Results 1,421-1,440 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Reports: Social Welfare Reports (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The TASC publication Taming the Tiger — Social Inclusion in a Globalised Ireland, published last month, has recently been received by officials in my Department and is among the publications currently being examined by them. The various analyses contained in the publication, which consider aspects of the challenge presented by globalisation to social inclusion in Ireland, will form a useful...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Budget 2007 introduced a package of measures costing €300 million aimed at alleviating child poverty. By channelling income support in a number of ways, this package of measures is designed to balance the need to provide support universally through child benefit, with targeting those most in need by increasing child dependant allowances, family income supplement, back to school clothing...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Supporting and recognising carers in our society is and has been a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates to carers have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have been significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit and the respite care grant have been introduced and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Child benefit is the principal means of providing support to families with children in Ireland. It is neutral vis-À-vis the employment status of the child's parents and maximises choice for parents. Child benefit is paid monthly in advance to over 561,000 families is respect of over 1,080,000 children. At present there are no plans to move child benefit to a weekly payment. It should be...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The financial support for the poorest lone parent families with, say, one child will increase by over €26 per week or 11.8% in 2007. This includes an increase of €20 per week in the basic rate of payment, plus increases in Child Benefit as well as improvements in the rates of qualified child allowance and the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. As I have said many times, the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Last September, I established a new pension scheme, the State Pension Non-Contributory, for persons aged 66 and over. As part of this reform, I increased the basic income disregard for the purposes of the means test for non-contributory pensions to €20 per week. At the same time, I introduced incentives for those pensioners who may wish to continue in employment, or return to employment,...

Written Answers — Departmental Vote: Departmental Vote (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department is responsible for a number of technology-related projects which are designed to improve the delivery of social welfare services but which also have a wider application and relevance for the delivery of services by other public service agencies in the context of the wider eGovernment programme. In this context and to deal with this work programme as efficiently as possible, a...

Written Answers — Child Support: Child Support (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Government is determined to substantially reduce child poverty — the evidence of this is in last week's Budget in which I announced a range of measures costing over €240 million to benefit children and families. These measures include combining three rates of Child Dependant Allowance payments into a new single high rate Qualified Child Allowance of €22 per week that will benefit...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of the scheme is to provide short-term income support, in the form of a weekly or monthly payment, to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 94, 100, 108, 115 and 117 together. The national fuel scheme assists householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive (HSE) payments with meeting the cost of their heating needs during the heating season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from end-September to mid-April. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Family Support Agency has responsibility for the Family Mediation Service, a free, professional and confidential service for couples, married and non-married, who have decided to separate or divorce and who together want to negotiate the terms of their separation or divorce with the help of a trained mediator. Family mediation assists separating couples to look at the resources and...

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Earlier this year, I welcomed the publication by the Combat Poverty Agency of its report "The Distributional Impact of Ireland's Indirect Tax System" and the associated policy statement "Promoting Equity in Ireland's Tax System". The report addressed whether and to what extent the Irish system of indirect taxation, namely VAT and excise duties, is regressive. The report outlines that over the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Family income supplement is designed to provide support for people on low earnings with child dependants and provide the incentive for them to remain in, or take up, employment. Recent improvements to family income supplement include the change of assessment from a gross income basis to net income, the increase to €20 per week in the minimum payment and, in Budget 2007, the continued...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Since taking office this Government has made the needs of older people a priority with the inclusion of several commitments in the Programme for Government aimed specifically at the group. I am very pleased to say that we have delivered on the commitment to increase the state pension to €200 per week by 2007. In addition, the State pension (contributory) has been increased by €16 per...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I have examined "Caring Before Their Time? Research and Policy Perspectives on Young Carers" by Barnardos and The Children's Research Centre, which was published in September 2004. I was particularly struck by the fact that, of the estimated 3,000 young carers who are providing some care, there are over 300 carers between the ages of 15 and 17 years of age who are providing full-time care. It...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Two important pieces of work have recently been completed regarding different types of partner relationships and how they should be treated and recognised in Irish society. The first report an "Options Paper, presented by the Working Group on Domestic Partnership" to the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, focuses on different types of cohabiting relationships, both...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: There were 148,529 people on the Live Register at end-November 2006, which comprised 88,583 males and 59, 946 females. There were 56,343 claiming Jobseekers Benefit, 82,713 claiming Jobseekers Allowance and other registrants amounting to 9,473. This is the lowest November Live Register since November 2001, when it was 147,100. The Live Register stood at 150,073 at end-November 2005, so it...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The administration of the Family and Community Services Resource Centre (FRC) Programme is one of the key functions of the Family Support Agency. The FRC programme provides financial assistance to projects to assist with the staffing and equipping of local resource centres which provide a focal point for community development activities. The emphasis in the projects is on the involvement of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Budget 2007 delivered the largest increase in social welfare spending in the history of the State with a package of over €1.4 billion. The total social welfare spending in 2007 will exceed €15.3 billion and this funding will directly support and benefit one and a half million people. In its pre-Budget submission, the Disability Federation of Ireland made two recommendations; firstly that...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 271 and 290 together. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme which includes rent and mortgage interest supplements is administered on behalf of my Department by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The Executive has advised that while it has received a mortgage interest application from the person concerned it has requested...