Results 11,541-11,560 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: As I said, this can be kept under review. The Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, as the senior Minister, is taking a dedicated personal interest in it. That is significant and important. I also take a detailed interest as does the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys.

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: The women who are my heroes are the women who look after their families-----

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: -----and their parents, who go out to work and make a life for themselves, their partners and their children. There is a saying in Swahili that women hold up half of the sky.

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: I do not know if Deputy Coppinger has ever had an opportunity to be aware that in terms of women’s responsibilities in this world, the women who every day look after their families, their partners, their children and their elder parents should be all of our heroes. For those of us who are elected to politics as women, it is an enormous privilege to serve. I do hope to see a higher...

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: If the Deputy thinks about it, she will realise why. Notwithstanding all the work and contribution that women make, statistically they live longer than men by a couple of years. From the €6.7 billion that will be spent on pensions by the State this year, a slightly greater proportion of that will go to women than to men, particularly for those on a State contributory pension or a...

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: As for the decision, notwithstanding the fact that the funding for the Central Statistics Office comes via the Department of the Taoiseach, it is important that its independence be recognised publicly and acknowledged and I thank the Deputy for doing so. It is up to the CSO to set the parameters within which it carries out this very important work. I have given the example of how it does...

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: The national drugs strategy 2009-16 is cross-cutting in terms of public policy and public service delivery. Significant progress is being made in implementation of the strategy across the key areas of policy, namely, supply reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research. As I believe the Deputy is aware, the Department of Social Protection has ring-fenced 1,000 places in...

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: As an experienced Member of the Dáil, Deputy Fleming will know that on a whole range of issues, Ireland supplies information via the Central Statistics Office, which is absolutely independent, to EUROSTAT, which is also absolutely assured of its independence under European regulations. Some years ago, when Greece got into some difficulty in regard to budgetary information and so on, the...

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: If we are getting into remembering history, we all recall the sad occasion - it turned out very sad for the rest of us, in any case - when Fianna Fáil in government assured us the bank guarantee would be the cheapest little guarantee in the world and we would be in and out of it before we noticed. That has to be mentioned if we are talking historic promises. In regard to Irish Water,...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: If a social welfare recipient has children, he or she is paid just under €30 a week per child. If he or she moves back into part-time or full-time work, he or she will receive a payment of €30 a week per child from the Department. The Deputy can scoff, but that is strong support.

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: We know from people who have transitioned how well they have done.

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: Almost 70,000 lone parents are supported by the one-parent family payment at an estimated cost of approximately €607 million in 2015. Despite considerable levels of investment, however, lone parents are still significantly more at risk of consistent poverty compared with the population as a whole. The Survey on Income and Living Conditions in 2012 found that children in low work...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: Deputy Boyd Barrett's proposal is to tell people who are lone parents, be it because their relationships ended or they had children on their own, that they should remain on social welfare for 18 years during some of the best years of their lives or even longer if they have more than one child. What tends to happen in that scenario is that someone stops being a long parent in his or her late...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: If the Deputy were to examine the situation he would find that if lone parents were in a position to increase their working hours to 19 per week, they would get a significant increase in support via family income supplement, FIS.

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: This year, we will spend at least €280 million of taxpayers' money on FIS to support families on low incomes in returning to work for at least 19 hours per week. I am unsure if the Deputy was listening, but the back-to-work family dividend-----

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: With the Deputy Broughan and other Deputies, I have had the privilege of meeting a significant number of community organisations in Dublin North-East at different times during the years and know that the Deputy is heavily involved in community employment and other initiatives to help people to get back to work. I know he is committed to this work. The changes being made are significant....

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: The 11,000 people who have in the past three years made the transition have been able to avail of dedicated services from the Department of Social Protection - it is now a national employment service - that help people to access education, training, work experience and employment, including community employment. Last year we increased the number of community employment places by 2,000. We...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: As Deputy Broughan is aware, the Labour Party is the party of work. While we want to have a strong social welfare system, we also want people of working age to be able to go to work, be financially independent and enjoy satisfying employment, a career and a life of financial independence. That is the Labour Party's position. Before I introduced the reforms, the one-parent family payment...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Poverty (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: I have read with interest the Children’s Rights Alliance report card for 2015 and its recommendations for Government action to tackle child poverty. In my view, the role of social transfers, which I referred to earlier, is not given enough weight in the report. The at-risk-of-poverty rate for children has fallen for the first time in three years by nearly 1 percentage point, from...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Poverty (5 Mar 2015)

Joan Burton: Altogether, the Department of Social Protection will spend almost €3 billion in 2015 in providing income support for families through child benefit, qualified child increases for people on social welfare, family income supplement, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and, as I said, increased resources for the schools meals programme, which is specifically aimed at...