of rent that a person may incur. Rent limits are set at levels that enable the different eligible household types to secure and retain basic suitable rented accommodation, having regard to the...

Written Answers — Data Protection: Data Protection (21 Oct 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Department was notified in April 2007 that a laptop, belonging to the C&AG, had been taken from our offices. The theft was immediately reported to the Gardaí. Some 16 months later, in early August, the Department was informed that the laptop contained personal data relating to social welfare customers. The Department reported this matter to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation...