Results 2,681-2,700 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Eligibility (26 Oct 2017)

Regina Doherty: As the Deputy may be aware Section 1.6.5 Employment Support Schemes, of the Fuel Allowance Scheme Guidelines for the 2017/2018 Fuel Season Onwards, provides that“Participants on the following Department of Social Protection Employment Support Schemes and Revenue Job Assist can be paid Fuel Allowance where they had applied for or were awarded fuel allowance prior to commencing on the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Eligibility (26 Oct 2017)

Regina Doherty: The fuel allowance is a means tested payment, targeted at those who are more vulnerable to energy poverty, including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own. Participants on the rural social scheme (RSS) can be paid Fuel Allowance where they had applied for - or were awarded the payment - prior to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (26 Oct 2017)

Regina Doherty: I confirm that my Department received an application for carer’s allowance from the person concerned on 10 October 2017. The application was processed without delay and the person concerned was notified directly of the outcome on 25 October 2017. I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance Data (26 Oct 2017)

Regina Doherty: Self-employed workers who earn €5,000 or more in a contribution year, are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 4%, subject to a minimum annual payment of €500. This provides them with access to the following benefits: State pension (contributory) and widow’s, widower’s or surviving civil partner’s pension (contributory), guardian’s payment...

Order of Business (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: There is no refusal to publish the report. It will be published once it has been considered within my Department. I have made-----

Order of Business (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Lean-Cheann Comhairle. I have been asked a question and the Deputy has to give me an opportunity to answer, if that is okay. There is no refusal to publish the report. It will be published when we have finished considering its contents and deliberated with the Revenue Commissioners on what should be done next. When we are ready, we will publish the report.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies Reports (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I apologise for being late to the House. I am not usually caught on the hop, but I was today. I propose to take Questions Nos. 49 and 53 together. The Citizens Information Board, CIB, is a statutory body, established by the Oireachtas. In addition to its own statutory responsibilities on information and advocacy, it has statutory responsibility for the countrywide networks of...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies Reports (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: If I told Deputy O'Dea at the committee on social protection that the board had signed off on the report, I jumped the gun since the board's minutes have not been signed off until its next meeting. It was not with a view to misleading the Deputy. I have no doubt that the minutes will be adopted at the next meeting, although I do not wish to pre-empt that. There is a clear issue in so...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies Reports (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I want to put it clearly on the record of this House that the roles and services of MABS and the Citizens Information Board, CIB, in all of the towns and villages the length and breadth of this country are not going to be diminished. They are going to be exactly as state of the art as they have always been. The changes in governance will have no impact on the services of the CIB and MABS,...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies Reports (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The CIB did not seek to prepare a full cost-benefit analysis because it was on the basis of the benefits of the changes, as outlined in the Pathfinder report, that they were made. That report went as far back as 2014. That was together with the estimated costs which had been compiled on the various options which were put before it. Let us put this on the record. The cost-benefit analysis...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Yes, I did receive the Deputy's report. He is referring to a 22 page dossier of anecdotes. He has a copy of it, as do I. If he would like to refer to specifics within it I would welcome that, because this is something like the fifth time I have asked him for specifics. If I have specifics I can do something about them. Anecdotes are only sweeping statements which serve no purpose but to...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I do not want to labour the point, but I hope it is clear at this stage that the 22 page report which the Deputy sent me does not have a single fact in it. It does not send me anywhere. It does not say that I need to go to the office in Ballycumber because there was a particular instance there with a Mrs. Murphy. If the Deputy did not want to name names he could have privately given me the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: No, I am not.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I certainly would not call anybody in this Chamber a liar. I will put it on record again that if the Deputy has evidence I ask him please to bring it to me. I am the Minister for nearly five months and we have been having this conversation for all that time. Without such evidence, all I have is the evidence of the 124,000 people who have been helped and aided and the 126 people in the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: It is over 12 months. The Deputy keeps saying to everybody, inside and outside the Houses, that people are being grabbed off the street having lost their jobs only weeks previously. He should give me the evidence. If he gives me the evidence, I will be able to consider credibly what he keeps talking about. He has not provided the evidence to date, however.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I am not the one making the allegations; the Deputy is.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy is aware that it is my intention to bring forward the total contributions model for the calculation of pensions from 2020 onwards. We will be having a public consultation on that in the next couple of weeks or months, I hope. I have a document ready on the issue. I will be giving it to the Deputy and the other social welfare spokespersons in the House. Arising from the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: No, I cannot because it very much depends on how much doing so costs. The Deputy knows exactly what the social welfare budget is this year. He knows exactly where it is all pencilled in. There is not a resource somewhere that is not assigned to somebody. Addressing this and the options we choose will involve new money. The Deputy will have heard the Taoiseach state earlier that there is...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Given that the Deputy has read the report, he will realise it is based on an examination of the next 30 years, asking what state the social contribution fund would be in if we did absolutely nothing and what options we could choose and what they would cost if we were to have it on a sustainable basis. I have said a number of times, and the Deputy is well aware, that when we move to any new...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (7 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: These are actuarial geniuses and I am sure they have their methods and their models.