Results 19,941-19,960 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: Thee Estimates for the Department of Social Protection as published in the 2013 Revised Estimates (REV) provides for expenditure of €20.243 billion on schemes, services and administration in 2013. Thee Estimates are based, in the main, on an analysis of trends as regards likely numbers of recipients and average value of payments in 2013. Actual trends on individual schemes are being...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The rural social scheme provides income support for farmers and those engaged in fishing who have an entitlement to specified social welfare payments. Participation on the scheme is not intended to open ended and entitlement to an underlying social welfare payment must be proven annually to ensure continuation on the scheme. Given the nature of the scheme and its focus on addressing...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Placements (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 21, 27, 30 and 31 together. As at 18 April, 2013, 16,545 jobseekers had commenced internships since the scheme was launched. Currently there are c 6,000 people on internships with c 2,500 internships opportunities available to be filled. In order to assess the impact of the scheme the Department commissioned Indecon economic consultants to complete an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Rates (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: Child benefit is a universal payment that assists parents with the cost of raising children and it contributes towards alleviating child poverty. The estimated expenditure on child benefit in 2013 is around €1.9 billion and it is currently paid to around 611,000 families in respect of some 1.16 million children. The social protection system also provides assistance to low income...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Reports (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: My department published the Social Impact Assessment of Budget 2013 on 28 March 2013. The assessment covers the main welfare and direct tax measures in Budget 2013, which generated savings/revenue of almost €1 billion. Social impact assessment is an evidence-based methodology which uses a tax/welfare simulation model developed by the Economic and Social Research Institute to estimate...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Parliamentary Questions Numbers (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The practice of withdrawing Parliamentary Questions (PQs) has been in place for over 20 years and has assisted the Department to cope with the large volume of PQs it receives annually. The Department provides the Deputy with the relevant information in relation to the individual query and in a majority of cases subsequently confirms this information in writing. In general, Deputies find...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: Given the scale of the unemployment crisis, the key objective of activation policy and labour market initiatives is to offer assistance to those in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency. This policy objective prioritises scarce resources to those in receipt of qualifying welfare payments. Accordingly the employment services and schemes provided by the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Guarantee (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 26 and 48 together. Following some small changes required by the Council's Jurist/Linguists, it is anticipated that the final text will be formally adopted by the Council this month.The Recommendation is that Member States should: Ensure that all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code Issues (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy will be aware, the Department has undertaken a substantial amount of background work on this matter including direct engagement with the Personal Injuries Assessment Board and the State Claims agency as well as extensive discussions with counterparts in Northern Ireland where such as system of reimbursement is in operation. As part of this work, the Department will engage in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: Jobseeker’s allowance is a means tested social assistance scheme operated by my Department. For means test purposes, account is taken of the income and assets of both the claimant and his or her spouse/partner including the earnings of the spouse. Where a jobseeker’s allowance claimant or their spouse is paying the local property tax, their means for social welfare purposes...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. The Table below provides details of processing times for each of the Department’s schemes in March 2013. A further breakdown of the time taken for the individual steps in the processing of claims is not available. All claims are registered promptly, in some schemes this is done through...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Administration (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department is in receipt of a complaint regarding the issue raised by the Deputy and is currently examining the matter. Any host organisation which is found to be displacing paid staff in contravention of the scheme rules will be disbarred from further access to the scheme. In addition, all existing internships with that host organisation will cease with immediate effect. I understand...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff Numbers (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department’s Employment Control Framework (ECF) figure, set by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), for the total number of full time equivalent posts was set at 6,610 for 2012 is now set at 6,377 for 2013, which requires the Department to reduce the number of posts by 233 this year. The Department’s salary budget for 2013 has been reconfigured to take...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Properties (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department delivers it services from approximately 970 locations throughout the country. A database which provides the locations of these offices is available on request. In addition to the premises provided by the Commissioners of Public Works, the Department pays rent to the HSE and FAS in respect of premises accommodating staff now transferred to the Department of Social Protection....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Redundancy Payments (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the redundancy payments scheme is to compensate workers, under the Redundancy Payments Acts, for the loss of their jobs by reason of redundancy. It is the employer’s responsibility to pay statutory redundancy payments in the first instance. Where an employer can prove to the satisfaction of the Department that it is unable to pay statutory redundancy to its eligible...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Gender Recognition Issues (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: Since the publication of the Report, the Department has been working on developing draft Heads of a Gender Recognition Bill. In this context, it has engaged in discussions with the relevant medical health professionals and with representatives from interested NGOs. Given the legal complexities involved in relation to some of the GRAG recommendations relating to the marital and civil...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Anti-Poverty Strategy (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 40 together. The Department published its third periodic report on progress in implementing NAPinclusion for the two year period 2009-2010 in July 2012 and is in the process of completing a further progress update for January 2011 to December 2012. The Department also convened the Social Inclusion Forum in March 2013 so as to enable us to get the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Redundancy Payments (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: At present, the Department is not in a position to provide a breakdown of the redundancy statistics by county, sector or gender. Work on the reporting facility of the redundancy payments system is ongoing. It is hoped that it will be possible to provide these types of data in the near future but I am not in a position to specify a date for this to happen. The Department will communicate...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: The Government, as part of the Budget package for 2013, announced a number of initiatives focused on providing work opportunities for those currently unemployed. One element of this package is the development of a new initiative with local authorities to provide 3,000 work opportunities in 2013. This is in line with the commitments set out in the Action Plan for Jobs and Pathways to Work....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Offices (24 Apr 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 and 53together. The Department is committed to providing new Intreo Centres in these areas. The Office of Public Works (OPW) is responsible for providing the Department with its office accommodation requirements and my officials currently meet with officials of that office on a fortnightly basis to discuss progress on delivery across the country. I...