Results 30,741-30,760 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: What the Deputy is suggesting is that we should drive increases in rents for people at work and paying their own rent.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: What we are doing is helping families on a one-to-one basis. We regularly text all the people where we have their mobile phone numbers to tell them, if they have any query or difficulty with a landlord, and I want to repeat this message here-----
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----to please contact the social welfare community services and they will get help specifically, as more than 2,000 families have done so far this year in renegotiating-----
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: There is no cap in hand.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I thank the Deputy for her interest in the issue. I am glad that parties in this House should actually want to debate how, as a country, we help lone parents to move from a situation where, if they are relying on a social welfare income, they are seriously at risk of poverty. In 2003 and 2004, at the height of the Celtic tiger and Fianna Fáil's rule in this country, lone parents were...
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I did that in the context that, although, as a Government, we are spending €260 million this year on child care and providing for 100,000 children, it is still not enough. I am very ambitious to go further. That is what we are spending and there is a seven-year transition. In the North of Ireland, where the Deputy's party is in power-----
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----the transition age is five years of age and the supports for families are significantly smaller than they are here, as the Deputy is aware.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: What we all need in this country is to work together, to work with employers, with education institutions and, in particular, with community organisations to help lone parents, who work so hard to make the transition to paid employment, in order that-----
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: For a lone parent with one child, their income on social welfare is €218. If they get 19 hours of work and move to family income supplement, their income goes up to €400 a week. I would like it to be higher than that but that is a very good start in helping to get people out of poverty.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy wants to keep them in poverty.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy is wrong.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: Yes, I did.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I am not aware whether the Deputy has ever had the opportunity to visit a community-based crèche or if she has any familiarity with the work that is done by my Department, where over the past three years there has been a complete revamp of community-based child care and we now have high-quality child care at affordable, discounted prices for people going to work. In regard to this...
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I am ambitious. The Deputy may not have had the time to visit, but I am ambitious to see child care in this country improved for all parents, because parents who are married deserve to have access to good child care as well.
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: Instead of addressing the issue of all parents, this debate focuses on people with a particular relationship status. What about a couple, man and woman, both of whom are out working? Is child care of no concern to them? We want good child care-----
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: Sinn Féin has a concept of a welfare country. Let me tell the Deputy about welfare. Jean McConville had 12 children and what did Sinn Féin's associates in the republican------
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I am not familiar with the details of the particular case the Deputy outlined. The issue of the oversight of NAMA and proper procedures is important because NAMA was, in effect, a kind of bad bank for the explosion that happened in the Irish property market when construction and the financing of it fell apart. In regard to the arrangements made for NAMA, I suggest that if the Deputy has...
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: In terms of this House and under the Constitution, the Comptroller and Auditor General has a specific role, including in regard to the oversight of NAMA. There have been three special reports on NAMA's activities by the Comptroller and Auditor General and they have been broadly positive in their assessment of how NAMA is managing what is a very complex business. I regret that NAMA ever had...
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: There is a remedy available to Members of the House because the Comptroller and Auditor General is answerable to the Committee of Public Accounts. We have seen the committee examining reports the C&AG has brought forward on several organisations. I cannot answer individual statements the Deputy has made on particular cases. If what he is saying is correct, he should go to the Garda,...
- Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: If that is the case, it is regrettable.