Results 3,481-3,500 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Poverty (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I wish the Deputy and Deputy John Brady a very happy new year. I hope we will have a productive year. I also wish the Leas-Cheann Comhairle a happy new year. I welcome the CSO survey of income and living conditions results for 2016 because they show improvements in living conditions and tackling poverty. In 2016 incomes rose by 3.1%, mainly due to rising employment, while the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Poverty (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I agree with the Deputy that the numbers I have just given do not reflect the economic progress we are seeing because they are the figures to the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. Thankfully, in 2018 there are 320,000 more people working than when the Deputy's party left government in 2011. Ensuring someone has a job is the single greatest thing any economy or government can do to try...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Poverty (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I believe that if we do not set ambitious targets then we are never going to achieve them. It is an ambitious target. I have said a number of times on the record that the target under the action plan Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures is to take 90,000 children out of poverty in that period. I do not know which 30,000 children we will pick to leave behind. It is my ambition to make sure...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pensions Legislation (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. The current rate bands applying to the State contributory pension were introduced from September 2012, replacing previous rates introduced in 2000. The rate bands prior to 2000 were less generous and the improved rate bands introduced in 2000 were a feature of the economic environment, which we all acknowledge, at that time. Although the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pensions Legislation (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: To be clear, I do not believe that at any stage I have ever said the changes were wrong, and if I have than I would like to correct it if the Deputy's understanding of what I said is not true. There is nothing wrong with the band changes and the averaging system that was introduced by this House in 2012, in the Government's opinion. The change gave rise to an anomaly that currently affects...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pensions Legislation (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I will answer the Deputy's question directly. Before Christmas I committed to him that when I bring the report to the cabinet I will publish it. That position has not changed. I very much hope that I get a positive response. I am fairly confident that I will. I believe that the options in the proposals are very reasonable and genuinely reflect an acknowledgement on my part, as I have...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pensions Legislation (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: First, I am very glad that Deputy Brady does not want to argue with me because this is only January but we are not disagreeing with each other. He might think that the changes in the whole should not have been brought in but the changes that happened in 2012 did not only affect 42,000 people, they affected hundreds of thousands of people. Except for the 42,000 people who were maligned by...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pensions Legislation (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: -----such that something magically would happen for me that would be great.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pensions Legislation (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I believe Deputy O'Dea knows my intention on this. I want to fix this as quickly as I can but let us all be honest with each other in this Chamber that it will involve new money.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for her question and I want to be able to answer it properly. She is specifically asking about the homemaker's credit and not about the anomaly. If she does not mind, I am going to shoot to a supplementary response because it more freely answers the question she has asked me. In practice, there are a number of factors that make it impossible to be precise. That is not...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I do not have the answer to the question the Deputy asked but I am able to tell her that if and when we introduce a total contributions approach on 1 January 2020, which is only a number of years away, whatever credit we decide for homemakers during the public consultation model, whether it is 15 years or 20 years, will be for any year. Therefore, the 1994 business will be defunct once we...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I know why the Deputy is saying what she is saying and hope there will be thousands of people outside Leinster House tomorrow. I will go and meet them. However, I do not feel pressure.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: Perhaps they should experience the pressure exerted on me.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I have made a commitment and recognised the anomaly and how it affects some 42,000 people. The Deputy is right that as each year passes and the anomaly is not fixed, there will be a further 8,000 to 10,000 added to the list. I recognise that it is wrong and have committed to fixing it. I will fix it. I invite people to attend tomorrow to express how they feel and I will certainly listen....
- Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 8 together. Maybe the other Deputy would like to-----
- Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: Sorry, I beg the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's pardon.
- Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: My Department provides a range of activation supports and programmes catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. These supports include the JobPath service and programmes such as community employment, CE, and Tús. Schemes such as CE and Tús provide part-time temporary work in local communities, as a stepping-stone back to...
- Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: To be 100% sure, I did not say the CE schemes and Tús were unsustainable. They are not providing sustainable, long-term jobs and they were never designed to do that. They are employment activation schemes, which is what it says in the documents from when the Deputy's party started CE schemes. Many people are providing services in their communities and I agree with the Deputy that...
- Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: We have our ways. Everything the Deputy has said is true. There are hundreds, if not thousands of participants, in CE and Tús schemes who are doing social inclusion activities and our communities desperately rely on them. The problem is my Department was not established, and CE and Tús were not established, to provide social inclusion services. It is an employment activation...
- Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)
Regina Doherty: The JobPath people, Turas Nua and Seetec, do not select their candidates. We pick the candidates and we only pick people who are suitable for JobPath. It is not the case that people sit down in an Intreo office and say they want to do the CE scheme but we say they cannot and that we are sending them to JobPath. We only send people to JobPath who are jobs ready and need help on a one-to-one...