Results 18,941-18,960 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: That is important to the staff in the Department because they have been on the front line of people losing their jobs, often arriving in great distress. The staff try very hard to give a good service to people. Public servants come in for a lot of knocks and it is important to acknowledge it when people improve services and do their best for people. They are not perfect and we have much...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: In regard to the number of offices, the delivery of more than 60 Intreo offices is a major logistical property project for the Department of Social Protection and the managers of this process, the OPW, which is responsible for the provision of the Department's property requirements, including refurbishment and fit-out works. The new offices allow people more dignity and they can have more...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes. The OECD produced a pensions report. Perhaps the committee could set time aside for a briefing.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department will provide a very detailed briefing on its three recent reports. The OECD has an expertise in the area and has long advised us on systems for education, health and social protection, how we compare with the most developed countries in the world and how we might improve our different systems. We commissioned the OECD report which stated that Ireland has done well with its...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy has said, there has been an estimated fall in the live register from an average of 437,300 in 2012 to an estimated 431,000 in 2013. Some €42.5 million is due to the transferring of funding from jobseeker's to the working age employment support programme to provide for an additional 10,000 activation places by the end of 2013 and the Budget 2013 measure which reduced the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: I will answer Deputy Daly's last point first. We do not have those figures to hand but we will supply them to the Deputy.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: I shall respond to the general control questions posed by Deputy Ó Snodaigh. The savings target for 2013 is €710 million. As he said, the ambition is higher than it was last year by €40 million. In other words, there is an increase of €40 million on what was achieved in 2012. Every year we have increased the number of reviews with a consequent prevention of...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Being at risk of poverty is a broad and easily understood concept but the Department's social inclusion unit has a number of national renowned experts in the technical measurement of same. They work in conjunction with the European organisations on European data. Of course the major analysis and collection of the data is normally done by the CSO and the Survey of Income and Living...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: It is because, as a Department, we absorb it into the Estimates. We do not make an issue of it; we just do it, and absorb it into the Estimates. That was done in previous Administrations. It is the correct thing to do. An alternative system of government accounting in other jurisdictions, which I am not advocating, could involve cash limits on the total spend in a particular area. If...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: To answer the Deputy, we anticipate that and the CSO gives us the figures, so it is not a surprise. We know about it and we factor it into the base. In other words, to use the Deputy's example, if we are catering this year for 400,000 pensions and we know there will be an increase to 415,000 pensioners, we factor that into the baseline Estimates of the Department. However - this is the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Yes; both Deputies mentioned it. That is why we had to go to the people in finance and look for more funding and a supplementary budget at the end of the year.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: It is over €1 billion a year.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: It is an increase of €100 million. The overall spend is over is €1 billion.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Even though, as we have discussed, the pressures on spending and increases in demand are very heavy, we have prioritised additional spending to help people to get back to work. The spend on all employment supports has increased by €100 million, or by 10.7%. The Deputy will recall that in the budget we expanded the number of placements in areas such as the community employment,...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: I am in the hands of Government accounting. I confess to having a background in commercial and financial accounting, as does Deputy Willie O'Dea. Government accounting is partly traditional cash-based accounting and partly like a holy mystery. One explores and hopes to understand it. I am working on the matter.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: Absolutely. The detailed discussions on the budget have not yet commenced. The Department and I are involved in intense training for the anticipated detailed discussions. The Department has a really important role to play in helping the country to get back on its feet. That is why we have a three point mission, namely, to pay people their entitlements, to help people to get back to work...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Joan Burton: On the question of what are likely to be the at risk of poverty rates in 2012 and 2013, it is very difficult to foresee these rates, as it depends on the trends in household incomes which are affected by employment, wages, migration, dependency rates and social transfers. The Department of Social Protection has carried out an analysis of the social impact of budget 2013 which we have...