Results 7,241-7,260 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: We have approximately 90 applications per week which feature some error or difficulty in the interaction out of 50,000.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: That is exactly within the norms we have always had.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy's definition of "unmitigated disaster" and the reality of the incredibly hard-working people providing the illness benefit service in my Department are poles apart. I have told the Deputy that we are taking in more than 50,000 certificates every week. If even 1% of those people have a difficulty, the Deputy will focus his attention there, rather than on the 99% success rate on...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I note to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle again that we have had a rough couple of months for staff and for those who receive payments since the changes last August.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: The people in my Department, including the extra staff who have been deployed and in particular those who have been there all day every day for 15 years-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: -----have worked incredibly hard-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: -----to make inroads into solving this problem. They have done an incredible job.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Government agreed that the compulsory retirement age of most public servants recruited before 1 April 2004 should be increased to 70 and that such additional service would continue to accrue retirement benefits, subject to the maximum of 40 years' service. This was provided for in the Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Act 2018, which passed in the House just before...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I know how passionately the Deputy feels about this as he has been talking about CE for many years. However, I remind him, and he was probably a Member of the House when it was established, that CE was established as a working age activation scheme. The people who are on a scheme must be of working age. I do not know the date of birth of the person the Deputy mentioned, and I am happy to...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: To be honest, I do not know the answer to that question. We are actively pursuing every and any way of trying to resolve this issue without causing the contagion we know it would cause at present. To be entirely fair to the two unions that are representing the CE supervisors and assistant supervisors, they have come up with different ideas in the last few months that are just not manageable...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I will not give the reply I have given already as it is on the record of the House. I do not believe the governing rules for the two separate strands of CE are viable. They are not fair to the people who are in the socially inclusive places. I could not get them changed as matters stand, and I had to employ the assistance of my colleagues in different Departments, who perhaps have more...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I would value it if the Deputy made that submission to the interdepartmental group to allow it to do that. There are three or four items on the list. I am not sure the Department is the natural home of the RSS. It did not start in our Department but was brought from the Department with responsibility for rural affairs when a particular Minister came to this Department because that Minister...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: First, the reason we needed to employ private contractors is that there were more than 450,000 people unemployed in 2008, in case the Deputy has forgotten. Seetec, Turas Nua and JobPath have nothing to do with CE and will not have anything to do with it in the future.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: As the Deputy is aware, payment issues had arisen in the scheme last year when my Department transferred administration of the illness benefit scheme from an old legacy IT payments system to its core business IT platform. Since then, my Department has been working hard to resolve these issues and to ensure that claims are processed and paid promptly.  We have made good progress...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I hope what I am saying to the Deputy is not new because we have had people come to us about this issue, particularly the bank charges imposed on them, and we have looked after them. A community welfare officer, CWO, is available in various places in every county. If there are people who have been put out financially because of charges imposed on them through no fault of their own, I ask...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I would hate to think anyone would have to fight for anything in the Department, given that the only reason we are there is to help people who need income support. I do not know all of the case officers in CWO offices, but they are incredibly nice and there to help people at the times they need it. As that is their job, the Deputy should just tell people to go to them.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Services Card (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: I am going to tell the Deputy how to suck eggs-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Services Card (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: -----when I tell him that the purpose of the SAFE 2 registration process is to verify someone's identity to a substantial level of assurance. This is a necessary step when we are responsibly providing access to the billions of euro, of which the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is in charge and which it is giving to people through all of its schemes. The public...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Services Card (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: To answer the Deputy's two questions, we received the report from the Data Protection Commissioner in August. We provided a comprehensive response for the office on 30 November and have been awaiting its response since. As I said to the Deputy, publication of the report is now entirely a matter for the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, given that it has given us clear instructions...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Services Card (19 Feb 2019)

Regina Doherty: No.