Results 201-220 of 430 for 5 million speaker:Leo Varadkar

Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will. The Deputy will be aware that Tusla was established in 2014 as a dedicated child protection agency. Its budget for this year is €713 million, a 5% increase on its budget for last year. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, is absolutely committed to ensuring and improving child protection in Ireland. The One in Four report states Tusla was...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Urban Development (26 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...barriers or gaps in service provision. While this work is ongoing, the board has agreed a number of proposals across the four priority headings for implementation in 2017 at a cost of €2.5 million. This is in addition to the range of local measures already implemented in 2016, which will cost about €5 million.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (20 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...with the main opposition parties. Therefore, what is in those will be prioritised but no decisions have been made. Regarding unemployment, the target is to reduce unemployment to between 5% and 6% and to reduce long-term unemployment - there will always be a certain number of people who are in between jobs or out of work for some reason - to less than 2.5%, which is a target we can...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Community Development Projects (20 Sep 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...steps to address barriers or issues arising. While this work is ongoing, the Board has agreed a number of proposals across the four priority headings for implementation in 2017 at a cost of €2.5 million. This is in addition to the range of local measures already implemented in 2016 worth about €5 million.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (12 Jul 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...of the supportive comments other leaders have made on the arts. The budget increase for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for last year was between €18 million and €20 million. This included a €5 million, or 8%, increase in the annual budget of the Arts Council, an increase in the budgets of all of the national cultural...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Exports Data (20 Jun 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...goods and service exports with a breakdown by country are published by the Central Statistics Office in the Statistical Yearbook or Ireland. The latest edition of the Yearbook contains data for 2015. Publication of the results for 2016 is planned for October 2017. The table below is compiled using 2015 trade in goods exports data by country, as published monthly by the CSO, with...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Public Services Card Data (1 Jun 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The number of Public Services Cards (PSC) issued to date is approx. 2.6 million. The number of PSCs currently going through the system is approx. 10,000. It typically takes about fifteen minutes for a person to register and authenticate their identity to get a PSC. There are 100 registration locations nationwide. For the majority of these a person can book an appointment within 24 hours...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...are exempt from paying social insurance contributions while abroad. They may, however, be awarded credited contributions - or credits - for the duration of their absence, up to an aggregate of 5 years. The homemaker’s scheme makes qualification for the contributory State pension easier for those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties. The scheme, which was...

Other Questions: Family Income Supplement (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low-paid workers with child dependants and to offer a financial incentive to take up employment. There are currently almost 57,000 families with more than 126,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on FIS this year is approximately €422 million. There has been a steady growth both in the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I would like thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Total overpayments raised by my Department in 2016 amounted to €110 million. Of this, customer fraud amounted to €41 million. Cases of this nature arise where a customer intentionally provides incomplete or inaccurate information in order to receive benefits or deliberately fails to inform the Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting 43,700 recipients for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017. There are approximately 1,800 rent supplement recipients aged 18 to 24 years old. A breakdown of these young customers, on a county basis for the period 2014 to date, is provided in the table. As part of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Paternity Leave Costs (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 293 and 306 together. The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of maternity benefit is approximately €10 million for each extra week. The table below estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of maternity benefit above its current 26 week duration at the current weekly rate of €235. Estimated annual cost of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: School Meals Programme (25 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,460 schools and organisations benefitting over 200,000 children at a total cost of some €47.7 million in 2017. The funding for the scheme was increased this year, as part of Budget 2017, by an additional €5.7 million (almost 14% over the previous year’s allocation) which will benefit over...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...the scope and scale of the Department's expenditure and its importance, not alone for those who directly receive the various payments but also for society generally. An allocation of €19.85 billion was provided for the Department this year. This represents 37% of gross current Government expenditure and is €229 million more than was provided in the Revised Estimate for...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...needs payment where a person can go to his or her community welfare officer and say that he or she cannot afford to pay funeral expenses or burial costs. We can help with that. Approximately €5 million was paid out to help 1,000 people to date this year. In the region of 3,000 people last year and 1,000 people so far this year received an exceptional needs payment to assist them...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: On the breakdown on expenditure on jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit, these payments account for just over €2.5 billion every year. We estimate that there will be a reduction in the cost of jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit overall of €304 million this year; €341 million is due to the projected decrease in the numbers on the live register. We are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...the relevant medical criteria). The estimated cost in 2018 (and a full year) of increasing the weekly personal rate of Disability Allowance by €20, from €193 to €213 per week, is €140.3 million. Each €1 increase in the weekly personal rate would cost €7.03 million in 2018 and a full year. There is an analogous social insurance payment, Invalidity...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (18 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...was able to retain the other valuable elements of the household benefits package such as the electricity and gas allowance and the television licence. My Department will spend approximately €232 million this year on these elements of the household benefits package for over 426,000 customers. The cost of the telephone allowance scheme had risen significantly each year, as the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Data (16 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...scheme was introduced in 1970 and was extended to include self-employed mothers with effect from June 1997. It is currently estimated that next year my Department will spend approximately €266 million on Maternity Benefit in respect of an average of 22,000 recipients per week. The table below estimates the additional cost, over and above the current estimated expenditure on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Overpayments (11 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Overpayments of benefit or assistance arise where a person is paid in excess of their entitlement or paid where no entitlement exists. In 2016, the Department overpaid customers by €110 million. Of this, customer fraud accounted for €41 million and relates to cases where a customer intentionally provides incomplete or inaccurate information in order to receive benefits, or...