Results 2,881-2,900 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I thank the select committee for the invitation to attend. As members are aware, an allocation of €19.85 billion was provided for the Department this year. It represents 37% of gross current expenditure. Our expenditure to the end of September was €14.8 billion, which was very close to target for the year to that date. Each week approximately 1.35 million people -...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: It may be surprising, but it is testament to the 13 people concerned that every person involved with employment rights policy and legislation, the Low Pay Commission and the legislation relating to the national minimum wage was transferred. It was not the case that 100 staff were involved and that we had left 87 behind. The group was entirely responsible for this body of work and the 13...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: We have reached Committee Stage of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which I hope to take in the coming weeks. The budget Bill will be brought to the Cabinet next Tuesday and published either on Wednesday or Thursday. I know that is ambitious, but I hope to have it done and dusted in both Dáil and the Seanad before the Houses go into recess in December. I expect to...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Yes.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Yes. The schedule that we tentatively set out to put to the Business Committee yesterday allows us to come to the Dáil, go to the Seanad, come to the committee, go back to the Dáil and go back to the Seanad before the latter goes into recess on 20 December. It is obviously done with the co-operation of all the people responsible for having input into the Bill but I think we can do it.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: To be frank, it is not on my radar for the next couple of weeks because the schedule is so busy with other legislation. I was not told that a date had been set for it and, therefore, I have done no preparatory work personally - other than what I would have already done - regarding the legislation. I do not think the Government sets out to be obstructive with any legislation. We might want...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: That was always the intention. The heads of the Bill are as they were when the committee scrutinised them months ago. They were not included in the first draft and discussed on Second Stage because legal reflections still needed to be done regarding the impact on certain industries. Those deliberations have been finished and the amendments as they stood, in the main, will be the amendments...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy's first question was on the difference between budgets from different years. While it is only a small amount, €14 million, one would have to reflect on the huge savings that the Department has thankfully made because we have 200,000 people now working who were, for the last years, reliant on a weekly payment from the State. That is a significant amount of money and it has...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I beg the Deputy's pardon. I misunderstood. The new scheme was introduced in 2012 and it is probably more effective than what was there because it is much more flexible. It responds to participants' needs. The old system was probably a bit more clunky, although that is probably not the best word to describe it. The previous scheme was not as flexible as the new partial capacity system...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: We will launch in quarter 2 of 2018. It is just to give us a couple of months. There was no money in this year's budget to do it earlier. It is catered for in next year's budget, assuming we pass the Bill. We will establish the scheme in quarter 1 and launch it in quarter 2.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I do not think one can stop existing pensioners asking to be adjudicated under a new system. What I think we will find is that people who will get a better pension under the new scheme will ask to move to it while people who-----

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: That is the ambition. It will probably not last for ever. It will be determined by the public consultation rather than laid down by us. There will be a period during which one can opt in or out of either scheme. At some point, that period will have to end, which will depend on how we all feel about it during the public consultation. The idea of moving to a new scheme is to move to do...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: It is growing every year.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I challenge the Deputy to say that to the court.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Chairman. This is a bit like 'Mastermind'; it is keeping me on my toes to ensure I know what I am talking about.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The numbers are increasing and are going to do so every year. There are 17,000 new contributory pensioners every year. Some of those will be affected by their longevity, working out the averaging of their total contributions over those years. The initial figure of 36,000 was probably at the end of last year. This year, we will probably have an extra 6,000 and another 5,000 or 6,000 next...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I am only being nosy now but I am not sure what is the purpose of Deputy Brady saying that. Is it that he would like it to be able to rule on a point of law? Does he have a specific grievance that it did not do something?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I will answer in less than ten words, which is unusual for me. The reason it is so effective is that it is co-operative. It is not trying to sting one fellow over the other woman. We certainly could not say that of our courts system, which is completely adversarial.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I thought for an awful moment there that the Deputy was going to ask me to name them all off. They are already enacted. It is legislation currently on the Statute Book that has just moved from the old Department to the new one. I have a list which I will give to the Deputy. He need not panic. They are not new pieces of legislation that have to come before us. We have enough to be doing...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Further Revised) (9 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I received the Deputy's letter and I thank him for it. To answer the Deputy's direct question, the people who are responsible for ensuring that all of our legislation, Government and Opposition, goes through pre-legislative scrutiny are those who were on the Dáil reform committee. Fianna Fáil had three very active members on that committee. I was lucky enough to sit on it myself....