Results 5,641-5,660 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Budgeting Advice: Budgeting Advice (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 143 together. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) is the main Government funded service which provides assistance to people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems. There are 53 independent companies nationwide with over 240 money advice staff operating the service. Almost €18 million has been provided...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 119 and 138 together. The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over and to people receiving certain disability or care payments. Proposals to extend the free travel scheme to Irish born people living abroad and those receiving pensions from the Department have been examined and, in this regard, officials of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 122 and 133 together. The development of a National Carers' Strategy is a key Government commitment in both the national partnership agreement "Towards 2016" and the Programme for Government. A working group, chaired by the Department of An Taoiseach, is working on developing the strategy. The Department of Social and Family Affairs provides the secretariat...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Civil Public and Services Union is currently in dispute with my Department in relation to a claim for the extension of the flexible attendance bands. The industrial action being taken involves non co-operation with lunchtime opening in the Department's local offices and a ban on answering phones at lunchtime. Every effort is being made by the Department to minimise inconvenience to the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The telephone allowance is a component of the household benefits package which also includes the electricity/gas allowance and free television license schemes. The package is generally available to people living in the State, aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare payment or who satisfy a means test. It is also available to people aged under 66 who are in receipt of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The question of introducing a paternity benefit payment, in any format, would depend on establishing an underlying entitlement to statutory paternity leave in the first instance. Responsibility for issues relating to paternity leave rests with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Following commitments made in the social partnership agreement "Towards 2016", a Working Group led...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The school meals programme gives funding towards provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the long-standing statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided by the Department to participating...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: My Department currently operates a range of schemes for people with an illness or disability including the insurance based illness benefit scheme, the occupational injury benefit scheme for those who are unable to work because of an accident or illness suffered at work and the means-tested disability allowance scheme. Farm operators normally pay Class A social insurance contributions and...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU), the union which represents clerical and supervisory grades in the civil service, is currently engaged in industrial action in pursuit of a claim for the extension of flexi time bands in the Department. Initially, the industrial action commenced with the withdrawal of co-operation with the implementation of a new Time and Attendance (T&A) system by...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The overall goal in the National Action Plan for social inclusion is to reduce the number of those experiencing consistent poverty or basic deprivation to between 2 per cent and 4 per cent by 2012, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016. The rate of consistent poverty was 6.5 per cent in 2006 (latest figures available), down from 8.2 per cent in 2003. The proportion actually...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Department of Social and Family Affairs administers a number of schemes designed to help working families on low incomes. Family income supplement is the principal income support for people in low-income employment with children. It is designed to provide the incentive to remain in, or take up, employment rather than be fully welfare dependent. Qualification for payment under this scheme...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over. All carers in receipt of carer's allowance and carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance, regardless of their age, receive a free travel pass. It is also available to people under age 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type welfare payments, such as...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: No specific research has been undertaken by the Department in relation to the cost of living for widows and widowers with children. However, those in question have benefited from a range of improvements in social welfare schemes in recent years. Widows and widowers can qualify for one of a number of different schemes depending on their particular circumstances. The contributory widow(er)'s...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 184 and 187 together. The Respite Care Grant (RCG) is an annual payment made to all persons providing full-time care, regardless of means or PRSI contribution record, but subject to certain conditions. The extension of the scheme to all carers was introduced in Budget 2005. The Grant is payable from the first Thursday in June of the year in question....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The Department currently has bilateral social security agreements with 7 countries, and also social security arrangements under EU Regulations with the other 26 EU countries, 3 EEA countries, and Switzerland. These arrangements are generally working satisfactorily. The time taken to process claims that fall to be examined under bilateral agreements can be longer than that for standard Irish...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The back to education allowance (BTEA) is an educational opportunities scheme for unemployed people, lone parents and people with disabilities in receipt of particular social welfare payments. It affords them the opportunity to undertake approved second or third level courses of education to improve their skills and qualifications and, consequently, their prospects of returning to the active...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: There are currently 38,000 persons in receipt of carer's allowance. The information requested by the Deputy regarding carer's allowance applications received and decided in the past year is set out in tabular format as follows. Carer's allowance claims received and decided June 2007-June 2008 Received Awarded Refused Withdrawn Jun-07 1,716 847 625 156 Jul-07 920 752 314 116 Aug-07...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 191 to 194, inclusive, together. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) 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 persons...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Since 1973, six EU Directives have been transposed by my Department. Apart from Directive 79/7/EEC (which dealt with the principle of equal treatment in social security schemes) the remaining five Directives relates to issues concerning occupational pension schemes. Two Directives were transposed by way of Regulations made under Section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972, while three...

National Carers' Strategy. (25 Jun 2008)

Mary Hanafin: It was not possible to meet the deadline of the end of 2007 because the section of the Department dealing with this issue was also working on the Green Paper on pensions, which involved a broad range of consultation, as well as the development of new arrangements for payments to nursing home. However, since this process began, there has been a significant level of positive consultation. The...