Results 18,441-18,460 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department, like all Government Departments and agencies, is required to operate within a staff ceiling figure and a commensurate administrative staffing budget, which for this Department has involved reductions in staff. The staffing needs for all areas within the Department are continuously reviewed, taking account of workloads, management priorities and the ongoing need to respond...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The total spent by my Department on legal and other fees in the specified legal case amounted to €167,784.40. Details of this expenditure are set out in the following table. This expenditure does not include subsequent mediation costs. Body Amount Ernst & Young €36,324.82 Aon Hewitt €5,912.61 Square Mile Consultants €119,656.50 Aon Hewitt /Philip...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting some 43,600 recipients for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017. A county analysis of recipient numbers by county as at December 2016 is provided in the following tabular statement. Expenditure under the scheme for 2016 was some €275 million, a breakdown of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The activation supports and services available to those who are long term unemployed include work experience and training schemes such as Community Employment (CE), TÚS, Gateway and Rural Social Scheme (RSS). In this case, the primary sponsor, Udaras na Gaeltachta, Gaoth Barra has 25 CE participant places and one supervisor position. The Halla Naomh Bride project, which is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Benefit Applications (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my Department received an application for carer’s benefit from the person concerned on 18 April 2017. The application is currently being processed and once completed, the person concerned will be notified directly of the outcome. I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support, which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependants and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are currently over 57,000 families with almost 127,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support, which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependants and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are currently over 57,000 families with almost 127,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy will be aware, the State’s Public Employment Service is managed by my Department and delivered directly by its own Intreo service as well as by contracted private companies, such as JobPath, Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Club providers. These services have been designed by the Department to augment and complement one another, to ensure the best outcomes possible...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 302 and 303 together. Nearly 950,000 entitlement reviews and investigations were conducted across the Department’s schemes in 2016. These reviews yielded €506 million in control savings for the year. Reviews and investigations of entitlements are conducted by social welfare staff, social welfare inspectors and inspectors assigned to the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Applications (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Letterkenny Intreo Centre has advised that the person concerned was issued a cheque payment on 2ndMay 2017 for the total amount of jobseekers benefit due to her for the Easter holiday period.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 305 and 306 together. The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) is an income support initiative which provides part-time employment opportunities in community and voluntary organisations for farmers or fishermen who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and underemployed in their primary occupation. The RSS is a supplementary income support scheme and is not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud Data (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the Deputy is referring to my reply to question number 599 of 2 May 2017. As part of the roll-out of the Public Services Card (PSC), my Department introduced facial recognition software in March 2013 to support its efforts to combat identity fraud and impersonation. This software is used to ensure that multiple or fraudulent identities can be detected at the point where a person...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Benefit Eligibility (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Jobseeker’s Benefit has a number of qualifying criteria and payment is based on the social insurance record of the customer. Medical history is not a determining factor if a customer has declared that he/she fulfils the condition of being fit for work. The person concerned was in receipt of the maximum rate of Jobseeker’s Benefit based on her social insurance record. Her benefit...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Public Sector Staff Retirements (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Community Employment (CE) is a non-statutory scheme put in place to support persons who are long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups to gain the confidence and skills to re-enter the labour market. Schemes are sponsored by local community and voluntary groups who provide valuable support services to local communities. These sponsoring organisations employ supervisory staff to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Data (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Maternity Benefit is a payment made for 26 weeks to employed and self-employed pregnant women who satisfy certain pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions in order to avoid the need for them to work pre and post-delivery of their baby. The original scheme was introduced in 1970 and was extended to include self-employed mothers with effect from June 1997. It is currently...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: JobPath is an approach to employment activation that will support people who are long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment. While customers are participating with JobPath they receive intensive individual support to help them address barriers to employment and to assist them in finding jobs. Each person is assigned...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Payments (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department currently makes a block payment to the CIÉ Group. The apportionment of that payment between the three constituent companies, Bus Éireann, Bus Átha Cliath and Iarnród Éireann is a matter for determination by CIÉ. A discount of 40% is applied to that payment to reflect fares foregone. In the early years of the free travel scheme surveys of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Non-Contributory) (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department operates a range of means tested social assistance payments, including the State Pension Non-Contributory. Social welfare legislation provides that the means test takes account of the income and assets of the person (and spouse/partner, if applicable) applying for the relevant payment. Social welfare legislation provides for the purposes of the State Pension Non Contributory,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Data (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Currently there are over 2,800 claims for maternity benefit waiting to be processed. Just over 1,200 of these (approximately 43%) have a leave commencement date of 1stMay 2017 or earlier. Maternity benefit claims are processed in leave commencement date order. The average time to process a paper claim is 6 weeks. Processing claims by leave commencement date order ensures that those whose...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (4 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 135 and 136 together. As the economic recovery takes hold and the overall level of unemployment continues to fall, the need to adapt employment programmes such as Community Employment (CE) to the changing circumstances, has become more apparent. With this in mind, my Department undertook an analysis of CE, which also looked at the other employment...