Results 1-20 of 36 for harrington segment:8818830

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Denis Naughten: ...Minister and the Government have adopted our recommendations and are now implementing them. I welcome to today's meeting the following witnesses from the Department of Social Protection: Ms Jackie Harrington, principal officer for jobseekers policy; Mr. Brian Duff, principal officer for PRSI policy; Mr. Colin O'Neill, assistant principal officer; and Ms Karen Byrne, assistant...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: I am the principal officer with responsibility for jobseekers policy in the Department I am joined by Brian Duff, who is the principal officer with responsibility for PRSI policy, Karen Byrne, on my left, and Colin O’Neill, to my far right, who are assistant principals in these areas. I thank the committee for the opportunity to attend today. On the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Denis Naughten: I thank Ms Harrington.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: .... I have one main concern which is the possibility of seeing an employment shock like we got around 2008 for example, where a large number of people became unemployed in a short space of time. Ms Harrington has given an estimate of a full-year cost of this scheme running to €130 million but has the Department stress-tested that against larger economic shocks? A government of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: I thank the Deputy for his comments. On his first question about the cost of the scheme over the longer term, he is absolutely right that we are currently in a very low period of unemployment and the €130 million refers to costs in the current period. The Department did stress-test. We looked back at patterns over the last 23-odd years in terms of the ups and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is a difficult question to answer of course but whether that will be enough is the issue. The Department has costed this at €130 million in the present environment. I acknowledge that Ms Harrington said that on average, if you look over 23 years, buoyancy is more present than shocks but the current period is unusual. In terms of labour force participation, we are practically at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: Well, what the Department looked at was the percentage of jobseeker's benefit in relation to the adult population because it is quite difficult and it is complex in the Irish situation. The scheme has changed a number of times throughout the period and we have a growing population against this as a backdrop. We could see that it could increase by up to four times or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: We are satisfied that the 0.2% will cover it in recessionary periods. In some years, savings are made to the fund and obviously, in periods of recession it is heavily drawn from.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: We have been working closely with the Department of public expenditure and the CSO on our figures. It is important to note that these payments, the higher rates of payments in particular, can support the economy by providing a stabiliser. This was evident after the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, scenario where the country bounced back quite quickly and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I hope Ms Harrington is correct. I have nothing further to add. I thank the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Denis Naughten: ...the future. I wish to commend the Department on its approach to this. Second, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh raised a point on small businesses and there is huge concern out there at the moment. In the evidence Ms Harrington gave this morning, she made the point that a 0.1% increase works out at approximatively 90 cent per week for a worker on average wages. What is the typical average cost...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: Okay. I thank the Chair and will answer the questions in the order he raised them. As for part-time workers, he will notice from the heads of the Bill that they have been developed in such a way that we can introduce them for part-time workers, as required and as approved by the Government. The heads are flexible, in that we can apply that measure going forward. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Denis Naughten: Will Ms Harrington speak about the tiered payments?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: For the tapering of payments, the calculation is obviously not in line with the calculation the Chair has proposed in terms of working a percentage of the higher cap. What we did was look at the various inputs and consultations. There were a lot of factors for us to consider, in the context of the overall costs, the competing concerns, impact on the labour market and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Denis Naughten: I accept the point Ms Harrington makes. The point I am making is that in the way is it presented it is misrepresenting the situation. It would be far clearer to leave it at 60% up to maximum thresholds of €450, €375 and €300. The costs involved would be minimal, but it would at least be easier to communicate rather than introducing three percentages with three...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: I will. There will be significant communication of this new scheme as it is being launched. We will also shortly be communicating with individuals because we hope to kick off a campaign about this scheme. My colleague, Mr. Duff, will answer the Deputy's final question about PRSI and small businesses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: ...does not get any pay-related benefit, even though it is easy enough nowadays to ascertain information from previous years, such as income tax returns and how much income a person is getting. Ms Harrington might go into that. Does the Department get access in real time to pay records from Revenue? Every time an employer makes a payment to an employee there must be a return to Revenue in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Ms Jackie Harrington: I will go through the questions. I hope I have captured them all. The Department does have access to real-time Revenue data for employees. In the provision for the scheme, in the head that covers the rate of payment, what we are proposing is that when we calculate someone's gross earnings we will go back eight weeks from the date that they were made unemployed, so we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: General Scheme of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Social Insurance and Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit Provisions) Bill 2024: Department of Social Protection (31 Jan 2024)

Denis Naughten: My experience is the same. I call on Ms Harrington to respond.