Results 10,061-10,080 of 19,414 for speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I have no major issue with this amendment as it is in line with changes in recent years such as multi-agency task forces. I do have an issue with the deletion of subsection 16 on the fact that a Garda must be in uniform. Why is this a requirement? Social welfare inspectors do not wear a uniform so they can act undercover. The same applies to the Revenue Commissioners, though they have a...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I move amendment No. 13: In page 14, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:"(1A) The Minister shall produce regulations governing the method by which the requirement in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) to remain habitually resident in order for any entitlement to subsist may be controlled or verified by the Department and these regulations must ensure that any such control method or...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: My amendment does not run contrary to the proposal, but rather it deals with the regulation. We are happy enough that at least progress is being made and I will not oppose the section.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: When is it intended to publish the regulation if this Bill is passed in July?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Can the Minister provide a draft of that regulation which would be helpful in our deliberations?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: The difficulty is that we are dealing with a new definition of family.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I thank the Minister.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I will probably resubmit my amendment on Report Stage. While the ruling is that it would impose a charge on the Exchequer, it would do if this Bill had passed. It would not do so because it leaves thestatus quoas it is. It is difficult for us in opposition to argue to leave thestatus quoin these instances. This is a change and I am not opposed to the change. I am seeking recognition of...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I can envisage cases where somebody, a qualified adult, is referred to a mental institution who has commitments to pay bills in the family home. Removal of a payment in such an instance may cause additional hardship. The Minister needs to be careful not to make this black and white, to rule out all such instances. The intention behind my amendment was positive. It recognises that if...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I move amendment No. 11: In page 12, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following:“(3) Section 232 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following subsection after subsection (3):“(4) The Minister shall provide a copy of any regulation or variation to a regulation that she proposes to make under this section to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Obviously, it was challenged. If it still went ahead, it meant that the procurement process was resilient.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: In 2007.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Obviously, it failed.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: That may be the technical nature of the Bill, but I still believe that prepared bidder status should be granted to An Post or others in such contracts. The movement in European thinking away from the concept of a social Europe and towards a commercial Europe is a danger. It is not just a danger in terms of An Post but a danger in the approach to the delivery of social welfare services as a...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: This is what underlies the thinking.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: The Minister responded and I am replying to her points, outlining that An Post has a preferred status of some sort, because she states that the Bill strengthens it. There is no mention of An Post now in the social welfare code as having any additional status. There was an agenda and I think this Bill continues the agenda to open up the delivery of all services. The Minister argued also...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I have no problem, but I will not be rushed on this point.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I have no problem with that, but as I have said, this is the most controversial part of the Bill. I am responding to the Minister, who raised this issue. I have argued that more and more transfers from the State should go through An Post, which prevents fraud, although it is awkward for some people to get to a post office in person to claim their payments. If we are serious in our efforts...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I will follow up on the last point about the mechanisms for this and other social welfare legislation. I welcomed the fact that the budget was brought forward to October. I have been my party's spokesperson on social protection for some time and have had to deal with guillotines being applied to virtually every social welfare Bill in the last ten or 12 years. On rare occasions, the No. 2...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, to delete lines 7 to 9.A number of further amendments are consequential on this one. Given the tight timeframe, however, they were not proposed in the exact order desired by the Bills Office. They deal with the primary issue, that is, the removal of An Post from the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, which brings all of the relevant Social Welfare Acts...