Results 14,161-14,180 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The one-parent family payment, OFP scheme supports over 74,400 recipients at an estimated cost of €863 million in 2014. Despite significant levels of State spending, the results have been poor in tackling poverty rates among lone-parent families. The aim of the current reforms is to provide the necessary supports to lone parents to help them to escape joblessness by providing them...

Other Questions: Community Services Programme (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I am glad the Deputy is so supportive of activation. As the Deputy is probably aware, at this point in time, the amount spent by the Department of Social Protection on activation is approximately €1 billion. It is a very significant increase at a time when budgets are under severe pressure. That €1 billion does not include family income supplement for families with children...

Other Questions: Local Enterprise Offices Remit (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I thank the Deputy for his congratulations to myself and the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys. I welcome the establishment of the new network of 31 local enterprise offices. These will be the key mechanism through which people will connect at local level with all the appropriate information that they need in order to start, grow and succeed in business. As part of Pathways to...

Other Questions: Community Services Programme (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I am aware of the Deputy's role in the scheme. As I said, it is a valuable scheme that is continuing to flourish. While I cannot comment on any budgetary matter regarding next year's budget, I value the scheme. Some 2,700 people are directly supported in the delivery of services during 2013, and the Department estimates that between 300 and 400 additional people are engaged in supported...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Insurance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: Everybody present in the Chamber will recall that the set of circumstances outlined by Deputy Pringle was a strong and sad feature of the 2011 general election campaign. Each of us met many people who had been left in this precise situation. It seemed to be taking years for them to have success in applying for the means-tested jobseeker's allowance. When I became Minister shortly after the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Insurance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: We updated the information that people could bring in. We allowed them to bring in details of their current circumstances. As a consequence of that review and update, far more people qualified to get jobseeker's allowance.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Insurance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: That is why nine out of ten people now qualify to get it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Insurance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: Perhaps the experience was different in the Deputy's local area. In Dublin and many city areas, it was quite difficult for one to access a jobseeker's assistance payment unless one had very detailed accounting records. I assume this could partly be attributed to the sudden and serious nature of the collapse, particularly as it applied to self-employed contractors and subcontractors. The...

Other Questions: Community Services Programme (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I thank the Deputy for the congratulations he has extended to myself and the Aire Stáit. Regarding the community services programme, CSP, it is designed to address gaps in service delivery and disadvantage and ensure community facilities are utilised. It is a very valuable resource for important work done by not-for-profit companies and co-operatives in local communities throughout the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Insurance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The advisory group found that the current system of means-tested jobseeker’s allowance payments, to which the Deputy refers, adequately covers the self-employed. I am not sure that many people appreciate the point that almost nine out of every ten self-employed people who claimed the means-tested jobseeker’s allowance during the three-year period from 2009 to 2011 received...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The national social target for poverty reduction is to achieve 4% by 2016 and 2% or less by 2020. A diverse range of actions in support of the target are set out in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, with annual updates in the national reform programme under the Europe 2020 strategy. We have also recently adopted a child-specific poverty sub-target in the policy framework for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Insurance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: Self-employed people are liable for PRSI at the class S rate of 4%. This entitles them to access valuable long-term benefits, including benefits such as the contributory State pension and widow's, widower's and surviving civil partner's contributory pension, as well as maternity benefit. The advisory group on tax and social welfare found the current system of means-tested jobseeker's...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection will spend approximately €19.6 billion on income support payments in 2014. Core weekly payment rates have been fully maintained over the past three years in line with the programme for Government. Child benefit is paid for almost 1.2 million children in over 600,000 families, with an estimated expenditure of €1.9 billion in 2014. Income...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy is aware, preparation of statistics in this area is a matter for the CSO. I would welcome the provision of statistics on a more timely basis. The EU is currently publishing the statistics on income and living conditions, SILC, for Europe and Ireland compares very favourably, principally because we have a level of social transfers which we maintained during the depression. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Deputy has raised an interesting point. He may be frustrated with the scheme but one of its great flexible points is that if one makes an application for something that requires a medical assessor's opinion, we allow the application to be continually subject to review through the input of additional information. The alternative would be to use a flat system of rejection, not allow a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: As I said, in the business process structure we would expect a medical assessment to be done and the application to be dealt with in four weeks. That is a reasonable timeframe in the context of the work that has to be done. More importantly, we also provide significant resources amounting to approximately €47 million to the Citizens Information Board and the Money Advice &...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Indecon evaluation of JobBridge found that more than two thirds of internships were in private sector organisations, 22% were in the public sector and 9% were in community and voluntary sector organisations. As the Deputy is probably aware from his experience in the community sector, internships are highly sought after because of the number of fantastic people graduating from different...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: That is not true over the-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I thank Deputy Pringle for his words of congratulation to me and the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys. There are no backlogs in the provision of medical opinions on welfare entitlements. At the end of December, the number of medical opinions in process had fallen by 19%, from 3,617 to 2,923. The number of assessments in hand equates to less than four weeks' work. Some 48,000...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil don Teachta mar gheall ar a chomhghairdeas dom féin agus don Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys. JobBridge has provided a valuable work experience and development opportunity to more than 30,000 unemployed jobseekers with approximately 7,000 jobseekers currently engaged on an internship. Independent...