Results 13,661-13,680 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department has a range of training and education schemes available to assist jobseekers in their efforts to return to employment. Whereas the Department of Education and Skills has the lead role in supporting students, this Department focuses resources on supporting jobseekers to the return to work by upskilling. The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) provides an approved jobseeker with...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Placements (7 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 139 and 144 together. Internship opportunities are advertised by host organisations, including schools, at their discretion. When advertising internship opportunities host organisations undertake to comply with the stringent criteria that the Department applies for the protection of the intern and the integrity of the JobBridge scheme. In addition to these...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Expenditure (7 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in protecting people from poverty. Expenditure on pensions at approximately €6.5 billion is the largest element of expenditure in the Department in the Estimate for 2014, representing approximately 33% of overall expenditure. Due to demographic changes the Department’s spending on older people is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Living Alone Allowance (7 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Living Alone Allowance (LAA) is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments, including State pensions, and who are living alone. It is also available to people who are less than 66 years of age, living alone and in receipt of disability allowance, invalidity pension, incapacity supplement or...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (7 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 142 and 143 together. The estimated full year cost of allowing persons in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance for excess 312 days (1 year) to retain increases in respect of qualified children for a period of one year after they exit the scheme to employment is some €22m. The estimated full year cost of a scheme of support, payable at a rate of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: IBEC Membership (7 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The statutory bodies operating under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection are the Citizens Information Board, the Pensions Authority, the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman and the Social Welfare Tribunal. None of the bodies under the aegis of the Department are paid up members of IBEC. Citizens Information Board (CIB) In 2011, CIB made payments to IBEC amounting to...

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The maritime area and foreshore (amendment) Bill has been drafted and will be taken in the House by the end of this session. The Deputy will be aware that I reached agreement with our partners in government following my election as leader of the Labour Party to have a commission on low pay which is a mechanism that has been used very successfully in other countries. The minimum wage and...

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The insurance Bill will be before the House next year, as will the health (transport support) Bill. The heads of the Bills in question have not been cleared by the Government.

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Work on the Bill is at an advanced stage and it is hoped it will be before the House in this session. The Chief Whip met the drafting staff this morning and progress is positive.

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The criminal justice (legal aid) Bill will be before the House in the middle of next year, as is the case with the greyhound industry (amendment) Bill.

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Consultations are ongoing on the criminal justice (proceeds of crime) Bill and I anticipate publication next year at the earliest. The gambling control Bill will be published next year.

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I understand the university (amendment) Bill will be taken in the middle of next year. Perhaps the Deputy can submit a topical issue to receive a detailed response on the various surveys of higher education. In some of them, Ireland scores extremely well but many of them are undergoing constant revision. A topical issue debate, in which people have time to provide the fine detail, would...

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Government is committed to continuing to work to ensure the remains of people who seem to have been, for the most part, summarily and brutally executed and buried in lonely sites around the country. It behoves parties whose one-time sister organisations were involved in this to give the maximum support to the moves to recover the remains. Some minutes ago, Deputies in the Chamber from...

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: This is proposed legislation so, inevitably, it will be debated fully as people require in the relevant committee and during the debate on the Bill in the Dáil. Much of the work has been completed and the proposal of the Minister is to bring it before the Dáil and the relevant committee within a reasonably short period of time.

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Would the Deputy like to hear the answer? I said significant Garda resources were being devoted to a new policing model in the centre of Dublin, about which I did not think the Deputy's colleague had previously heard. It is a new community policing model, the model that has been found to be the most effective in deterring young people from drugs, identifying where the drug trade is ongoing...

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Regarding mothers and children who were in mother and baby homes, it is very important that they receive a full account and that the commission be established in a manner that will yield the information, the history and background they desire in a reasonable timeframe. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has engaged with Opposition party spokespersons and...

Order of Business (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: On the matters pertaining to the Defence Forces, on the suggestion made in the media that the personnel who had been part of the guard of honour at the funeral of the former Taoiseach, Mr. Albert Reynolds, had had to borrow or swap uniforms, both the Minister and, more importantly, the Chief of Staff and the officer in command have indicated that that was the first they had heard of it. I...

Leaders' Questions (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: In relation to the Deputy's comments on social protection, the ESRI produced a report a short time ago by Professor John FitzGerald and others. The professor was widely interviewed in the media and he pointed out that the level of income inequality in Ireland had decreased since the onset of the economic-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Sorry, but if I gave figures or impressions of my own, the Deputy would not be inclined to believe them. I went to a jobs fair on Monday in Ballsbridge at which large numbers of businesses were recruiting. While we have not got to the stage of employment we want, it is a great deal better than where we were. Professor John FitzGerald and the ESRI, which is an independent research...

Leaders' Questions (2 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The ESRI has commended the Government for maintaining core social welfare payments and benefits.