Results 3,201-3,220 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: It is next Tuesday or Wednesday.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: Why do I not come back to the committee on Report Stage?
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: Why do I not come back to the committee before Report Stage to tell it exactly the date of the next Cabinet sub-committee meeting? That might give assurances to people.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: If it helps, I can tell the Deputy they will not.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: I absolutely am. From what the Deputy has said, I think he thinks it will be quite thick but it will not be. It will only be a number of pages. The resolutions and solutions will also probably only be a number of pages. It will be very small but there is a large amount of data that needs to be gone through to ensure there is accurate information in it. What will be brought to Cabinet is...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: I do not agree with the Deputy. The old bereavement grant was an insurance-based scheme. Those who did not have their social contributions paid into the pot did not get anything out of it. The people the Deputy is talking about, who are exceptionally vulnerable and going to the social welfare offices or loan sharks, are not the people who would have received the €850 grant in many cases.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: We have not abandoned in any way the people the Deputy is talking about because in last year's budget, more than €5 million went specifically to helping people with burial allowances and funeral costs. The average payment was €3,800 per family who approached us. There is no cap on that. The Department did not have a budget of €5 million and it was not a case of...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: I have them here.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: I have the figures for 2016 and 2017. However, if the Deputy wants, I can get the previous years' figures for him before Report Stage. In 2016, we paid €116,849 towards burial expenses and €4,864,390 towards funeral expenses.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: Last year.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: Yes.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: Sure.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: There is probably very little of what the Deputies said that I do not agree with. We have to acknowledge that there are many people who are still experiencing difficulties in heating their homes, which is why we increased the fuel allowance period by one week this year. I would have loved to have been able to increase it by two or three weeks but we did not have the money. The commitment I...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: It was across Departments.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: On that point, I agree, but to come back to what Deputy Brady said about other agencies, the report that currently exists is a Government report and a strategy to combat energy poverty. Apparently, it is the first ever Government strategy on affordable energy and it will give Departments specific tasks. Unfortunately, none of those relates to my Department and therefore even if Deputy Brady...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: Yes. I cannot accept the amendment as tabled because I do not have the authority to do what the Deputy is asking me to do. I would look like an eejit.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: I cannot accept this amendment, mainly because of the timescale involved. I would ask Deputies to withdraw the amendment because we are currently conducting a review. Under the pathways to work action plan, we have committed to conducting a review of the impact of the changes made to social welfare payments to young people under the ages of 26 and 24. That review is not going to be...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: It will probably take nine months. That sounds like a very long time, but given that one is only now receiving reports that were asked for at this time last year, it probably is not that long a time.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: The Department will continue with the work it has undertaken in any case but I want the report from NUI Maynooth to feed in to it. Because I did not commission the report, I do not know when it will be finished. It could be finished in two months or five. Deputy Kenny may amend the amendment to specify six months but if we come back in six months' time and the report is not available, he...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)
Regina Doherty: The report will say what it will say.