Results 28,541-28,560 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: I have listened to people suggesting raising rents is the way to deal with the issue. The Government has launched the largest ever social housing investment programme in the budget.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy asked from where the money will come? The money has been provided in the budget.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The local authorities have to make detailed plans for social housing. Many Members were members of local authorities in the past and know the local authorities must identify the land on which social housing will be built. If that land is ready to go, then they have to bring those plans to the fore as quickly as possible and get building under way. That is what they have been tasked to do by...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: Recently in Fingal County Council, some councillors, apparently on the left, voted against the provision of social housing.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The generally accepted best medical standard for dialysis treatment is to have it as close to the patient as possible either through their local hospital or other local health services. In some cases, it is now possible to do this at home or in a local community-based facility. My understanding from what the Deputy said is that due to a legal challenge arising from a dispute between private...
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: As regards Ireland borrowing, the Deputy probably knows that this week, Ireland was in a position to borrow €4 billion on a 30-year basis, a very long-term basis for raising debt, at just around 2%. That is what makes us so different from other countries that are still experiencing enormous difficulties.
- Leaders' Questions (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The country is in a position to borrow and, although there are limitations on the totality of the borrowing, €4 billion at just above 2% over a 30-year period - a very long maturity period - is an excellent way of providing funding for all the different projects, ranging from social housing investment to investment in our health and education services. I am not familiar with the...
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: It is proposed to take No. 45, Garda Síochána (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2014, Report and Final Stages (resumed); and No. 46, Customs Bill 2014, Second Stage (resumed). The Friday fortnightly business shall be No. 73, Protection of Life in Pregnancy (Amendment) (Fatal Foetal Abnormalities) Bill 2013; and No. 74, Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (No. 2) Bill 2014.
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The information on the characteristics, general needs and numbers of the pupils is being collected in order to allow for good long-term planning for the schools. It does not have any implications for resource allocation to schools other than the total number of children in a school and the features and attributes of those children. These aspects are taken into account at present for...
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: On the contrary, a considerable amount of work has been ongoing during the past year on the significance and importance of the commemoration of the 1916 Rising and how it should be addressed. I imagine the Deputy is aware that there has been a great deal of consultation with a committee of Deputies, as well as wide consultation with all Departments, on this significant anniversary and the...
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: I expect the news on the low pay commission to be announced in the coming weeks. If people working in the child care sector have issues in respect of low pay, I imagine they can bring them to the attention of the commission or raise them through other industrial relations procedures.
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: Its purpose is to look at the issue of low pay.
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: I expect the commission to be established in the coming weeks. The Minister has made a commitment that the commission will produce an initial report sometime during the summer. I do not as yet have the detailed terms of reference, but, as the name suggests, the purpose of the commission is to look at the issue low pay. There is a group working on the matter of asylum centres under the...
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy has referred to what people might or might not have suggested in terms of reducing the retirement pension. It is a little like child benefit. There are many views and many people would like to see core social welfare payments reduced. Certainly, a lot of advice was proffered to me as Minister for Social Protection and all I can say is that I resisted all of it.
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: In fact, as recently as last week, people from the IMF suggested we reconsider the universal payment of child benefit. People are entitled to their views and there is a range of them. For example, the same people advised Fianna Fáil to cut basic social welfare payments by €16.40 per week. Fianna Fáil accepted that advice. I did not. We maintained the core social welfare...
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy is in very bad humour. Cool it.
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: On the universal savings plan-----
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: -----as Minister I commissioned the OECD to do a report to look at the situation of people who only have the State retirement pension. It is a relatively good retirement pension by comparison with most countries, but it is a tight income for those who retire only on that. The OECD recommended that we establish, as has been done in Australia and New Zealand, either a mandatory or a soft...
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: Violence against women is a very important issue. The most important step that has been taken this week in that regard, in my view, is the agreement by the Cabinet to have minimum pricing legislation for alcohol, because alcohol is cited in a significant number of domestic violence cases.
- Order of Business (5 Feb 2015)
Joan Burton: In practical terms, reducing the below-cost selling of alcohol will assist in reducing consumption and encouraging sensible and moderate drinking. I will have to go back to the Minister on the Istanbul Convention, but she takes a very detailed interest in the issue of violence against women. I will ask her and come back to Deputy Ó Fearghaíl. On the POD database, I think what...