Results 7,101-7,120 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Will the Deputy explain the reason child benefit is higher for the third child than for the first and second children?

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Many people argue that the first child is the most expensive because one must buy new clothes and so forth.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The payment for the third child is still €27 more than for the second child.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: No promise was given as to what I was asked to do. I met with various organisations but no promise was given. I never gave any indication and, in fact-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I said publicly-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Deputy says I should have exempted carers. What about the people who are being cared for? What about widows?

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: This is the challenge. The problem is that if one does that and yet must raise the same amount of money, if one excludes the 260,000 people in question, one must then take from the other categories which puts an unfair imposition on the unemployed.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: This is Second Stage all over again.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It will do it when it is in Government.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: When the Labour Party joins Fine Gael, it will do it.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Labour Party is in the auction politics game.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We would not have been able to get the money.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Auction politics is all they are at - they have started early.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I do not have much time to address all of the issues raised. On the general situation, since 2004 carer's allowance has increased by 46.1% for people under 66 years of age, jobseeker's payments increased by 39.5%, disability allowance increased by 39.5% and one-parent family payment increased by 39.5%. In the same period, the cost of living has increased by 11.8%. Even with these...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is what I am talking about - the people who receive the half-rate payment and receive an underlying social welfare payment, those who get an extra payment for caring for more than one person and those on the respite allowance. There are very generous income disregards and the payment is considerably higher than the payment for disability, invalidity and so on. Therefore, what I sought...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: With regard to the Labour Party's partners in Fine Gael-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Fine Gael has proposed over the next four years to cut a further €6 on the jobseeker's allowance and benefit, which is wrong. I clearly outlined-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I clearly outlined, as did the Government in the four year plan, that cutting rates further should be the last resort and that we were not going to accept there was an inevitability to cutting rates. Fine Gael is inconsistent on this point. Its members keep telling me there are many other ways of saving money, such as fraud control, but they then sign up for a €14 cut in jobseeker's...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We are trying to give as many people as possible on as many schemes as possible a chance to work, including one-parent families and widows.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: On the issue of who has money and who does not, I read a recent newspaper report - one would not know whether to believe anything in newspapers these days - that suggested pensioners have €16 billion in savings in the banks. This is, of course, very important to them, and many people have a nest egg of life savings. While it is important we would recognise people have a right to put away...