Results 9,341-9,360 of 12,637 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: The Minister asks what the point is in having many different reports. The point in seeking these reports is that the Committee on Social Protection reviews policy on an ongoing basis. It is there to help the Minister, not to thwart him and trip him up. It is there to help him to get the best possible value for the huge amount of money this State spends, rightly, on social protection. We...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: For clarification, Deputy Collins referred to a communication from FLAC. I did not receive it, or if I did, I do not recall. If I understand the Minister, he is saying that this procedure happens regularly anyway under various schemes, including this one, and that he is introducing legislation to underpin that. There seems to be a discrepancy between the explanatory memorandum and the...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: Would I be right in saying there are two reports, one on poverty and one on the back-to-work family dividend?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: In so far as this change was made to encourage lone parents to go back to work, I agree it does not appear to be working. Is the Minister doing something specific on this? Will the general report he is doing on lone parents encompass and deal with the matters surrounding this and the difficulties therein?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: Did I understand the Minister to say the Department is already carrying out a study on this? When does the Minister expect that study to be completed? Will it be referred to the committee for discussion? Where does that leave the family income supplement? Is it intended that this particular back to work dividend will exist side by side with the family income supplement or is the reformed...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: This is a long and complex amendment. I understand the regulations of 2016 are replacing the regulations of 2005. Is the Minister satisfied that the changes being made do not in any way diminish the right of the people concerned to claim social welfare payments? Section 246 of the Act, to which the Minister refers, makes it a condition of receiving social welfare payments that a person...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: I move amendment No. 32:In page 12, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “23. (1) The Minister shall review the impact of the increase in the national minimum wage on the income thresholds set for social welfare payments and shall bring forward a report to the Committee on Social Protection on same within 3 months of this Bill being enacted.(2) The Minister shall review the...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: On the jobseeker's transitional payment, the three-day rule is a disincentive to people to take up employment. A person can earn X amount over three days and get social welfare benefit for the remainder of the week. A person who earns exactly the same amount but does so over four or five days is not entitled to any social welfare payment. That is an anomaly. It constitutes a disincentive...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: I will withdraw my amendment for the moment. We will both give it further consideration between now and Report Stage.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: I do not understand it. Where is the double compensation? As far as I can see, what is being proposed is that if people are unfairly dismissed they go to the tribunal and get appropriate compensation, but while they are waiting to get that compensation they will not have a job and they will get paid social welfare. The amendment requires the employers who unfairly dismissed them to repay...

Questions on Proposed Legislation (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: Four weeks ago I raised with the Taoiseach the question of the tenant purchase scheme and how it discriminated against those in receipt of social welfare payments. He promised that he would write to me to give me his views on the matter. I am sure he did write to me and as the letter is probably lost in the post, will he send it again?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: 43. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if his attention has been drawn to the criticisms being levelled at JobPath; if so, the way he plans to address these criticisms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36085/16]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: I am raising this question because of the large volume of complaints that not only I am receiving but also other colleagues on all sides of the House about the operation of the JobPath scheme.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: We all agree that activation is essential, but we disagree on whether jobseekers might be coerced into unsuitable or inappropriate employment. It must be recognised that people who have been out of the workforce for a long time often have issues that make it difficult for them to re-enter it. I am staggered by the Minister's reference to there only being 145 complaints. With as much...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: We must avoid going down the punitive road. Time will not permit me to read all of the e-mails, letters and other correspondence I have received on this issue, but a person from the Minister's constituency e-mailed me after finding the JobPath experience humiliating, stressful and demoralising. I have received a number of other e-mails. One person's connection with JobPath had accentuated...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: JobPath Implementation (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: Surely not in front of their neighbours.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: 45. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will address the anomaly in the calculation of the contributory pension which tends to disadvantage those who took time out of the workforce to care for children or relatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36086/16]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: This problem has been well ventilated. We are all aware of the unfairness in the contributory old age pension system whereby people who have paid fewer contributions can often get a higher pension than people who have paid a greater number of contributions. We discussed the issue last week on Committee Stage of the Social Welfare Bill and we will be discussing it again tomorrow. I just...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: As the Minister said, the system already disregards time spent working in the home since April 1994 for the purposes of calculating the yearly average contributions. The problem arises in respect of people who took time out before 1994. Does the figure of €290 million refer to the cost of back dating to the very beginning? If he is moving to a total contributions approach, is it...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (22 Nov 2016)

Willie O'Dea: As the Minister will be aware, since the abolition of the retirement pension, people aged 65 and over who have been compulsorily retired have to apply for jobseeker's allowance initially for one year. I believe it will be two years when the pension age reaches 67. First, the amount is lower. Second, it has given rise to obvious difficulties. I know the same criteria do not apply. The...