Results 7,681-7,700 of 12,637 for speaker:Willie O'Dea
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: The Department's document asserts that the changes in the lone-parent allowance were designed to eliminate financial disincentives to return to work. The most significant change in that regard is the reduction in the income disregard which means, in plain English, that if a lone parent goes out to work, that work, which is often part-time, will be less valuable and he or she will get less...
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: Not enough? I agree but I ask the Minister to provide the figures.
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: This programme contains provisions to assist people to come off the live register into employment. I refer to a figure of €13.5 million allocated for JobsPlus and €82.3 million allocated for JobBridge this year. How many people will benefit from these schemes? I have a question about JobBridge. The voluntary internship scheme provides experience but participants work for...
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: In the context of the change to the illness benefit provisions, whereby instead of not being paid for the first three days people must now wait six days, has the Department carried out an analysis of the percentage of employees who are covered by proper sick pay schemes in their places of work? People may be able to survive for three days without payment but if they are obliged to do so for...
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: Yes, but the budget for exceptional needs payments is being reduced this year, even though demand is going to increase. People who hitherto would have qualified for a payment of €800 will not now qualify. The latter is a small sum, particularly if a funeral costs €7,000, €8,000 or €10,000. How does the Minister propose to square that circle? In light of the...
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: That was done in conjunction with payment of the bereavement grant up to now.
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: I asked about the telephone rental allowance scheme.
- Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection (Revised) (23 Jan 2014) Willie O'Dea: That is not new; that payment has been in place all the time.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Data (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: 105. To ask the Minister for Social Protection to outline the progress made through the Pathways to Work strategy; the current long-term unemployment statistics; the current rate of youth unemployment here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3956/14]
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Data (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: We are trying to ascertain the progress that has been made on the Pathways to Work scheme, which is central to the Government's labour activation policy.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Data (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: I will start on a positive note by congratulating the Minister on her appointment as director of elections for the Labour Party for the European and local elections, if that information is correct. I hope she will have sufficient time to give to her official duties despite these onerous responsibilities. All I can say is that if she can attract the same positive public relations for the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Data (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: The one statistic the Minister did not give me is the one in which I am most interested, namely, the number of long-term unemployed people who have been taken out of the system as a direct result of the measures to which she referred. In regard to JobBridge, the Minister indicated recently in reply to a parliamentary question I submitted that 61% of JobBridge participants leave the scheme...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Data (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: How much of that reduction is accounted for by participation in the various departmental schemes?
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Data (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: Now they are making tea and photocopying.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: 108. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to reform the rent supplement scheme; if her attention has been drawn to reports that many tenants are being asked to pay top-up payments to landlords for rent that is above the maximum allowance limit under the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3957/14]
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: The purpose of this question is to ascertain the current position regarding the transfer from rent allowance to housing assistance payments
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: A commitment to provide for the transfer from the rent supplement scheme to the housing assistance payment scheme was included in the programme for Government. Three years on, the Government has announced that the new scheme will be piloted initially in Limerick. When I spoke to officials from Limerick City Council yesterday, they were unable to tell me when the pilot will start. I want...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: The rent supplement was initially supposed to be a short-term panacea to address short-term homelessness. However, it would now appear to be the cornerstone of the Government's policy on social housing given that some 55,000 people have been on rent supplement for more than 18 months. The Minister stated that the Government had provided for just under €400 million and it cost...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: The problem now is that there are no houses.
- Other Questions: Respite Care Grant Payments (28 Jan 2014)
Willie O'Dea: It used to be more.