Results 12,001-12,020 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: -----in advance of the changes the Deputy is talking about.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I reiterate that what almost all lone parents want to do is get involved in education and training as soon as their family and household circumstances permit them to do that. For people who are full-time lone parents not involved in work or study outside of the home, there is no change to their payments, and that is the vast majority of people. The Deputy is very well aware of that.

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

Joan Burton: Child benefit is a universal payment made to families with children. It assists those families with the cost associated with raising children. It is paid to almost 1.2 million children in over 600,000 families. The estimated expenditure in 2014 was €1.9 billion. In budget 2015, the Government committed a further €96 million for children, including an increase of €5...

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

Joan Burton: The United Nations Human Development Index Report 2014, which measures people's well-being, including that of children, places Ireland No. 11 just after the Scandinavian countries. We are among the highest performers in the world in regard to the human development index because of our strong social transfer system. The Deputy refers to Poland and Chile. Poland is No. 35 on the index and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy cites Poland as an example, but our child benefit payment which went up in the recent budget and which anyone who looks at the impact of a budget will agree is extremely progressive is €135 per month. Is the Deputy seriously suggesting we move to the Polish system of child benefit, under which the payment is well below €30 or €40 per month?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy is suggesting ---

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy is implying that the Polish social welfare system is better than Ireland's.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Irish social welfare system provides an income which is many times that provided under the Polish system. The Deputy drew on the example of the Polish system.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I am just pointing to the facts. The recent increase in child benefit brings the payment to €135 per child per month and it will be increased again in the next budget. I have already undertaken to do this. The child benefit payment in Ireland is going up, while the payment in Poland is relatively quite small.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The one-parent family payment scheme supports close to 70,000 recipient lone parents and their children, at an estimated cost of €607 million in 2015. Despite significant investment, lone parents continue to experience higher levels of consistent poverty than the population generally. The best route out of poverty is through employment. The one-parent family payment scheme age...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: First, we need more and better access to affordable child care services. Anyone who is a parent or who has family members, relatives or friends with child care needs will know that child care in Ireland is extremely expensive. We need to address this issue, particularly for low income families, whether they are headed by couples or lone parents. That is one of the priorities of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: First, in the budget we introduced an additional payment for those with children who went back to work. That amounts to €30 per week per child. Neither the work done by the ESRI nor the other analysis includes that because it will come into effect this year. The Deputy has chosen to ignore the fact that if someone has three children, that is €90 a week additional to family...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The CSO recently published its release on the survey of income and living conditions for 2013, known as SILC. This survey found that the basic deprivation rate was 30.5%, an increase of 3.6% on the 2012 figure. The two most commonly experienced indicators of deprivation were stated as “unable to afford to replace any worn out furniture” and “unable to afford a morning,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: Excuse me, Deputy, it is difficult for us to hear the Deputy on this side of the House.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I refer to the survey published by my Department which states specifically that the particular models used are based on a model called Switch. It was not possible to take into account certain changes and this has been acknowledged. It is a comparison of social welfare and tax measures. Tax measures help people who are in work and who are liable to pay tax. Deputy O'Dea will have read the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: That is wrong.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection plans to spend over €1 billion on supports for jobseekers under various community, activation and education schemes in 2015. Looking at individual schemes, I am pleased to confirm for the Deputy that: - The number of participants on the rural social scheme (RSS) is expected to remain at around 2,600 in 2015 at a cost of some €45...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: There are currently 69,884 lone parents being supported by the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme at an estimated cost to my Department of approximately €607 million in 2015. When introducing the OFP scheme age change reforms in 2012, a special provision was included for recipients who are claiming the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) payment for a disabled child aged under 16...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: The Department will spend approximately €227 million this year on the household benefits package for approximately 415,000 customers. It will also spend more than €195 million on the fuel allowance. The fuel allowance of €20 is paid for 26 weeks from October to April. There have been no reductions in the fuel allowance since 2012. The electricity and gas allowance is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (5 Feb 2015)

Joan Burton: I am aware that many pension schemes are encountering funding difficulties at this time. A number of changes have been made to the Pensions Act to help both the employers and the trustees of defined benefit pension schemes respond to funding difficulties. These changes provide for the sharing of the risk of scheme underfunding across all scheme members. The issue of how these changes might be...