Results 11,201-11,220 of 19,749 for speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I recommend that we invite the Minister for Social Protection to come before the committee to explain what steps she has taken to ensure a sufficient time lag between the decision to make a substantial change to the eligibility criteria and the full effect thereof, especially in cases where people have no way to make up the credits or contributions. A discussion on this issue would be a...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I have a more general question for the Minister which nevertheless ties in with the issues we have been discussing. The Government is due to award several large public sector construction contracts in the near future, including, for example, the contract to rebuild Cork Prison. The contract for construction of a road under Newlands Cross in south County Dublin has already been granted to...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: We can look forward to chaos on the Naas Road for two years.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I raise the issue of these major public contracts in the context of our discussion of the numbers on the live register. All such contracts should include an incentive that would encourage the successful companies to take construction workers and others off the live register. We have seen in recent years how European-based companies tend to arrive here lock, stock and barrel, with little or...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I will be very brief. Under the heading dealing with supports for children, there is an indication that €123 million was saved as a result of the changes to the one-parent family payment. The amended provision for after-school child care, school meals and so on adds up to €18.5 million. Will we see an increase in the proportion of that €123 million going to some of...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Is there any indication at this stage of the cost implications of the new local authority housing assistance payment scheme?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Or hapless.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Will it impact on next year's Estimate or is it more likely to be 2015 before we see a roll-out?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: This is a huge and expanding area, which is a good thing in some ways. It will help many people who have found themselves in dire straits because they must change jobs or update their skills mid-stream in their working lives. It also helps young people who emerge from school or college with an expectation of work that is not there by making training available to them. We had some...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: That is the hope. One of the problems is that even with the reduced social welfare payment to those young people some of them do not qualify for opportunities such as community employment immediately, while in some cases people on the Youthreach scheme, which starts before people leave school, can have a greater income than those who are on the live register and who are in search of...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I asked several questions that have not been answered. One was about the youth guarantee and how that is going to affect the number of young people on jobseeker's allowance and whether there is an intention to change the different scales of jobseeker's allowance. The other question was why a higher figure is expected from control savings for this year than for the same amount of reviews...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: In some ways, this section has a little bit of good news in it but it is not reflected in the figures because they change on a regular basis in terms of the numbers on the live register. Obviously, the number on the long-term list is not dropping fast enough. There has been a drop in the number of long-term unemployed but that is not reflected. If the trend this year continues, there would...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: For the better. I did not mean the Garda station but the dole office. I never had to sign on in a Garda station in my life.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: The changes which occurred even in the year or so since I last visited the office were interesting. I would have attended with constituents on a number of occasions. I find it is often easier to deal with the social welfare inspectors on the telephone. I get a quicker response than when I had to attend in person. The service is changing. Most of the business is carried out in quite a...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: They were not met in 2012. I asked if the target will be achieved or exceeded this year and what is the target for next year.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: -----rather than decrease, the effects of a good controlled saving. A major review was done last year and the year before. I must give credit to the Department for exceeding its targets in 2012. From what I hear, it will probably exceed them again this year.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: By that scale there will not be savings of the same scale in the future because the work has been done and accuracy is in place. There will always be mistakes such as clerical errors or people making mistakes when filling out forms. Computerisation and cross-referencing implies that savings should decrease. Is it predicted that savings will decrease in 2014 and 2015?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I will come back to the point I made in the general comments because it is related to pensions. I have no issue with the €190 million extra that must be paid. I am not seeking to make an issue of it. However, it is a substantial amount of money, the equivalent of 15,000 additional pensioners coming out of nowhere. That means there is something wrong with the forecasting or the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I am not advocating that we not absorb it. My problem is not with that. In planning for next year the Department will prepare an estimate of what needs to be spent on pensions. Somebody will calculate the current number of pensioners, the number that will die and the number that will come on stream. The problem is that when that figure is calculated there is a difference of approximately...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (26 Jun 2013)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Again, I do not have a problem with that. However, we are making the wrong assumptions if we are missing 15,000 people in our projections. If the Department projects that the expenditure will be a certain amount, but by the middle of the year it decides it is an extra €190 million, that is the equivalent of 15,000 pensioners. However, I will leave it at that. The other issue is...