Results 5,621-5,640 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Applications (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Improving services for our clients is also a very good thing, and that is what we will continue to do on both this scheme and across all schemes in which we can provide improvements and efficiencies.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The idea of a total contributions approach, or TCA, to State pensions dates back to 2007, when the then Government published the Green Paper on Pensions to stimulate debate on the challenges and the options for the future development of Ireland's pension system. This included the policy to introduce the TCA model. The consultation process was lengthy, thorough and inclusive and involved...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: On the first point, the issue was raised in a number of submissions. I am a told a Deputy made a similar submission, although I am not sure if it was Deputy O'Dea. I am conscious it is one of the matters that has to be considered before we make the final decision. Forty years is the norm for many pensions and it is the number that will be required under the TCA 2012 model. When the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I cannot answer the first question as we have not made any decision yet. Again, it is not me who will be wedded to making the decision. It will be made mindful of all the submissions that are made. I want to ensure that when we introduce this next year or the year after in legislation, it will be with the agreement of all of us because we think it is the right thing to do for the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: As a result of the revised regional groupings, all of County Tipperary is now included in the mid-western region for CSO data collection purposes. Within this region, unemployment has fallen from a peak of 16.6% in 2012 to 5.8% at the end of July 2018. Numbers in employment in the region have increased from 153,700 to 214,200 over the same period. While data from the labour force survey...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is not my job to dress up statistics. The facts are the facts. It is not my job to spin them as "A" or "B".

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: My job is just to relay the information to the Deputy. The Deputy asked for information on the huge unemployment issues in Tipperary and I have explained to him how fortunate Tipperary has been in the past number of years to have enjoyed the recovery it has, but we are not done. I reassure the Deputy that every effort is being made to continue to create jobs, building on the good work of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy might be right about my rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Tipperary given that both my father and father-in-law hail from his good county.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Progress reports on the south regional Action Plan for Jobs are published twice a year and they show that 1,500 new jobs were created in the south east during 2017. Of those 1,500 jobs, 1,200 were created by IDA Ireland. The authority, which the Deputy claims does not come to his county, was responsible for creating 1,200 or the 1,500 jobs.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: If the Deputy wants to have a conversation about building jobs in every single town in every single part of his county, every single one of us would like that.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: However, the Deputy cannot ignore the fact that Tipperary is thriving. It is flourishing. IDA Ireland is paying attention to it and Enterprise Ireland has increased employment there by 16% since 2015.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy cannot come in here and make claims which are blatantly false and which misrepresent the reality for the people in Tipperary. I am sorry but I will not allow it.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: My Department will spend an estimated €502 million on the one-parent family payment scheme in 2018. The scheme currently supports more than 39,000 recipients and their almost 73,000 children and has played an important role in providing income support to lone parents since its introduction in 1997. However, income support for lone parents was passive in nature in the past and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I do not have an ideological problem with any parent in this country and I ask the Deputy to be mindful of the comments or accusations he throws around. I have done nothing since I was appointed to this position in June 2017 but advocate as strongly and loudly as I can to destigmatise the issues around lone parenting and to support lone parents. I have made commitments to ensure I will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: If I am hearing the Deputy right, his ideology is that he is happy that lone parents are dependent on welfare-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----and that they would be financially dependent for the rest of their lives. I am sorry but that is not an ideology I subscribe to, even the tiniest bit. We want to provide financial independence for this group of people who are living in consistent poverty that rates far higher than the rest of the population, as are their children. If they want to stay at home then that is a choice but...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----but they do not want to stay at home and be financially dependent on the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: They want to be independent and have fulfilling lives. They want to have active and participative lives. That is what we are going to do. We will ensure that whatever resources and services they need in order to fulfil their ambition, which is having a full life, will be available from my Department and from the Department of Education and Skills.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I love it when I can answer a question exactly the way the Deputy wants me to answer it. At its peak the unemployment rate for the south-east region was estimated at about 19%. The most recent official data from the labour force survey show that at the end of the second quarter of 2018 to the beginning of August, the Deputy is correct, that unemployment in the area is now at about 7.2%....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am not but I will make myself familiar with those statistics later on and I will come back to the Deputy to either refute them or, if they can be substantiated, say that we have more work to do. My figures show that the amount of people taken off the live register is less than the amount of new people employed in the county. This means that people who were not on the live register...