Results 10,761-10,780 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Child benefit is the main policy instrument for assisting families in Ireland with the cost of raising children. It is a universal payment paid in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years, or to the age of 18 if the child is in full-time education or has a disability. It is paid to more than 615,000 families in respect of almost 1.2 million children, at a cost of...

Other Questions: Child Benefit Administration (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy is rightly concerned about the welfare of children attending school. The point I am making is that school attendance is not the province of the Department of Social Protection. I politely suggest to the Deputy that this question would probably be more appropriately taken up with the Minister for Education and Skills. As Deputy Naughten pointed out, the Minister for Education and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Our model is a payment by results model. I am sure the Deputy is aware that it does not have anything to do with people with a disability. It concerns people who are receiving unemployment payments. It has nothing to do with people with a disability or invalidity, although I note that a few minutes ago, the Deputy seemed to be rightly concerned in calling for more opportunities for people...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: We have designed an Irish model for Ireland. That may upset the Deputy because he is tied into the Northern Ireland model and has a vested interest-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Deputy Ó Snodaigh has a vested interest in the British model.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: We want to get all of the people who are unemployed in Ireland back to work. A significant number of people are working in the Department and a number of companies like the local employment services are working with us. Those resources are not sufficient to help all those who want to go back to work to get back to work. We have looked at best practice around the world to see how we get the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy is aware that my objective as a Minister is to get this country back to full employment, and he knows from the most recent statistics that, although the live register in Ireland has fallen very dramatically, it was 343,000 or 346,000 when the figures from the end of April were published last week. The existing services of the Department are not sufficient to get as many as...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: JobPath is specifically designed to help those jobseekers who are most distant from the labour market to gain sustained employment. JobPath companies will engage approximately 1,000 staff to provide services for up to 400,000 jobseekers over a four-year period. Following the completion of a public procurement process, two companies were selected to provide JobPath - Turas Nua Limited and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department spends €39 million per year on the school meals programme. I have been a strong supporter of the programme as well as the Healthy Food for All initiative, which is about all of us, including schoolchildren and their parents, learning about healthy food and how to eat healthily. One of the issues with food is that sometimes a great deal of money might be spent on it,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: I am happy to look at that. However, in many cases, not every child in the school will want or need a breakfast because, for the most part, they will have eaten a good, nourishing breakfast at home with their family. The reason for the emphasis on lunch is that by lunchtime, when the children still have another couple of hours in school, they need food. Perhaps we should agree to move to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection’s primary role is to provide income supports to sustain an adequate standard of living and to prevent poverty. It is for that reason that the Government has protected primary weekly rates of welfare since it came into office, notwithstanding the economic difficulties. In 2013, welfare payments and other social transfers, excluding pensions, reduced...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: I am going on the advice of the advisory group, which researched the matter very deeply, and also on the actuarial reviews which show that, for the 4% contribution that self-employed people currently make, they get widow's and widower's pensions, contributory retirement benefits, maternity benefit and guardian's benefit. Those are significant benefits for 4%. Many self-employed people are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: I favour the report of the advisory committee. We have spoken in recent times of social dialogue in regard to the relationships between the Government and different groups. As the Deputy and I are aware, the numbers of people involved in self-employment, contracting and sub-contracting work and setting up their own companies, in particular younger people, has been on the increase for well...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: Self-employed people pay PRSI at the class S rate of 4%. This entitles them to benefits such as a State contributory pension and contributory widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension, contributory guardian's payment, maternity benefit and adoptive benefit. A combined PRSI rate of 14.75% is paid in respect of employees, who can access the full range of social insurance...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Waiting Times (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The annual report of the Social Welfare Appeals Office was published last month and shows that the total number of appeals on hands for all schemes at the end of 2014 continued to fall to just over 9,600 or a reduction of 35% year on year. I am advised by the Appeals Office that the current average time taken to decide family income supplement appeals decided on a summary basis is 20.7 weeks...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Work Placement Programmes (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy will be aware, Gateway is a County and City Council work scheme which aims to provide short-term quality and suitable work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than 24 months. Participants benefit by being involved in work. They improve their work readiness and are able to apply their existing skills and learn new ones. The scheme is also intended to assist the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: It is expected that in July the majority of lone parents who make the transition from the one-parent family payment to a jobseeker's payment will be eligible for the jobseeker's transitional payment as their youngest child will be under 14 years of age. The jobseeker's transitional payment exempts lone parents from the normal jobseeker's conditionality of having to be available for and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Anti-Poverty Strategy (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Irish contribution to Europe 2020 poverty target is to reduce by a minimum of 200,000 the population in 'combined poverty' (i.e. either consistent poverty, at-risk-of-poverty or basic deprivation) between 2010 and 2020. In 2013, the at-risk-of-poverty rate fell from 16.5% to 15.2%, the first reduction in three years. In comparative terms, Ireland is below the EU average and ranks...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Activation Projects (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to providing a range of supports and measures to encourage and facilitate people with disabilities to avail of employment opportunities. For people who are in receipt of invalidity pension or illness benefit for a minimum of six months, the partial capacity benefit scheme, which was introduced in 2012, provides an opportunity to take up employment and continue...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Maintenance Payments (6 May 2015)

Joan Burton: The issue of maintenance payments is first and foremost a private matter for the persons concerned, and if they cannot resolve the problem, for the courts through family law provisions. The liability to maintain family provisions, contained in social welfare legislation, are separate to family law legislation. In every case where a one parent family payment (OFP) is awarded, the Department...