Results 15,801-15,820 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: Family income supplement (FIS) is an employee incentive scheme for low income working families, including one-parent families, aimed at supporting them through supplementing their income while they remain in work. There has been a steady growth in the number of families supported by FIS over recent years and associated expenditure as set in the table appended to this reply. Expenditure...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Placements (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy is aware, the JobBridge scheme has made significant progress since it came into operation on 1st July 2011. Over 26,000 placements have commenced to-date and over 6,500 jobseekers are currently participating in the scheme. A recent independent evaluation conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants found that 61% of interns progress to paid employment after completing their...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Eligibility (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 and 20 together. There were just over 10,300 recipients of farm assist at end December last and nearly €99.5 million was spent on the scheme in 2013. The farm assist scheme is based on jobseeker’s allowance. It was introduced in 1999 and farm assist recipients retain all the advantages of the jobseeker's allowance scheme such as retention...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 16, 25 and 32 together. There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014. Following an extensive review of the private rental market revised maximum rent limits were introduced from Monday 17 June 2013 until 31 December 2014. The purpose of the review is to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Question Nos. 18 and 24 together. There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation. Rent...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Student Travel Card (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection does not have any role with regard to eligibility for the Student Travel Card. This is the responsibility of Student Travelcard which comes under the National Transport Authority.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: JobsPlus is a new employer incentive which encourages and rewards employers who offer employment opportunities to the long-term unemployed. This incentive replaced the employer Job PRSI Exemption Scheme and the Revenue Job Assist from 1st July 2013. Regular cash payments are made to qualifying employers to offset wage costs when they engage jobseekers from the Live Register. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Data (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: Child benefit is a payment to parents for the support of their children. It is paid to some 607,919 families in respect of 1.16 million children, with an expenditure of approximately €1.9 billion in 2013. Safeguarding the child benefit budget is a priority and, in this regard the Department has taken a proactive approach to ensuring that it is only paid to eligible families. A...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Eligibility (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014. Rent supplement is calculated to ensure that the person, after payment of rent, has an income equal to the basic supplementary welfare allowance rate, less a specified weekly minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: JobPath is the Government’s new programme of labour market activation aimed specifically at the long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. On 1 July 2013, the Department published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in which it notified the market that it was considering the potential of contracting private/third party providers of employment services....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Administration (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 27, 41 and 44 together. The total cost to the Exchequer of JobBridge, including underlying social welfare and top-up payments, is approximately €80m. per annum. JobBridge is one of the key initiatives introduced to assist individuals to bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work. To date over 26,000 jobseekers and some 12,000...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Data (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The figures requested by the Deputy relating to the number of invalidity pension, carer's allowance and disability allowance appeals received and finalised during 2013 and to the end of January 2014, and the percentage of those appeals which were successful, are provided in the table below. A total of 4,501 invalidity pension appeals were received during 2013. 6,968 invalidity pension...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: There were 300,590 recipients of jobseeker’s allowance at the end of December last and nearly €3.1 billion was spent on the scheme in 2013. Budget 2014 extended the reduced rates of jobseeker’s allowance to recipients under 26 years of age. This measure aims to incentivise young jobseeker’s allowance recipients to avail of education and training opportunities....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Food Poverty (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: There is no specific commitment in the Programme for Government to tackle food poverty and no official measure of food poverty. The Department of Social Protection’s primary role is to provide a minimum standard of living through the social protection system. Recently published ESRI research shows that transfers lifted almost 40 per cent of the population out of poverty in 2011,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: In the first instance, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. However, the Government also recognises the need for additional measures in the interim while the economy recovers. This is the rationale behind the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: Many of the newly-unemployed find work relatively quickly and do not require substantial assistance in doing so. In 2013, for example, 36% of those joining the Live Register exited within the first three months. Eligibility periods for labour market programmes are designed to allocate scarce resources and focus assistance on those who need it most – people who have not, after some...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Department has provided over €344 million for 2014. Recipient numbers have been in decline following a peak of over 97,000 in 2010. Following an extensive review of the private rental market revised maximum rent limits were introduced from Monday 17 June 2013 until 31 December 2014. Despite the overall...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme Data (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 36 and 38 together. The rural social scheme (RSS) currently provides work opportunities for around 2,600 participants and 130 supervisory staff. While overall responsibility for the RSS rests with the Department, its day-to-day operations are delivered by 35 local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta (known as the Implementing Bodies)....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 37 and 40 together. The potential risk to An Post business into the future has been the subject of in-depth discussion over the past week. I think this is only right, given the importance of the network to the social fabric of our society. In this regard, I am very happy to provide my own support for the post office network and the valuable work being...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (5 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: JobPath is a new programme of employment activation aimed specifically at the long-term unemployed and those most distant from the labour market. The allocation of additional resources to the activation of long term unemployed people was the focus of an updated “Pathways to Work” policy statement published in July 2013 (PTW 2013). The Department examined various resourcing and...