Results 31,601-31,620 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: I will comment briefly on that. When Mr. Chopra headed the troika team in Ireland, he introduced a terminology into public policy that has been universally adopted now, which is evidence-based policy making. All my discussions with him were about evidence-based policy making. When I arrived in the Department, some of our interlocutors had the State pension and free travel very much in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: To be helpful, will the Senator give us a couple of examples of lacunae?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: For the Senator's information, there was no capacity before we began the amalgamation process I described. As an expert in the education field, the Senator knows that people who gained access to a course either did show or did not show up. That is on the FÁS side. Going back to the New Zealand model, one can take it to a greater extreme and say that while somebody who is unemployed is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The Senator might take up that issue with my colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan. That was a particular feature in terms of the stress endured in the country as a consequence of the crash and also the fact that many in politics and other walks of life were well provided for in terms of pensions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: May I make a couple of points to try to be helpful and perhaps agree on some common ground?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: It is a difficult issue for all of us. We all want to do what is best, but I do not think we can separate social protection from the underlying policy. If we just go by numbers and forget about the policy and the implications for people, that is tricky territory and one might be disappointed with the answer one receives. The officials will take note of any suggestion or recommendation made...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Politics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: As a prompt to Deputy Ryan, I ask him if there are particular areas members would select as being significant for me and my officials to pick. He does not have to answer now as it would be better for members to discuss it collectively among themselves. We are not going to be able to address every area immediately but one could imagine that, over a three- to five-year cycle, we could cover...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Going back to Deputy Ó Snodaigh's point, we have to bear in mind that the REV will be out in December so the process has sped up a lot. Following the discussions by members they should select something they consider important and significant. They can discuss their selection with officials or with me but they will have to select one area, for example pensions or illness, or the case of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy said it could be capped at a certain level, will he explain what idea he has in that regard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Did the Deputy say IBEC?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, has been speaking about looking at issues around the self-employed in the context of the budget. In fairness, I will certainly be having some conversations with him around this. We have discussed this issue on many occasions. It is crazy that self-employed people would not welcome a proposal to have a fairly cheap form of essential insurance...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Can the Deputy expand a little on that point?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: I share the concerns of Deputy Butler about the importance of social insurance for the self-employed and we have had some excellent reports on the subject. It would be helpful, however, if some of the small firms organisations would indicate their position because, until very recently, they have indicated a lot of opposition as opposed to support. The Deputy has been very helpful in having...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Yes. On page 4, the total expenditure on the 2015 review is €19.378 billion, which is a decrease of €226 million, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh has pointed out. One has to understand the people underlying the statistics. I will comment on another point raised by Deputy Ó Snodaigh. When the country went into meltdown, 330,000 jobs were lost and many of those people ended...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Did she have a widow’s pension if her husband died?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Our problem, to be honest, is the balance between employers, many of whom would like people to work for an hour or two a day and the Department of Social Protection to pay the balance. We are putting a lot of money-----