Results 17,041-17,060 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Welfare Services (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department is in the process of major organisational change following the transfer of responsibility for the Community Welfare Services and FÁS employment and community employment services. The Department is committed to developing and implementing a case management approach, across the full range of its services, with a focus on working with the person rather than administering a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Government’s Pathways to Work 2013 strategy prioritises the allocation of available resources to the long-term unemployed and to the young unemployed. The goal in Strand 2 of Pathways to Work is: “To provide unemployed people, in particular people who are long-term unemployed and young unemployed people, with opportunities to enhance their job prospects through...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Mortgage Interest Supplement Abolition (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The original purpose of the mortgage interest supplement scheme was to provide short term support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence. The supplement assists with the interest portion of the mortgage repayments only. There are currently approximately 10,500 people in receipt of mortgage...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Anti-Poverty Strategy (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Food poverty refers to an inability to access a nutritionally adequate diet due to issues of affordability of, and access to, food, and that has related impacts on health and social participation. Inadequate food consumption is central to the understanding of poverty as exclusion from everyday life due to lack of resources. In recent years, there is specific focus on food poverty as a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Illness Benefit Reform (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The social insurance system, funded by the Social Insurance Fund (SIF), is core to Ireland’s system of social protection and I am determined that it be protected for current and future generations. However the Fund is not in a healthy financial position. The third Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund was completed by consultants KPMG in 2012. A key finding of that Review is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Live Register Numbers (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The value of the Live Register as an early indicator of unemployment trends is proven over the economic cycle. As an early indicator of a key metric of economic performance, it is important that the public and market analysts can have confidence in accuracy and independence of the Live Register data. I note that on occasion over the years some data, which form part of the monthly Live...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Anti-Poverty Strategy (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Inclusion Monitor, published by the Department, sets out the official indicators of poverty in Ireland as based on the CSO’s Survey of Income and Living Conditions. The main indicator is ‘consistent poverty’. It is measured by the overlap of two measures: those who are at-risk-of-poverty (below the threshold of 60 per cent of the median equivalised household...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme is designed to support second chance education. It enables eligible persons to pursue approved education courses that leads to a higher qualification than that already held and to continue to receive income support equivalent to the value of their prior social protection payment for the duration of a course of study, subject to conditions. BTEA...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Issues (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Maternity benefit is an income maintenance payment awarded to eligible women for a 26-week period on foot of a confinement. Entitlement to this benefit for employees is contingent on entitlement to statutory maternity leave. In 2013 my Department will spend €297.4 million on maternity benefit and adoptive benefit, in respect of a weekly average of 21,800 recipients. Budget 2014...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 23 and 30 together. The Pensions Act provides for a Funding Standard which applies to funded defined benefit pension schemes. This Standard requires defined benefit pension schemes to maintain sufficient resources to meet the liabilities of the scheme in the event of the wind up of the schemes. Where a scheme fails to satisfy the Funding Standard the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 81,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement for which the Government has provided €403 million in 2013. The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short term income assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer.Revised rent limits under the rent supplement scheme have come into force with...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Rates (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Employer PRSI is payable on earnings at the rate of 10.75% in respect of weekly earnings in excess of €356 and, from 1 January 2014, at 8.5% on weekly earnings of €356 or less.As part of the 2011 Jobs Initiative, the Minister for Finance announced the halving of the 8.5% rate of employer PRSI to 4.25%, as a means of helping job creation and improving labour cost competitiveness,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Labour Activation Projects (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: All of the bodies referred to are supportive of the labour market activation measures and institutional reforms being undertaken by Ireland. Moreover, while they have on occasions raised questions about the pace at which reforms are being enacted, the most recent troika review has acknowledged that the main reforms – the roll-out of INTREO, the P300 project to reallocate 300 staff of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Official Languages Act 2003 Compliance (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection is committed to providing a quality customer service in both Irish and English. Since 2007, an Irish Language Scheme for the Department, as required under the Official Languages Act 2003, has been is in place. A new Irish Language Scheme is currently being drafted and there have been on-going discussions with the Department of Arts, Heritage and the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Civil Registration Legislation (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The General Register Office (GRO) currently supplies details of all deaths registered by them to the Death Event Publication Service (DEPS) which is the responsibility of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The DEPS is a ‘publish and subscribe’service where notifications of all the approximately 30,000 deaths registered annually by the GRO are published. Relevant...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Payments (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 33 together. The farm assist scheme is based on jobseeker’s allowance. It was introduced in 1999 to replace ‘Smallholders Unemployment Assistance’ for low income farmers, without the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking work. Farm assist recipients retain all the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Civil Registration Legislation (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: On 19 July, 2013, the Cabinet approved the drafting of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2013. I brought this proposal for legislation to the Cabinet as there are a number of important policy issues that I want to see implemented through amendments to the 2004 Act. Two of the principal ones are as follows: the introduction of measures to combat marriages of convenience by making such...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: I will be proposing a Committee Stage amendment to the Social Welfare and Pensions (No 2) Bill 2013, which is currently before the Seanad, in relation to some aspects of this Judgment. The question of what guidance should be provided to front-line staff on this issue is still under consideration in the Department.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: My colleague, the Minister for Finance, announced in Budget 2014 the replacement, from 1 January next, of the one-parent family tax credit by new single person child carer tax credit. The Finance Bill (No. 2), 2013, currently before the Dáil, provides for the new credit which will have the same value as the current tax credit and will be available to the primary carer of a child. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Eligibility (28 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Some 410,000 customers will receive the fuel allowance of €20 per week for 26 weeks from October to April, at a cost of €223 million. The fuel allowance is paid to those in receipt of long-term jobseekers, one-parent family payment, disability allowance, invalidity pension and some people in receipt of the State pension. The allowance is subject to a means test and is paid...