Results 19,461-19,480 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Questions on Promised Legislation (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to answer that for the Deputy. He is right to point out that there have been more additional places in Mayo than in Cork and that Cork has a much higher population than Mayo. Of course, Dublin has a higher population than Cork. There are more than 1 million people in Dublin and I allocated no additional places to the rural social scheme in Dublin

Questions on Promised Legislation (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Let me finish. If the Deputy wants the answer to the question, he may need to listen because it is not based on population. In order to qualify for the rural social scheme, an applicant must be in receipt of farm assist or fish assist. We took the number of people who are on farm assist or fish assist across the country and broke down the percentage proportionately on that basis. As the...

Questions on Promised Legislation (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: First, it is important to say there is no statutory retirement age in Ireland. No one is required to retire at any particular age in Ireland. However, some people have employment contracts that require them to retire earlier than they might like to. Often, the requirement is at 65 years of age. That requirement is no longer aligned with the pension age, which is 66 years of age. In...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. My Department will spend approximately €232 million this year on HHB for over 424,000 customers. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I can confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance from the person concerned on 16 February 2016. This application was refused on the grounds that the disability of the care recipient was not such that there was a requirement for full-time care and attention as prescribed in regulations. The person concerned was notified on 20 June 2016 of this decision,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Delays (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. The average waiting time for new carer's allowance (CA) applications at the end of December 2016 was 11 weeks. At the end of December, there were 3,490 CA applications awaiting decision....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Emergency Accommodation Data (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is considered the "safety net" within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependants. The main purpose of the scheme is to provide immediate and flexible assistance for those in need who do not qualify for payment...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (25 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is an employment activation service for people who are long-term unemployed (LTU) and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment. Clients are randomly selected for participation and the protocols for selection currently preclude the selection of anyone who has already completed JobPath within the...

Other Questions: Pensions Reform (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Our pension system was set up over a century ago to provide an adequate and sustainable standard of living, and to prevent an unwanted reduction in living standards when people retire. As the Deputy will be aware, there are a number of challenges currently facing the Irish pensions system, including the sustainability of the system over the longer term in light of demographic change, rising...

Other Questions: Pensions Reform (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, I have, and as I committed to Deputy Curran and others, we will bring forward detailed options and proposals for change with the associated costings to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection. If we move from the averaging approach to the total contributions approach, the homemaker credit scheme has to change because the basis on which it exists changes. The intention would...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies for raising the important issue of the self-employed. This is a real priority for me, having been self-employed myself. My dad and my grandad were too. I always said if I was ever in this position, I would try to do something about it. Sometimes, though, self-employed people are unaware of what they are entitled to. I hear self-employed people all the time saying...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Many of these different matters must be figured out. It is not straightforward. We must also take into account that at the moment we give the self-employed all these benefits for a contribution of 4%. An employee pays 4% and his or her employer pays 10.75% on his or her behalf for these benefits. Therefore, for every self-employed person earning €100, the Social Insurance Fund gets...

Other Questions: Farm Assist Scheme Administration (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to confirm that, following the Government agreement on budget 2017, the total reversal of cuts to farm assist is now underway. Deputies will be aware that the programme helps more than 8,000 farm families across the country. The commitment given in A Programme for a Partnership Government, as part of the Government's commitment to rural Ireland, was to complete a review of the...

Other Questions: Farm Assist Scheme Administration (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: That is certainly the intention. It will vary from one case to another. In some cases the uplift people see could be very modest; it could be as little as €5 or €10 per week. In other cases it will be as much as €40 per week. In any case, that is what we have in train to do over the next couple of weeks, and all the different offices are gearing up to do this. Anyone...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Griffin for raising this question at what is a very timely moment. What we have seen in recent years is a big expansion in the number of schemes. In addition to the extra CE schemes, Tús was added, Gateway was added on to that, JobBridge was added on to that and we now have JobPath as well. At the same time, we have seen a massive reduction in unemployment, which means...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Penrose is correct. I am particularly looking out for schemes that provide important services locally, for example, cutting the grass in clubs and meals on wheels and in other areas where I do not want to see service provision damaged. I encourage supervisors to consider people who are harder to reach or who find it hard to take part in these schemes. Very good and qualified people...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 55 and 62 together. The Government is committed to encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship. This includes enhancing the position of the self-employed through a supportive tax regime and, very importantly, improving the level of PRSI-based benefits available to self-employed people. This has been one of my key priorities since becoming Minister...

Other Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: There are a couple of points. If someone was a partner in a business, it should be easy enough to establish whether that person paid PRSI. If an individual did not pay PRSI, he or she is not entitled to a contributory pension. People do not get contributory pensions unless they pay PRSI. That is how a contributory pension works. It should be easy enough to establish their record if they...

Other Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: We have various possible costings and projections but I would have to know exactly which anomaly the Deputy is referring to because there are a number of things that people describe as anomalies in the pension system. With regard to partnerships, unless I misunderstand Deputy Durkan, it is not a case of proving whether a partnership existed, it is a question of proving that somebody made...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (24 Jan 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy is aware, community employment, CE, aims to help long-term unemployed people to re-enter the workforce by breaking their cycle of unemployment through a return to a regular work routine. To this end, CE also provides training and development to participants. I am very conscious of the valuable role that CE schemes play in the provision of services to individuals and...