Results 17,341-17,360 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 22nd October 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers were received in the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Eligibility (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: All social welfare schemes, including the fuel allowance, are operated on the basis of publicly available guidelines, which ensure fairness and consistency in determining eligibility. 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. Some 410,000...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: My Department operates a range of means tested social assistance payments. For means test purposes, account is taken of the income and assets of both the claimant and his or her spouse/partner. Where a claimant or a spouse/partner has earnings from employment, these earnings less PRSI contributions, pension contributions and trade union subscriptions are assessed as means. Various...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to providing comprehensive employment support and income support services to our clients, with a focus is rights and responsibilities. The roll-out of the INTREO Service to jobseekers presents a clear opportunity to improve control performance in relation to jobseeker clients. The integrated decision-making and the case management approach will not only have...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Issues (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 19th August 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers were received in the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Budget 2014 (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The overall concern of the Government in this and previous budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in relation to protecting people from poverty. To allow us to protect these core payments, we have had to look very carefully at other additional payments. The cost of the telephone...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: International Agreements (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: This is not a matter for my Department.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are approximately 81,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €403 million for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: School Meals Programme (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 229 to 231, inclusive, together. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme (SMLPS) through...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (12 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Legislation provides that a person’s weekly jobseeker's payment may be reduced for refusal or failure, without good cause, to engage with activation measures. Decisions regarding whether to apply the above sanctions are made by a Deciding Officer and are subject to appeal to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: No, it is a bit more than that. It will be €12 million next year.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: In the context of the questions that have been asked, particularly by Senator Mooney, the overarching theme of the Keane report produced by the interdepartmental group which looked at mortgage arrears was that mortgage interest supplement is not an appropriate long-term support and should become a time-bound payment and that an appropriate exit strategy should be formulated for recipients....

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: I very much appreciate the concern all the Senators in the House properly have about youth unemployment and about the concept of giving opportunities to young people who unfortunately find on leaving school or college, sometimes with advanced educational qualifications, that they cannot get a job. We had a long debate on this yesterday and we all agreed that is not desirable from the...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: It is a work in progress and something we are constructing, and that is the reason I am open to suggestions, proposals and ideas people may have. Basically, it has a number of strands. The first one is to develop traineeships and we would start to move to the German-Austrian-Finnish model of a dual system where we would not be simply directing almost all of our young people in terms of...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: I am not in a position to accept this amendment. Generally, the annual tax and PRSI liabilities on non-PAYE income are charged on the same income base. Broadly speaking, the tax and PRSI liabilities are charged on profits generated. Where there are losses in a particular year, these losses are allowable as deductible expenditure which results in the reduction or elimination of the tax and...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Report Stage (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: Broadly speaking, the tax and the PRSI liabilities are charged on the profits that are generated. Where there are losses in a particular year, those losses are allowable in the year as deductible expenditure which results in the reduction or elimination of the tax and the PRSI liabilities. Senator Power's question is about carrying those losses forward for PRSI purposes but whether there...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Applications (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: The Companion Travel Pass for the person named above was medically assessed by a Medical Assessor on 5 November 2013. The medical opinion has been conveyed to Household Benefits Section, Sligo and the applicant will be contacted shortly regarding the decision on her application.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (7 Nov 2013)

Joan Burton: An application for domiciliary care allowance was received on the 28th August 2013. The application was disallowed as the child was not considered to satisfy the qualifying conditions for the allowance and a letter issued on the 23rd September 2013 advising of the decision. A review of this decision has been requested and additional information on this child’s condition/care needs...