Results 18,281-18,300 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to clarify that there were three types of payments in the case of bereavement, two of which still exist. One of these is an exceptional needs payment where a person can go to his or her community welfare officer and say that he or she cannot afford to pay funeral expenses or burial costs. We can help with that. Approximately €5 million was paid out to help 1,000 people to...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: No, they did not.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: We certainly did not cut existing pensions. There were future expectations perhaps that is not the same thing. We both know what we are saying and the Deputy understands what I am saying. It was also done as part of a wider reform to better reflect the fact that when it comes to any contributory pension, including the Deputy's, there has to be or should be a link between the amount someone...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Brady, absolutely everything I have said or not said, have done or not done and event I have been to or not been to in the past three years has been attributed to my leadership campaign. I will be glad at least in the next few weeks when that nonsense comes to an end. The Deputy may have to accept at some point that I may actually say things I believe and do things I think are...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: That is very welcome. If I am to accept and take a criticism, I acknowledge it would have been better had all that been co-ordinated when the pension age was being raised. That is the solution. The solution is not to pretend to people that we are going to be able to have decent incomes in retirement if we do not increase the retirement age. While other countries are doing it on different...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Not all member states are going up to 68 years. I can give the Deputy the table. People are raising the retirement age in different years.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: That is not true. I will be happy to provide that table for Deputy Brady and all the members of the committee. There is an OECD report which shows the schedule as to which countries are raised the age of retirement in each year. It is only common sense that there has to be a link between life expectancy and State pension age. I do not think we should delude people into thinking that is...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: No, it is not. It is in appendix 1 on page 60. Subhead A11, which is other working age supports, is broken down into four categories.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It is broken down into four categories: exceptional and urgent needs; other supplements; humanitarian aid and direct provision allowance. The outturn for 2016 for exceptional needs payments, ENPs, and urgent needs payments, UNPs, was €32 million.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: What I have in the Revised Estimates for 2017 is €31.5 million. The outturn was €32.2 million in 2016 for ENPs and UNPs. We have €31.5 million in this table. That is a slight change.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: That is correct. The reason for that is the reductions in the other areas. We anticipate that humanitarian aid will fall from €1.7 million to €500,000 because we hope there will not be any major floods or similar things in 2017. The allocation for direct provision is going down as well because the number of people in direct provision is decreasing. We are estimating a fall...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Yes.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Yes.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: On the breakdown on expenditure on jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit, these payments account for just over €2.5 billion every year. We estimate that there will be a reduction in the cost of jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit overall of €304 million this year; €341 million is due to the projected decrease in the numbers on the live register. We are...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, €2.4 million. That is the cost of changing the disregard on JST from €90 to €110. There is approximately €10.5 million in respect of other factors, including paydays and things of that nature. On maternity benefit, I have been to Buncrana to witness it myself and to meet the staff there. It is probably down to a number of factors. It started to emerge as a...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: On JobPath, Table 9.5 on page 47 gives a breakdown of funding for the major outsourcing. These include payments to medical certifiers, such as doctors, of €21.75 million, nurse attendance €270,000, payments to branch managers of €16 million, because many of the branch offices are outsourced, and a payment of €37 million to JobPath. The figure is there as much as...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The review will be done towards the end of the year. There is a contract. We can do reviews on any contract we have, and we should do reviews to monitor policy and contracts. The contract stands. If Sinn Féin is in government next year, the contract stands and it will have to honour it or pay pretty massive compensation to any company whose contract it would choose to cancel. The...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am sure they are writing down what the Deputy is saying, and their lawyers too -----

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ----- so the Deputy should bear that in mind before making a statement that could potentially result in Sinn Féin handing out a massive compensation payment. Community employment, CE, companies are not-for-profit, voluntary-based entities and I am not trying to suggest that CE companies are the same as Tesco or Aldi. The point I am making about private companies is that they are not...