Results 1,461-1,480 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Community Welfare Service. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: This recommendation was made by a commission on financial management and control systems in the health service. It follows on from the reorganisation and restructuring of the Health Service Executive. Community welfare officers administer, for example, the rent scheme which runs to between €400 million and €500 million annually. It is an enormous scheme and must be seen as a welfare...

Family Support Services. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I record my appreciation for the work undertaken by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and others on behalf of the most vulnerable members of society, particularly families who for one reason or another are unable to survive financially, especially at times of difficulty or acute financial pressure. Government support for families facing financial difficulty is provided mainly through the...

Family Support Services. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is at the forefront of this issue and encounters much hardship and deprivation. On behalf of all in the House, I thank the society for its work. Its volunteers knock on hundreds of thousands of doors in any one year and they are worth listening to. We did not meet all the requests in its pre-budget submission but we achieved much on issues such as school...

Family Support Services. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department, through the Family Support Agency, has responsibility for a number of initiatives to support families and help prevent relationship breakdown. The scheme of grants for voluntary organisations providing marriage, child and bereavement counselling services is a non-statutory scheme of once-off grants to voluntary organisations providing a range of family counselling services...

Family Support Services. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Family Support Agency is the main agency to address the issues the Deputy raises. It funds 541 organisations countrywide and deals with family counselling in all areas, including separation, divorce and bereavement. Those 541 organisations do a magnificent job. As I said, the preliminary findings of the study we carried out indicate that up to 70,000 people benefit from the counselling...

Social Welfare Code. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Supporting and recognising carers in our society is and has been a priority of the Government since 1997. In that period, weekly payment rates to carers have been considerably 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...

Social Welfare Code. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I know how committed Deputy Penrose is to this matter, as he has referred to removing the means test three times in the past four days.

Social Welfare Code. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: He knows where I stand in that regard.

Social Welfare Code. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I know where he is and his assessment is probably right. I am involved in developing a strategy with carers and we will examine some of these issues in that context because it is a good framework within which to deal with the remaining issues. As Deputy Stanton knows, we increased the 15 hours per week limit last year, but we have not moved the limit this year because we want to determine...

Social Welfare Benefits. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 15 together. Child benefit and early child care supplement are regarded as family benefits under EU Regulation 1408/71. Consequently, EU migrant workers have an entitlement to these payments in respect of their children even if the children are resident in the workers' home countries. There are just more than 32,000 EU nationals in receipt of child...

Community Welfare Service. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 4 together. The decision taken by the Government to transfer certain functions from the Health Service Executive to my Department came on foot of recommendations made by the Commission on Financial Management and Control Systems in the Health Service. I am fully in favour of and support that decision. The decision will involve the transfer of...

Community Welfare Service. (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I greatly acknowledge and thank the 701 community welfare officers throughout the country and the 183 supporting clerical staff, including, for example, porters. The service is delivered through 1,000 locations throughout the country. There are nine appeals officers in the community welfare service who deal with SWA appeals and there are 59 superintendents. This has been discussed over many...

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I apologise for my delay due to the Social Welfare Bill in the Seanad.

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: It is one of those weeks, but not to worry, it will be a long Christmas. I explained previously that we changed the name for branding reasons. I have ensured that the line "advocacy, information and advice" will be present wherever the title is used. The word advocacy will always appear as a strap line and that is very important.

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The board's intention is to promote the new personal advocacy service as a distinct service and to target people with disabilities and those who work with them. On the passing of the legislation, the statutory body will be called the citizens information board, an bord um fhaisnéis do shaoránaigh. However, the board's important function in the provision of advocacy services will be...

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I accept the good intent behind this amendment but I feel requiring the director to consider whether a parent could act effectively on behalf of a child, when considering entitlement to a personal advocate, would make qualifying conditions for the service more stringent. This amendment could be counterproductive in practice because it introduces to the qualifying criteria the notion of...

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The amendment is not necessary. The strategic and business plans of the citizens information board, now Comhairle, should include — I will seek to ensure they do — some kind of time target. To put it into legislation could have the kind of effect mentioned previously, as for example in the planning area where people kept returning for more information and the issue ended up going round...

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I do not have a problem with what the Deputy is trying to achieve. At one level it is reasonable to use the word "reasonable" in legislation. However, at another level an army of lawyers could spend time dealing with what is "reasonable" where somebody has a particular advocacy issue. "Reasonable" for that person might be two days, but "reasonable" in other circumstances could be two...

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The point I made on Committee Stage was that the legislation requires the advocate to act in the best interests of the person. The advocate is statutorily required to do so. It may not always be simple to take direct instruction and therefore it is better to rely on the legislative requirement to act in the best interests of the person. The giving, receiving and misunderstanding of...

Citizens Information Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (14 Dec 2006)

Séamus Brennan: We are reducing the size of the board from 20 to 15 for operational efficiency. The percentages are tweaked as a result and there is a reduction from 25% to 20% in the representation of people with disabilities. I undertook to take account of that when making appointments. That is the better route to take at this stage. When one reduces a board dramatically, one gets this type of...