Results 16,861-16,880 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: This will include new home care packages, substantially more home help, more day care support and additional palliative care for the terminally ill. This will help people avoid unnecessary residential care and prolonged stays in acute hospitals. For people who need residential care in nursing homes, we are also improving nursing home subventions.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children will set out the full details of the new services tomorrow.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: In passing, I might mention that I will also be examining issues relating to certain limited circumstances where adult individuals may require to be cared for outside their own homes because of particular care needs. A new five-year child care strategy The Government is very conscious of the difficulties faced by many parents and families in securing affordable child care. Our task is to...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: We can only do so much in one budget. A complete solution will take time but the structured medium-term approach I am announcing will, I believe, increase the options for parents in a balanced way.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: I hope it will be recognised as a constructive step forward in this area. In devising the strategy the Government was particularly anxious to develop further supply side measures to increase the number of child care places.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: The Government is also very conscious of the importance of the first year in the life of a child and the strategy provides for a significant extension of maternity leave. The strategy also seeks to address the immediate cost pressures facing parents of young children by providing a new child care supplement for all children under the age of six years.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: I am making a significant start in implementing the programme today by providing €317 million in the 2006 budget for this purpose. The cost will increase to more than €600 million a year by 2008. Supply measures I am providing for a number of measures which will increase the supply of child care places. As part of the overall child care strategy I am today announcing a major new five-year...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: ——and continued support to community providers of up to €1 million per facility subject to a maximum grant per place of €20,000.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: This new investment programme will build on the success of the €500 million equal opportunities child care programme which has already been provided under the National Development Plan 2000-2006. I thank the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the officials in the relevant areas for the roll-out of these programmes. So far this funding has generated more than 26,000 new places...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: This will cost a total of €35 million in 2006. I will be following this up with a further four weeks of paid maternity leave in 2007. Thus, by 2007, mothers of new-born children will be entitled to a full six months of paid maternity leave. Furthermore, unpaid maternity leave will be increased by four weeks in 2006 and a further four weeks in 2007, bringing total unpaid maternity leave to...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: This is in addition to the existing 14 weeks' unpaid parental leave. In total, parents will be entitled to 56 weeks between paid and unpaid leave by 2007. Early child care supplement The increase in maternity leave and the additional measures I have just announced to improve supply will take time to have their full impact. In the meantime, working parents continue to need additional support...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: These payments, which will be exempt from income tax and levies, will be made on a quarterly basis in respect of more than 350,000 children who are less than six years of age. The first payment will be made in mid-2006 and will cover the second quarter of 2006. This scheme will cost €265 million in 2006 and €353 million in a full year.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: This will be an additional new payment separate from the existing child benefit scheme. This new early child care supplement and the existing child benefit will bring the amount a family will receive next year, for each of the first two children under six years, to €2,800 per year, equivalent to over €50 per week in direct financial support.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: This will be even higher where a family has more than two children under six. By any standards, this is a significant contribution from the taxpayer towards the cost of child care in such circumstances. New child care arrangements Funding for the national child care strategy will be allocated in the Revised Estimates Volume. In that context, the Government will introduce new administrative...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: ——to streamline the functions relating to child care. Helping those on the minimum wage and on average pay — Taxation Tax revenue provides us with the resources to develop a fairer and more productive society.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: Additional revenue affords us the opportunity to return some of this to those who earn it. The Government has radically restructured the tax system in the past eight years to ensure that much more income tax relief goes to the lower paid. As a result, more than one third of the workforce is completely outside the tax net in 2005. That represents 720,000 earners compared to 380,000 in 1997.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: I intend to take more earners out of the tax net today. I am increasing the employee tax credit by €220 per year and the basic personal tax credit by €50 per year single and €100 per year for married couples. This will ensure that all those on the current minimum wage will remain completely outside the tax net in 2006. This will remove from the tax net nearly 52,000 low-income taxpayers...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: I am also increasing the annual income tax exemption limit for persons aged 65 and over by €500 single and €1,000 married. This will remove a further 1,700 taxpayers from the tax net. These age exemption limits have approximately trebled since the Government came into office. I am increasing the standard rate income tax band by €2,600 or approximately 9% per year, removing more than...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: I am increasing the threshold for the payment of the 2% health levy from €400 per week to €440 per week. This will benefit 72,300 lower paid workers by an extra €8 per week on top of the other reliefs I have mentioned.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Brian Cowen: All these increases mean that a single person on €22,000 per year will benefit by €13.65 per week in net income in 2006 and a married one-earner couple on €40,000 per year will see their net income rise by €12.92 per week.