Results 7,901-7,920 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: Again, the Deputy-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I am happy to take the questions together.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I ask Deputy Niall Collins to supply the details of the case to me before he leaves the Chamber. Nobody should be denied a PPS number. I will address the matter today. I am glad that we all can agree but I do not subscribe to the view of certain Deputies that I favour one set of organisations over another. I sit at monthly meetings with both our social partners who represent our union...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I have the floor. I have always said that I do not know the size of the problem but whether it is ten people or 10,000 people, the legislation must be robust enough to protect them. We have a requirement to put legislation on our Statute Book to protect even one person and that is why I am bringing forward Government legislation. That is my job. I am quite happy to look at legislation...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I am aware that Deputy Boyd Barrett knows this but I will read my Department's reply for the benefit of those who do not. A fixed-term employee means a person who has entered into a contract of employment where the end of the contract is determined by an objective condition such as arriving at a specific date, completing a specific task or the occurrence of a specific event. An employee...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I am quite sure that lots of industries and companies in this country believe they are exceptional but none of them is above the law.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: Again, nobody is above the law. I ask the Deputy to call me later and we will progress this. I am not happy to hear the Deputy's allegation that people have been blacklisted following an appearance before a Joint Oireachtas Committee and have not worked since then. We will take care of it.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Child Benefit Payments (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for his question. Child benefit is the main policy instrument for assisting families with the costs of raising children. It is a universal payment, which I very much support. It is paid in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16, or to the age of 18 if they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is paid monthly to more than 630,000 families in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Child Benefit Payments (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I have already outlined the legal and data protection issues with regard to sharing data that prohibit doing what the Deputy has suggested, which was originally suggested in the programme for Government. I can absolutely assure the Deputy that we take a proactive approach to ensuring that child benefit is paid only to people who are entitled to it. The fraud and error surveys the Department...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Child Benefit Payments (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I totally appreciate the result the Deputy is trying to achieve, I just do not think this is the right method to do so. He is right; a phenomenal number of children, especially young boys, are absent from school for more than 20 days, particularly recently. However, it is certainly not their parents' fault and penalising them through child benefit will not fix the problem. We have a real...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pensions Reform (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: As stated in the roadmap for pensions reform, the Government proposes to implement a supplementary retirement savings system known as automatic enrolment, AE, by 2022.  This will see employees without personal retirement savings automatically enrolled into a quality-assured retirement savings system with freedom of choice to opt out. I launched a straw man public...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pensions Reform (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy's submission is very welcome. The views he expressed in the submission were not unique and there are others who share his views, which will not surprise him. We both agree that 35% coverage is too low. Some 65% of people are not saving a single euro for when they get to 66 and we need to help them to make sure they have a better quality of life when they get to 66. My...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pensions Reform (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: That is my plan. Once the scheme is finalised, arising from the changes we will potentially make following the consultation process, I have no choice but to bring the memo to Cabinet as I do not have the authority to do these things off my own bat. We will bring the memo to Cabinet and I will get approval. If I get approval on the scheme as it is presented, that is when I will bring it to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pensions Reform (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I think I understand the question. The Strawman was designed to elicit conversation and discussion and it certainly has done that. There are a number of suggestions from the 100 written submissions that this should be entirely Government-run and that a Government agency be established. However, as I said, we will establish a preferred method based on all of the views that have been put to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 16 and 21 together. Since late September 2018, my Department has been planning and developing processes to review the social insurance records of approximately 90,000 pensioners born on or after 1 September 1946, who had a reduced rate State pension contributory entitlement based on post-budget 2012 rate bands.  These payments are being...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: Nobody was prioritised. Letters were sent out randomly and nobody was particularly selected because of their age, the length of time or anything like that. The ambition is for us to ensure that we carry out reviews of all 90,000 cases as quickly as we can. In response to Deputy Aindreas Moynihan regarding the staging of the recruitment, that is how long it took us to find staff. It...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: My Department is considering different options on the structure of any future contracts and potential models for the public employment service for the period post 2019.  My Department is progressing this matter with a view to having contracted public employment services in place from the start of 2020 and will continue to engage in the interim with the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Payments (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: Reduced rates for young recipients of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) aged 18-25 were introduced on a phased basis to tackle high youth unemployment and prevent long term welfare dependency, and this is in line with practice in other EU and OECD jurisdictions.  If a young jobseeker participates in education or training they will receive the maximum weekly rate of payment of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Disability Allowance (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Department operates a range of means-tested social assistance payments.  Social welfare legislation provides that the means test takes account the income and assets of the person (and spouse / partner, if applicable) applying for the relevant scheme.  Income and assets include income from employment, self-employment, occupational pensions, maintenance payments as well as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Rights (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: Ireland has a comprehensive body of employment legislation, in respect of which the Workplace Relations Commission is mandated to secure compliance. Ireland’s employment rights legislation protects all employees, including migrant workers, who are legally employed on a contract of service basis.  This is specifically set out in Section 20 of the Protection of Employment (Part...