Results 1,701-1,720 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

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

Séamus Brennan: My Department's policy is to ensure that a range of payment options is available to customers and that the service is continually improved by providing access to the wide range of payment options and new facilities now available. The current range of payment options offered by my Department includes payment made directly to the customer's bank or building society account, at post offices by...

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

Séamus Brennan: For the period 1994 to 1997 personal rates of payment increased by between 9.8% and 15.6% depending on payment type, while for the period 2003 to 2006 personal rates increased by between 22.3% and 42.3%.

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 383 and 384 together. The numbers of people recorded on the Live Register who have been in receipt of unemployment payments at end year over the past five years are detailed in tabular format. 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 (at end-Oct) *Jobseekers Benefit 66,709 75,371 77,781 66,249 61,728 56,038 *Jobseekers Allowance 73,959 78,897 80,725 81,067 83,926...

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

Séamus Brennan: The main business of my Department is the provision of income support, including insurance based payments, social assistance payments, associated secondary benefits and universal schemes such as child benefit. My Department is also responsible for the provision, either directly or indirectly through its agencies, of other services designed to support individuals and families in participating...

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

Séamus Brennan: Diet supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Any person who is receiving a social welfare or health service executive payment, who has been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition and who is unable to provide for his or her...

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

Séamus Brennan: Family Income Supplement (FIS) is designed to provide income support for employees on low earnings with children and thereby preserve the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might be only marginally better off than if s/he were claiming other Social Welfare payments. As with all social welfare schemes, applicants must complete the relevant application form...

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

Séamus Brennan: Entitlement to maternity benefit for employees is contingent on entitlement to maternity leave — legislation for which is the responsibility of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Where women have accrued the requisite number of contributions required to establish entitlement and have been certified by their employers as being entitled to statutory maternity leave, maternity...

Written Answers — Community Welfare Service: Community Welfare Service (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Earlier this year the Government decided to implement the recommendations of the Core Functions of the Health Service Report. This provided for the transfer of certain functions, mainly from the Health Service Executive (HSE) to my Department. The main element of the decision was that income support and maintenance schemes, including the supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA), and...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I have received and noted the correspondence referred to by the Deputy. In considering eligibility for contributory payments it is necessary to uphold the contributory principle which underpins entitlement. This requires, amongst other things, that people make a minimum level of contribution to the social insurance system. The pre-1953 pension is one of a number of special pensions...

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

Séamus Brennan: The Programme for Government contains a commitment to a scheme of all-Ireland free travel for pensioners resident in all parts of the island of Ireland. The scheme will enable pensioners resident here to travel free of charge on all bus and rail services in Northern Ireland. Likewise, pensioners in Northern Ireland will travel free of charge on services in this State. Implementation of a...

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

Séamus Brennan: Two interesting papers were presented at the recent ESRI conference which have relevance to the services administered by my Department. The paper relating to the growth of disability payments in Ireland sets out to examine, using an econometric model, the extent to which individuals, who classify themselves as disabled or ill for the purposes of labour force surveys, may be misreporting their...

Written Answers — Wealth Distribution: Wealth Distribution (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The OECD's use of the phrase "social transfers" encompasses not only social welfare expenditure but also expenditure in other areas such as health care, social housing, employment support programmes and other social inclusion programmes. My Department is responsible for some 50% of this expenditure. The OECD acknowledges the fact that differences in the structure of social protection...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I am currently developing proposals for inclusion in the forthcoming Budget which will benefit all social welfare recipients including low income families. In this regard, I am taking into account various factors including Government commitments relating to weekly rates of payment, such as bringing the lowest social welfare rate to €150 per week in 2002 terms and to have the combined value...

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 399 and 415 together. The cost of increasing child dependant allowance rates to a single weekly figure of €30 for all recipients is €180 million in a full year.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 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 standard SWA rules, rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum...

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

Séamus Brennan: There is a general rule in the social welfare code whereby a person who is entitled to more than one income maintenance payment at any one time may only receive one of the payments. This is designed to ensure that limited resources are not used to make two income support payments to any one individual. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, including the payment of half-rate...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: No outstanding EU directives within the competency of my Department have yet to be transposed into law.

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

Séamus Brennan: The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. I reduced the qualifying period for access to the third level option of the scheme to 12 months in the 2005 Budget. I...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (14 Nov 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 408 to 410, inclusive, together. My Department operates two main types of pension scheme; contributory and non-contributory payments. Contributory payments are paid on the basis of social insurance contributions made over a person's working life. Missionaries who have made sufficient social insurance contributions can qualify for the state pension...

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

Séamus Brennan: Ireland has social security agreements with Austria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the USA and Switzerland. These agreements came into effect between 1989 and 1999, except for that with the UK which came into effect in 1971. Ireland has had a bilateral understanding with Quebec since 1 October 1994. All these agreements are in operation and are working satisfactorily....