Results 221-240 of 430 for 5 million speaker:Leo Varadkar

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

Leo Varadkar: ...to provide details of the number of people whose claims were in payment and were then disallowed and who did not appeal. However, I can advise the Deputy that my Department processes around 2 million new claims each year. About 85% of these are successful, i.e. the customer receives the relevant payment. By comparison, 22,461 appeals were made to the Social Welfare Appeals Office last...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Advocacy Service (9 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...or natural supports. NAS operates with the following staffing complement: National Manager Senior Advocates Advocates Regional Managers Administrators Corporate Services Manager 1 7 28 4 5 1 The most recent reported figures (Census 2011) show that 13% (595,335) of people reported having a disability. Applying that finding to the most recent overall population figures available...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (9 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 (4 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 following table estimates the additional cost, over and above the current estimated expenditure on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Overpayments (2 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 547 to 551, inclusive, 557 and 565 together. Nearly 950,000 entitlement reviews and investigations were conducted across the Department’s schemes in 2016. These reviews yielded €506 million in control savings for the year. Reviews and investigations of entitlements are conducted by social welfare staff, social welfare inspectors and inspectors...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Expenditure (13 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Maternity benefit is paid for 26 weeks at a rate of €235 per week. The 2017 Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of approximately €266 million on maternity benefit. The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of maternity benefit is €10 million for each extra week. The following table estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (12 Apr 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 425,000 customers. The cost of the telephone allowance scheme had risen significantly each year, as the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Labour Activation Projects (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: .... The most recent unemployment figures from the CSO show that the monthly unemployment rate in March 2017 stands at 6.4%. This is a decrease from 8.3% in March 2016 and 9.9% in March 2015, which is a decline of 3.5 percentage points in the past year. In addition, the CSO's quarterly national household survey reports that there were 2.048 million people in employment at the end of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Public Services Card Provision (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: To date, my Department has issued over 2.5 million Public Services Cards (PSC) and it is the Department’s intention, with the assistance of increased demand from other public bodies, to issue a further 500,000 by the end of 2017. The issuance of PSCs is part of a large, complex, multi-year project called SAFE. The project aims to provide all public bodies with a substantial level...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Budget 2017 (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...that the system also works for people who are in employment, including self-employed people. On Budget Day, I announced the first general increase in all weekly rates of payment since 2009. A €5 increase in the maximum weekly rates of payment for all social welfare payments took effect in March, with proportionate increases for qualified adults and those on reduced rates of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Citizen Information Services (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Citizens Information Board (CIB), which has statutory responsibility for the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) and the Citizens Information Services (CIS), decided on 15 February 2017 to restructure the governance arrangements of these services. As a statutory body, the Board has the sole right to make decisions on its day to day operations as it sees fit. It would not be...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: School Meals Programme (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...390 together. 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)...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Supplementary Welfare Allowance (11 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 395, 396 and 404 together. The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is demand led and 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: State Pensions (6 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...Act 2011 provided that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition), which had been available from 65 for those who satisfied the qualifying conditions, thereby standardising State pension age for all at 66 years, which is the current State pension age. This will increase to 67 in 2021 and to 68...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (4 Apr 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...and who are not in a position to meet costs for essential needs, household items and in some instances structural repair. Expenditure under the scheme for the period from 2010 to 2016 is some €5 million and a yearly breakdown of this expenditure is provided in the attached tabular statement. Expenditure to date in 2017 is €85,500. There was expenditure of some €2...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (4 Apr 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 425,000 customers. The cost of the telephone allowance scheme had risen significantly each year, as the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (28 Mar 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...low incomes. To qualify for the scheme a person must satisfy the means test and be engaged in farming. The 2017 Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of approximately €83 million on the farm assist scheme. Social welfare legislation defines a farmer as a person engaged in farming, farming farm land including commonage, which is owned, and used for the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (22 Mar 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 425,000 customers. The cost of the telephone allowance scheme had risen significantly each year, as the...

Seanad: JobPath: Statements (21 Mar 2017)

Leo Varadkar: ...has been falling since the beginning of the recovery and is falling as fast today as it has at any period in recent years. The most recent data show that unemployment has fallen from a peak of more than 15% in 2012 to 6.6% last month, a rate which is lower than the EU average. The long-term unemployment rate peaked at 9.5% in the first quarter of 2012 before falling to 3.6% in the last...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Mar 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 425,000 customers. The cost of the telephone allowance scheme had risen significantly each year, as the...