Results 2,241-2,260 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Benefit (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: The jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. The 2017 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseekers’ schemes of €2.5 billion. Both schemes provide significant support to individuals so that they can work up to...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Benefit (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I do not have the details of the specific case the Deputy is speaking about. People need cleaners on a five day a week basis and that work will not be squeezed into two days. From the perspective of an employer I totally get this. There is an anomaly and the Deputy has highlighted it. Will the Deputy send me the details of the lady in question and it will give me grounds to look further...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Benefit (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I am not sure where the term "poverty earnings" comes from. People go to work and they earn wages for the work they do.

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Benefit (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: From a jobseeker's perspective, with regard to either jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance, the answer is we are not willing to change the current system. The reason we do not have to do so is we have other schemes that support families on low incomes, such as family income supplement and the back to work family dividend, which are all based on thresholds of income earnings.

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Benefit (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I go back to the individual that prompted the Deputy-----

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Benefit (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: They are all based on income thresholds. If the Deputy knows of an individual customer who would like to come to me, I will have a look at it individually. That is no problem.

Other Questions: Employment Rights (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for the question, and I am very glad he raised it because it is an important part of the Department now, as the very large mammoth that is the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Employment affairs, employee rights, employee engagement, the participation of unions and representation rights will all be very much to the fore of what we will do in the...

Other Questions: Employment Rights (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: In fairness, given the way the heads of the Bill were drafted and the design of the bands, it is fairly obvious that the conclusion to which the Deputy has jumped probably reflects the practice, but that is not in the spirit of what we are trying to achieve. Without telling the Deputy what I am hoping to do, I hear him loud and clear. I do not want circumstances in which new legislation we...

Other Questions: Employment Rights (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy. He knows from where I am coming.

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I do not like to admit that I am ignorant, but I do not have a clue what report the Deputy is talking about and I am not aware of any being drafted. Therefore, I will be honest with the Deputy and tell him the current position. No more than in the Deputy's own office, this issue comes across my desk in my office in County Meath quite regularly. It has been raised by women in the past two...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: Let me be very clear. First, there is a difference between employers' PRSI contributions in Ireland and those made in other continental European countries. The difference is that what those countries give for the insurance payments is vastly different from what we give in benefits in this country. I am absolutely sure that if in this country there were to be an increase in PRSI payments,...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: First of all, I refer to the first comment the Deputy made. When people pay into a social insurance fund they expect to get something back. The Deputy is in the business of expecting everybody over a certain threshold to give absolutely everything away so that they can pay for everything else, which is not fair. One puts something in and get something out. That is what a social insurance...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Code (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: We are all aware that rent supplement plays a vital role in housing just over 38,600 families and individuals at a cost of €253 million in 2017. Rent supplement is a statutory means-tested scheme, paid at differentiated rates of payment according to an applicant’s means and accommodation requirements. It is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Code (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: First of all, it is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. FIS supplements the income of tens of thousands of families who are working in casual employment or are in receipt of very low incomes. All income has to be taken into account in rent supplement cases. The fact that a payment has come from a different arm of the State does not mean it is disregarded. It is given from one arm of the State...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Code (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: In the time I have, I will tell the Deputy that is not true. When someone applies for rent supplement his or her income is taken into consideration. There is an income disregard, but all of his or her income, regardless of whether he or she is working in a full-time or part-time job and in receipt of FIS, is taken into account. The reason family income support is so effective is that it...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Reviews (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I do not want to flog a dead horse. We are all aware the primary purpose of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection system is to provide income supports to individuals and families when their circumstances, through loss of income or hardship, require it. My Department provides a broad range of income support payments for such circumstances including illness or disability...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Reviews (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I have only become aware from the past couple of months that the targets we set down in the Department for all of the services regarding the payments we facilitate are fairly ambitious. An appeal should take no longer than 12 weeks although clearly that is not always the reality. I am not apportioning blame to either the Department or to people but there is a sense, which I have...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Reviews (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I take the Deputy's point on board. I do not need to conduct a review because we carry out one on a monthly basis. Every month, at a management meeting, we ask what the turnaround times for payments and appeals are. There are difficulties. The Deputy is probably aware that domiciliary care allowance applications have increased quite dramatically over the past couple of months so,...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Payments (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 41 and 46 together. Lower weekly rates for younger jobseeker's allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009 and extended in subsequent budgets. These measures were introduced to protect young people from welfare dependency. In many cases, they have had a very positive outcome because our youth unemployment figures have gone from here to here, which is...

Other Questions: Jobseeker's Payments (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: In response to the Deputy's question as to whether I could survive on €102 per week, the answer is "No". I am a 46-year-old woman with four children and a husband. If you gave €102 per week to my 18-year-old son at the moment, he would be absolutely delighted. Let me address the fact that the Deputy believes that this is discriminatory. It is not discriminatory. There are...