Results 2,261-2,280 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

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

Regina Doherty: I absolutely have responsibility. What I am telling the Deputy is that there are no plans to change the payment as it stands but that if anybody between the ages of 18 and 25 wants to do anything else under social welfare schemes, such as be a carer, go back to school or undertake further training, they can afford to take the €198 per week if they want to change their practices.

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

Regina Doherty: It is categorically not discriminatory. If it was, somebody would have already taken and tested a case against it, and that has not happened. It has not because there is a choice for young people under 25 years of age so that if they need €198 to live on, they will move to one of the other schemes that is available to them to move to at any time during it. There are additional lower...

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

Regina Doherty: The reason that there is a lower payment here is to try to be ambitious for our younger people. It is to try not to box them off into what the Deputy would wish to box them into. It is to try to encourage them to do something other than staying at home and collecting a payment of €102 a week. Let them become a carer. Let them go back to school and undertake further education. Let...

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

Regina Doherty: Please do not put words in my mouth.

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

Regina Doherty: I never ever said it was helping. Let me be very clear. There is nothing shy about me and I am well able to speak for myself. I would very much appreciate if the Deputy did not put words in my mouth or pertain to tell people that he knows what I am thinking or saying. I am very well able to say it myself.

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

Regina Doherty: The purpose of this lower payment is to encourage younger people to provide themselves with opportunities such as back to education, to provide community employment schemes or any of the activation measures that are available to support, assist and help younger people into employment and into the workforce. Let me point out something to the Deputy. It is working. One of the largest drops...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I have taken a big interest in this in the last couple of months. I was of the view that the Deputy has just described but I was very much surprised by the results that I got back. I will outline an except and then I will discuss it with the Deputy. In 2000, a national training fund levy of 0.7% was introduced by the then Fianna Fáil Government and it was incorporated into the...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I agree with Deputy Penrose. Both of us are on the same wavelength, except in one regard. We are not behind profile. We are €278 million ahead of profile. That is why it does not make any sense to me. My gut is telling me that there are people out there who are in vulnerable positions who do not know that we are here to help. I will make sure that they know while at the same time...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I will make two points to Deputy Penrose. The report will be ready for publication shortly. I had one concern. Some 23 submissions were received but only four came from self-employed people. It is a bit of a misnomer when one has public consultation on self-employment that 19 of the 23 submissions are from employers. I was a bit miffed by that. I am considering seeking submissions...

Other Questions: Social Insurance (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: With the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's indulgence, I would say that anybody who finds himself or herself in the position Deputy Penrose described can retrospectively go back to Scope and get his or her social insurance contributions reinstated. That is the merit of Scope.

Other Questions: Public Services Card (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: The purpose of the public services card, PSC, is to enable individuals to gain access to public services more efficiently and less duplication of having to give the same information to a variety of different public bodies, while at the same time preserving their privacy to the maximum extent possible. The purpose of SAFE 2 registration, as underpinned by legislation, is to verify the...

Other Questions: Public Services Card (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy is absolutely right, but it is not a change. I repeat that the public services card is to do nothing other than access public services. The reason the Deputy gets authenticated the first and only time is that if he goes through the SAFE process and he proves he is John Curran, he will never have to do it again. The Deputy will have proven with the Department of Employment...

Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Department's budget is €19 billion.

Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: Sorry for interrupting but the social protection budget is just over €19 billion.

Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I would love €58 billion. It would be deadly.

Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I would be the most popular social welfare Minister ever.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Eligibility (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: I am aware of the difficulties experienced by carers and their families especially in sad circumstances such as the loss of a family carer through bereavement. There is already provision within legislation for the continuation of payment of carer’s benefit and carer’s allowance for a period of six or twelve weeks respectively, following the death of a spouse, civil partner or...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pensions Reform (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: The State pension contributory is one of a number of pensions the State pays to people over 66. The rate of payment to a person is related to the number of contributions made into the Social Insurance Fund by that person. Entitlement levels are calculated by means of a ‘yearly average’ calculation, where the total contributions paid or credited are divided by the number of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Programme for Government Initiatives (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: My Department’s approach to developing the working family payment is being guided by two principles. First, that it should ensure that work pays, and second, and equally important, that it should have a positive effect on reducing child poverty. To advance the commitment contained in the Programme for Partnership Government, my Department established an internal working group and an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Money Advice and Budgeting Service Reports (20 Sep 2017)

Regina Doherty: In February 2017, the Board of Citizens Information Board decided to restructure its governance arrangements to a regional model comprising sixteen companies, 8 CIS and 8 MABS companies. The aim of the change is to improve the effectiveness of the control environment, financial management, and governance of CIS and MABS service networks and service delivery standards and consistency. I know...