Results 19,161-19,180 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Data (22 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The information requested regarding the age profile of free travel customers is as follows – Under 66 years 245,931 Over 66 years628,707 I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Data (22 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: There are currently 80 private operators participating in the free travel scheme and of this 60 are bus companies. The information requested by the Deputy is detailed in the following table. I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy. County Company Name Routes Cavan Sillan Tours Ltd. Cootehill- Shercock- Dublin (Daily except Saturday) Cork Barry's Coaches Ltd Cobh Town area...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Data (22 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Where the Integrated Ticketing System is enabled by transport operators and the customer is using the new Public Services Card Free Travel variant (rather than the paper free travel pass), it is possible to collect some data on usage. However, as the Integrated Ticketing System has limited roll-out across transport operators at present, the precise data requested by the Deputy is not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (22 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by over 80 private transport operators. There are currently approx. 874,000...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Payments (22 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Section 10 of the Social Welfare Act 2016 provided for the exclusion of members of a local authority from the Class K PRSI charge. Previously, councillors paid PRSI at the Class K rate of 4% on their income as public office holders, provided that income exceeded €5,200 per annum. Payment of Class K by councillors was not reckonable towards establishing entitlement to social insurance...

Other Questions: JobPath Implementation (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: CE schemes and Tús do not constitute regular employment. It is not to say they are not valuable. They are very valuable and I have many such schemes also in my constituency. I know their value and they do involve a lot of real work. It is, however, a different thing to say the Tús scheme is real employment. It is not. It is an employment activation scheme where the State...

Other Questions: JobPath Implementation (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I wish to clarify that referrals are made only by my Department and through the Intreo centres. The rules are also made by my Department and the rules are that a person cannot move from one scheme or service to another. If a person has a start date, however, within four weeks for a Tús or CE placement, then he or she can take it up. We would like to move to a position where people who...

Other Questions: Homemakers Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 40 and 44 together. The State pension is a very valuable benefit and is the bedrock of the Irish State pension system as a whole. There are two State pensions. The non-contributory State pension is a means-tested pension and is funded by general taxation. The contributory State pension is not means tested and is paid from the Social Insurance Fund....

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have allocated an additional 500 places on the RSS as part of the social welfare budget package for 2017. This is the first increase in places since 2006 and will expand the overall number of participants from 2,600 to 3,100. I also announced a €5 increase in the weekly personal rate of payment for RSS participants from March this year. The 500 additional RSS places have been...

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The RSS is very different from the CE schemes. People on CE schemes are supposed to be looking for regular employment. People on the RSS already have regular employment as farmers or fishermen. Given that they cannot derive an adequate income from their regular employment, RSS is an additional top up to the income they make from farming or fishing. They are very different schemes for very...

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: More lone parents and people with disabilities would be more likely to take up a CE scheme if they received €30, €40 or €50. That is my opening pitch for the budget.

Other Questions: Rural Social Scheme (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have an open mind on it and the issue of older workers arises frequently in this context. It is also an issue for younger people. I always get Tús and CE mixed up on the minimum age criteria. The minimum age is 25 for one of the schemes and 21 for the other. We have young people who have spent a year on JobPath and have not got a job. It would make more sense for them to move to...

Other Questions: JobPath Implementation (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 43 together. Many CE schemes are run by private companies. I am not sure what the Deputy referred to. The activation supports and services which are available to those who are long-term unemployed include the JobPath employment activation service and work experience and training schemes such as CE and Tús. The JobPath service procured by...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I apologise if I baffled the Deputy with my answer but I thought it entirely clear and factual.

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The way we calculate the contributory State pension is very odd. If a person has 520 contributions, or approximately ten years of contributions, he or she could potentially get a full pension. If a person works for nine years and 11 months, he or she could get nothing. There is an averaging system that is very odd because it works particularly against people who started work early but who...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: There are a couple of issues. Anybody who has made 520 contributions or worked ten years from a working life of 40, 45 or 50 years is entitled to a State contributory pension. Those who did not work for that time may not be. What we had previously and we still have is a position where there is very little correlation between the contributions made and the pension that one gets at the end....

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: If we do so, we must cost the option. All of these issues have a cost but that is the approach we are taking.

Other Questions: State Pensions Reform (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The State pension system is very effective in ensuring that pensioners have a decent standard of living and results in more gender-equal outcomes in Ireland than in most European countries. The gender poverty gap for those over 65 in Ireland, using European Union, EU, figures, is 2.1%, compared with 4.2% across the EU as a whole. There are a number of reasons for this. First, other EU...

Other Questions: State Pensions Reform (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have a principled problem with there being a universal tier one pension paid to everyone in the way child benefit is, with a tier two pension - a top-up, if one likes - based totally on contributions made by a worker. Were one to design a pension system from scratch, one might very well do that and it would be a very good approach. As I mentioned, the difficulty is we estimate it...

Other Questions: State Pensions Reform (21 Feb 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have read the Age Action Ireland report but I cannot recall the author. I intend to deal with this by moving from a system of calculating a contributory pension that is unfair to a system that is simple and fair and based on contributions. Pretty much anybody with a contributory or occupational pension has it calculated based on the number of years at work or in which contributions were...