Results 26,721-26,740 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I take the Minister's point too. Absolutely.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What is the purpose of the section?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There was a debate just now with Deputy Durkan about the fact that the domiciliary care allowance ends at age 16. This is probably one of the trickiest payments for us to do the right thing because some parents like the €220, even though it is going to a child, but a lot of parents do not like it because it is going to the child. Sooner or later, society will have to grasp the nettle...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I thank the Minister.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I hear what the Minister is saying about the review. We will have to see how granular it is. Some of the weirder anomalies are in the small print. For instance, non-contributory pensioners can have a job earning €200 a week but a self-employed person cannot have any income that is not assessed. Then it gets worse. I know a lot of three- to four-cow farmers in Connemara. The first...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Is the €5,000 ignored?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Okay. However, people are only allowed to earn €30,000 and the penalty is 100% after that. Is that not correct? People get the first €30,000 of income but, after that, there is a 100% penalty. Unfortunately, many of these very small farmers do not keep all their receipts. The social welfare officers are fair enough and always take a certain amount of State payments at...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It will only cost the Minister in Connemara. There is no farmer that poor elsewhere.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I spend my life doing that for very small farmers.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Furthermore, I have educated them to keep the receipts. I tell them to throw the receipts in a biscuit tin and bring it in to me.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: At least if the farmer has the receipts, you can do something about it. This is hitting a very vulnerable group and there is really no money involved. Something I was made aware of is that even when the Minister raised the income limit on the fuel allowance very generously, there was still an issue. I was given some statistics recently in the reply to a parliamentary question, for which I...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: This issue does not affect a huge number of people but for those it does affect, particularly if it is retrospective, it is fairly serious and painful. If they had only known how to operate the things legally, the problem would have been easy to avoid. Some of these changes could be done quickly, would not have huge cost implications and would make for a fairer system. I am really...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: A big, fluffy report that does not get down to specifics is not much good in this case. This is all about the detail.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What is the purpose of this? What is change is being made to what is already there?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There is no limit on the duration of illness benefit.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In the event of somebody being clearly ill but not ill enough to qualify for an invalidity pension, what happens after two years?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: But there is the way the invalidity pension is being treated now.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There is no exception. In the old days people could be on illness benefit for five or six years.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: If people were clearly ill but not permanently ill, they qualified for a disability pension.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Éamon Ó Cuív: As you know, my view is, and I know the Department disputes it but I stand by it, it is a lot harder to get an invalidity pension than it was.