Results 981-1,000 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: It is expected that the €24 million allocated for this year will be spent fully. Steps are being taken by both Departments, local authorities and community welfare services to ensure this. The funds being transferred are and will be used to roll out the RAS. The scheme is not rent supplement by another name because it provides more permanent, negotiated accommodation, including long-term...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: As the Deputy knows, I have long held the view that implementing a targeted second-tier payment for children of families on low incomes is the best effective method of tackling child poverty. The NESC has been examining this concept and indicated that, as proposed, a second-tier income represents a new approach to targeting. The issues involved are complex and technical and a substantial...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: The Department of the Taoiseach requested the NESC to prepare that work and it goes back three or four years. I referred in my reply to an additional year of work under Towards 2016 but I am satisfied that an additional €60 million went towards a child benefit form of payment, the child dependant allowance, the first time that happened since 1994. The House asked for that and it will have...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: We can certainly look at that. I committed myself to that last year but as we left it too late, I said we would look at it this year. I will commit the Department to examining that. I remember thinking at the time that an extra two weeks would be about right, instead of going all the way to Christmas.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: I will ask the Department to take account of that.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: The Government's discussion paper proposals for supporting lone parents includes proposals in this regard and I thank all those involved in working on this reforming document. It proposes the abolition of the cohabitation rule as a condition for receipt of a new social assistance payment and proposes to replace the lone parent's allowance with a new social assistance payment aimed at...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: I acknowledge the Deputy's consistency on this matter over a long period. The report with which he is familiar recommends that policy relating to young carers should be a matter for the Department of Health and Children and that services should be delivered by the Health Service Executive. The Deputy has spoken up for this group. It has not been easy to develop strategy in this area...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: Therefore, they need support and assistance to return to their proper role if it is possible for them to do so. I note the Deputy's determination.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: I move amendment No. 24: In page 28, line 38, to delete "Table" and substitute "Table 1". This amendment provides for the correction of an error made in the printing of the Bill and ensures the appropriate reference in Part 3 of Schedule 3 is that the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act refers to "Table 1" as opposed to "Table".

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, has put the case on the regeneration issue very well because he understands it better than most. Regeneration attempts to give communities a fresh start and has been in operation since 2004. The evidence available to my Department suggests it is working well and it is included in this Bill only to allow us, having received legal...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: Some 750 community welfare officers administer approximately €800 million. On the commencement of the health reforms the health strategy made it clear that community welfare officers had no role in that formal structural context. The idea of community welfare officers working more closely with the Department of Social and Family Affairs goes back to the Social Welfare Commission of 1986,...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: As I hate to disappoint the Deputy, I will respond in the manner he expects. Under the current statutory provisions governing the award of credit contributions, recipients of the carer's allowance may be awarded credits if they switch to that payment from another credit bearing payment such as jobseeker's allowance. From April 1999 formal provision has been made for the award of credits to...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: Yes.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: The habitual residence condition was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes, including child benefit, with effect from 1 May 2004. It was introduced in the context of the Government's decision to open the labour market to workers from the ten new EU member states without the transitional limitations imposed by most other existing member states. The effect...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: We will still be in government.

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: I agree it is timely to consider fundamentally the role of the carer, and the strategy will provide this opportunity. Preliminary work has been commenced thereon and we hope to have a gathering of carers in the coming weeks to kick off the strategy and commence the process. The strategy presents an opportunity to consider the role of carers, who are valuable and valued in society. All...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: Work has commenced on the strategy and will go on at official level while the election campaign is going on. I will consider Deputy Stanton's point about the advisability of continuing with meetings in an election atmosphere. I do not want to do that and it is not my intention. We decided on this months ago but in view of the fact that it was mentioned in the House, I will consider it and...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: The Deputy has paraphrased my views on this issue. The reality is that the allowance has not been changed since 1996, which means that successive Ministers took a social policy view of this matter. It is not a matter of money but trying to develop a social policy that permits people to move in directions in which they would wish to move and not fall into any traps in the system that prevent...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: I take the Deputy's point but I have to start somewhere in dealing with the living alone allowance, and we took a view on that. I take Deputy Stanton's point in particular. We have a responsibility to help people who find themselves living alone and to devise and amend our systems to ensure they get whatever extra support is possible without it becoming a disincentive. That is the way we...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (21 Mar 2007)

Séamus Brennan: I thank the Deputies. Section 25 provides for the payment of rent supplement to be refused in respect of accommodation which is situated in an area notified to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as one of regeneration for the purposes of providing for greater social integration. I should point out that the provision...