Results 18,661-18,680 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Other Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: The complexity of that question is probably better addressed to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. What is important from the point of view of the Department of Social Protection is that one of the biggest poverty unemployment traps arises when somebody on rent supplement is offered employment and loses the whole of the rent supplement whereas if they are on...

Other Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 61 and 115 together. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support for eligible persons 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 84,000 rent supplement recipients, of...

Other Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: In the way it grew the rent supplement scheme was meant for people in employment who lost their jobs suddenly and could no longer afford to pay their rent because they had no wages. The scheme then migrated, particularly during the period of office of the Deputy's Government, to provide a general catch-all housing supplement which, as the Deputy noted, was far removed from what had been...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I will get the Deputy the detailed figures, but in 2010, for instance, 2,400 people were questioned; in 2011, 3,400 people were interviewed as a consequence of checkpoints; in 2012, 2,672 people were interviewed; and so far this year there have been 24 checkpoints and 20 detections, resulting in a saving of approximately €130,000. I refer to a number of examples. Members will be...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I will get the Deputy a more detailed answer on the numbers and actions taken by the Garda. Gardaí take over if there is evidence of a criminal offence and prosecutions take time, but a number of people have appeared before the courts. For example, a social welfare customer with a Dublin address was interviewed. He was driving a van with the name of a courier service on the side. He...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network Services (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: By and large, those who do not have bank accounts tend to be those who are less well off or perhaps older people. Perhaps they include people who, wisely, learned not to trust banks too much. It is partly a cultural phenomenon. In Africa, for instance, almost all banking is done by telephone. There has been an enormous change in how banking is carried out nowadays. If the basic bank...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: There is a total of 91 staff assigned to the Department's special investigation unit, SIU, and their function is to investigate and report on fraud and abuse within the social welfare system. As part of a range of initiatives to prevent and detect fraud, the unit participates in multi-agency vehicle checks, MAVCs, on an ongoing basis. Members are probably familiar with them. These are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network Services (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: The post office network has a very important role in the economic and social infrastructure of small towns and villages. However, An Post does not have the standard bank account facility which, perhaps, should have been developed a long time ago. It now has the opportunity to possibly work in conjunction with whoever might be its preferred partners. I draw to the attention of the Deputy...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Initiatives (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: The last part of the question probably has the makings of a proper study for the troika as it arrives in Dublin because it addresses that balance between maintaining employment and the flow of money in the economy that will help to boost consumer confidence and get consumers spending again. On the services of the Department, we have approximately 85,000 engaged and participating in various...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Post Office Network Services (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I am pleased to advise the Deputy that An Post recently became the preferred bidder for the delivery of over-the-counter cash services to Department of Social Protection customers subject to contract agreement. Last year some 43.7 million payments, or 50% of all payments made by my Department, were issued in cash through An Post's network of 1,152 post offices nationwide. I am very anxious...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Initiatives (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: Pathways to Work represents the most significant ever change to the manner in which the State engages with and provides services for people who are unemployed. It delivers on the programme for Government commitment to create a co-ordinated employment and entitlements service and involves a multiannual programme of complex legislative, organisational, process, people and work change which...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Initiatives (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: Physical premises represent one of the most significant difficulties. The Deputy has visited a social welfare office operating the new scheme. The key to the new scheme is having sufficient space to carry out the group engagements, at which we outline to people initially the services, schemes and opportunities the Department is making available. We also set out for people in these...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Community Employment Drug Rehabilitation Projects (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I acknowledge Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's knowledge and expertise in the area and the expertise of other spokespersons on other parts of Dublin city and other parts of the country. We took over community employment in January one year ago. Traditionally, drug rehabilitation places are difficult to fill, and it is often difficult to fill even 1,000 places. If Deputy O'Sullivan or other...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Community Employment Drug Rehabilitation Projects (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: If the Deputy has queries about specific schemes, perhaps she can bring them to my attention. If there are specific issues, I will examine them. With regard to child care, we are working on the idea that all child care places availed of lead to a FETAC level 5 or 6 qualification. Getting to level 5 is a serious qualification in terms of the attractiveness of an individual for the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Community Employment Drug Rehabilitation Projects (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: As at June 2013 there were 664participants in drug rehabilitation projects in the three Dublin divisions, comprising 338 participants in Dublin Central, 130 in Dublin North and 196 in Dublin South. This represented an increase of 12% compared with the figure for June 2012, when there was 595 participants in drug rehabilitation projects in those divisions. Progress has been made in a number...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Jobs Initiative (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I welcome Deputy Ó Snodaigh's support for JobsPlus as well as Deputy O'Dea's support for JobBridge. With these schemes we are following Lord Keynes' advice that, at a time of depression and recession, the critical thing is to get more money circulating in the economy, and one of the best ways of doing that is to get as many of our people as possible back to work. Deputy Ó...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Jobs Initiative (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I thank the Deputy. As I said, this is a type of wage subsidy. Many economists who believe in expansion and a Keynesian stimulus would agree with this, and both major parties in Germany agree with the use of wage subsidies. Whether positions are taken up depends to some degree on the calibre of the people who apply, because an employer is not going to make a hiring decision based only on...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: The comparison with Revenue is not appropriate. People are bound by law to pay their taxes. The internship JobBridge scheme is a voluntary arrangement on the part of both the intern and the host organisation. As we have gone along, we have refined and improved the scheme. We have broadened it and introduced further specifications over time. In the beginning, offers were posted which were...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Jobs Initiative (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: I was delighted to launch JobsPlus yesterday in Waterford with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton. The new scheme, JobsPlus, is a simplified scheme. It is as easy as I could make it for employers and applications are made online. The scheme replaces the employer job PRSI exemption scheme, which started in June 2010, and the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (9 Jul 2013)

Joan Burton: We have carried out 2,200 on-site monitoring visits out of 7,500 host organisations that have participated in the programme. That is a high number of visits compared to the total number of organisations. Reasons for excluding organisations include a failure to complete or adhere to the standard agreement, which requires that a high-quality experience and a reference be provided to the...