Results 1,621-1,640 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The provision of occupational pensions in Ireland is on a voluntary basis and depends on the willingness of employers to contribute to and maintain schemes for their employees. Defined benefit provision, in recent years, has been under pressure because of volatility in the stock markets and increasing liabilities arising from demographic pressures, low interest rates, increasing wage costs...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department currently has 65 Branch Offices located at various locations throughout the country. Each Branch Office is managed and operated, under a contract for services, by a Branch Manager who is required to act as an Agent for the Department in the area served by the office. As part of the terms and conditions of their appointment, Branch Managers are required to provide sufficient...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 449 and 456 together. 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 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. Under the rules of the scheme, rent supplements are calculated to ensure that an eligible person after the payment of rent has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 451 and 452 together. 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department provides child income support in a number of ways. The principal support is child benefit, CB, a universal payment which is neutral vis-a-vis the employment status of the child's parents and does not contribute to poverty traps. In addition to CB, child dependant increases, CDIs, are paid to social welfare recipients in respect of qualified child dependants. At one point there...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn. The allowance is intended as a contribution towards meeting the full cost of school clothing and footwear. Budget 2006 provided for a number of improvements to the scheme. These include – an increase of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Social Welfare Regulations provide that the Christmas Bonus and the Free Fuel Allowance are payable only to persons in receipt of pensions and long-term Social Welfare payments. The person concerned is in receipt of illness benefit which is a short-term Social Welfare payment and therefore he does not qualify for either payment of the Christmas Bonus or the Free Fuel Allowance. An...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Health Service Executive has advised that an application was made by the person concerned in August 2006 but it was disallowed. Her household income as assessed was substantially above the prescribed limit for entitlement to the allowance. I understand that the Health Service Executive have been in direct contact with the Deputy on this case.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive payments with meeting the cost of their heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from end-September to mid-April. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal heating expenses. A number of improvements have been made...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (16 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The provision of occupational pensions in Ireland is on a voluntary basis and depends on the willingness of employers to contribute to and maintain schemes for their employees. Traditionally, such schemes were organised on a defined benefit basis. However, in recent years defined benefit provision has been under pressure because of volatility in the stock markets and increasing liabilities...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (16 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, a recipient of a social welfare or Health Service Executive payment who has exceptional heating costs due to ill health or infirmity can apply to their local community welfare...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (16 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: In order to qualify for the maximum rate of the state pension (contributory) a person must, amongst other qualifying conditions, achieve a yearly average of at least 48 contributions paid or credited on his/her social insurance record. Reduced pensions are paid to those with yearly averages as low as 10 contributions and arrangements are also in place for the payment of pro-rata pensions to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (16 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: One of the qualifying conditions for state pension (contributory) requires a person to have a yearly average of 10 paid or credited contributions from 1953 or from the date of entry into insurance (whichever is the later) to the end of the last complete contribution year before reaching pension age. In order to qualify for the maximum rate a yearly average of 48 contributions is required. The...

Written Answers — Appointments to State Boards: Appointments to State Boards (16 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The five statutory agencies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Pensions Board, the Combat Poverty Agency, Comhairle, the Family Support Agency and the Social Welfare Tribunal. Pensions Board The chairperson and members of the Pensions Board are appointed by way of Ministerial order in accordance with the provisions of Section 9(2) and the First Schedule of the Pensions Act...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes mortgage interest supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare Service of the Health Service Executive. The Executive has been contacted concerning this case and has advised that it has not received an application for mortgage interest supplement from the person concerned. It has advised that the person concerned...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (15 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 226 and 227 together. My Department does not directly employ counsellors to assist lone parents. Rather, it has a number of facilitators who provide a range of services for people attempting to rejoin the labour market. A key role of the facilitator is to focus on the support programmes available to those seeking work, to identify their needs and to seek to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The processing of one-parent family claims has heretofore been carried out in the Social Welfare Services Office in Sligo. Following a review of the arrangements for administering the scheme, it was decided that services should in future be provided through my Department's network of Local and Branch Offices. The primary aim of providing services at local level is to improve customer...

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

Séamus Brennan: Some 600,000 customers are in receipt of the Free Travel scheme, of which 450,000 are aged over 66 years. Some 127,000 are in receipt of an invalidity/disability payment and a further 26,000 are carers. The estimated cost of the scheme for 2006 is €58 million. The peak time access restrictions (introduced 40 years ago) had applied on all Dublin Bus services and on Bus Éireann city...

Written Answers — : (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A person who is in receipt of a social welfare payment may claim an increase in respect of a dependent spouse or partner. This increase, known as the Qualified Adult Allowance (QAA), is normally paid as a single amount with the primary payment to the claimant. Provision has existed for many years to split the payment and pay the spouse or partner separately in cases of difficult family...