Results 401-420 of 7,025 for speaker:John Brady

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

John Brady: The amendment Deputy Denise Mitchell and I tabled has obviously been ruled out of order. It would have seen all of these benefits and measures come into effect on 1 January. I do not wish to repeat the points I have made about our hands being tied, but, unfortunately, the Minister not giving any timeframe for implementation of these benefits and measures. It comes back to a point that came...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

John Brady: I do not agree with the Minister on that point. On the extension of benefits to the self-employed, he is not tying himself to a date, rather he is saying it will be done by way of a commencement order. Why not commit to a date? I know that he is saying he wants it to take effect in March, but that is not contained in the legislation. Why not give a specific date for the commencement of...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

John Brady: Is the Minister conscious of something in particular? Is the Department concerned about some measure or the possibility that something could go wrong?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: 44. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason his Department places the responsibility for seeking child maintenance payments on lone parents on the termination of the one-parent family payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36229/16]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: This is one of the few countries that does not have statutory maintenance agencies. Custodial parents are forced to seek maintenance payments through a combative court system. They are also responsible for pursuing the non-payment of maintenance payments.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: I think the Minister would agree that the current situation for lone parents when it comes to child maintenance is bizarre but he is doing nothing to address it. A condition of receiving the one-parent family payment is that the recipient is obliged to seek maintenance from the other parent. After the changes to the one-parent family payment back in July 2015, the Department wrote to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: They are worse off seeking it as it is taken into account as means regardless of whether the maintenance is paid or not.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: Could I just ask the Minister this question?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: Will the Minister stop leaving it up to the lone parents and seek to set up a child maintenance system?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: I have also seen the letter that was sent out. I wish to give the Minister a couple of examples. I know he loves to use examples from the North as a means to attack Sinn Féin so I wish to give him one example of how child maintenance works there and perhaps he could look at that and use it in the future. The Child Maintenance Service in the North sorts out child maintenance for lone...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: The service will initiate court action as a very last resort.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: The Minister needs to look at this issue. It is not enough to say it is a civil matter between two parents.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: Why did the Department send out a letter saying that the non-custodial parent has no responsibility for the child once he or she reaches the age of seven?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: The Minister needs to tackle this issue instead of cutting lone parents means.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: Why was the letter sent out in the first place?

Other Questions: Jobs Initiative (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: 49. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide a full list of the companies that were removed from, or initially prevented from participating on, the JobBridge scheme when it was in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36023/16]

Other Questions: Jobs Initiative (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. There is no doubt that the JobBridge scheme was a disaster. If one was not of this opinion initially then the report conducted by the Minister's own Department would quickly change it. I welcomed the end to the JobBridge scheme when it was announced. At the time there were a number of companies that were removed from the scheme. Will the Minister...

Other Questions: Jobs Initiative (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: The Minister's own Department internal report on the JobBridge scheme highlighted high risk concerns. These were the same concerns that Sinn Féin Deputies, and especially my colleague Deputy Ó Snodaigh, had raised continually from the outset of the JobBridge scheme being introduced in 2011. The Department's own auditors had expressed concerns over a lack of initial validation of...

Other Questions: Jobs Initiative (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: The Minister, Deputy Varadkar likes to refer to the Indecon report when I raise questions about JobBridge.

Other Questions: Jobs Initiative (22 Nov 2016)

John Brady: One of Indecon's key findings in that survey was that nearly 30% of employers using the JobBridge scheme said that they could have taken on a person in fully paid employment.