Results 10,441-10,460 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: That is fine by me.

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: There is no problem. The Covid-19 unemployment payment is payable to people resident in Ireland who lose their employment as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. European Union citizens have the right to live and work in any European Union country and cross-border workers, termed as frontier workers, arise where people work on one side of a border but live on the other and return home at...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: The wage subsidy scheme was introduced in that way because many companies had poor cash flows. In the first two weeks after the wage subsidy scheme was introduced and when there was some confusion as to the criteria, many people let their staff go, went onto the Covid payment and took their staff back knowing full well that the Revenue Commissioners were refunding the wages in real time. If...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: They have been here for many years. I did not make the rules. We just have to abide by them.

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I congratulate the Deputy. He is very welcome. I agree with him. I do not know the ins and outs of that, but whatever way the owner of the coffee shop was treated, what happened is a shame. It is not within my gift or that of my Department to introduce such legislation, but I will have a conversation with the Minister who is in charge and ask him to revert to the Deputy directly.

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I thank colleagues for their comments regarding the hard work of staff, which I will pass on to them. The PUP scheme, as I said earlier, was introduced at speed and is due to finish its first round on 9 June. I put it categorically on the record that the scheme will, of course, be extended. It was introduced to support the income that was lost temporarily by people as we closed down the...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy made a very good point. I have been receiving literally a daily phone call from one of the ladies in Safe Ireland. I have no doubt that that will not change. If there are any tweaks that need to be made, we will definitely make them. I thank the Deputy for writing to me on the matter, as he has done on several occasions. Several other Members raised the issue of those...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: There absolutely is but the problem is that with this particular case - and one learns from every single scenario - it all happened very fast. We were not really given much notice. We had an idea of what was going on for the past number of years but obviously it was accentuated by the pandemic and decisions were made by the employer very quickly. The liquidator was appointed before we got...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I will answer the question on the Duffy Cahill report and write to the Deputy on the other issues. The Deputy is aware the Duffy Cahill report was sent to the Company Law Review Group in 2016 for its consideration, as that group was advising the Minister with responsibility for business. All of the responsibilities associated with this particular issue were then with that Department. They...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I hate to do this to the Deputy but I do not have the answer to the question because I am not in that Department. What I do know is that it was not done intentionally. It is wrong, we need to fix it and we are going to fix it. I do not know how we are going to fix it. From the outside, we sometimes think these things are obvious and should be easy to fix but it turns out that they are...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I do not think the two things are the same, even though they sound similar. When this House passed the legislation that suspended the right of an employee to apply for redundancy once they had been furloughed for longer than four weeks, we knew that it was not a real furlough. We knew everybody was going to be off work for longer than four weeks because we had closed down the country for...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: The first question the Deputy asked me was with regard to people passing away. I hope to God we are not; I do not know whether we are. From our perspective in my Department, we did a bit of research with the Central Bank a number of weeks ago which I published last Wednesday week. I will send a copy of it to the Deputy this afternoon. It looks at all of the people on the pandemic payment,...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: There are two schemes specifically for artists. Thankfully this House introduced jobseeker's benefit for the self-employed only last November. It did not exist previously and it would have cut out a large cohort of people from the pandemic payment otherwise. There is a jobseeker's payment for artists that allows them to continue to try to ply their trade and make money from it without...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: With the question on Debenhams, is the Deputy asking me to comment on the letters between me and Mandate, or was it something else?

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I replied to Mandate this afternoon. I will get a copy of the letter for the Deputy.

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I will send Deputies Bríd Smith and Barry copies of the letter I sent to Mandate in response this afternoon and I will answer Deputy Bríd Smith's questions on maternity leave and direct provision. I am aware that there is a request and a large Uplift petition but, unfortunately, the matter does not fall within the remit of my Department. It falls within that of the Department of...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: Maternity leave is a policy issue for the Department of Justice and Equality. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection just pays the benefit that is associated with the people who have the contributions towards. If a decision is made by the former Department, then we will comply with it. I will pass on the request Deputy Bríd Smith has made of me to the Minister for...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I believe I mentioned earlier that, under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, people who are entitled to receive employment or unemployment benefits are stipulated to be between the ages of 18 and 66, the pensionable age. On becoming 66, a person becomes pensionable and receives his or her payment. On the first question the Deputy asked me, if somebody is not in receipt of a pension, he...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for the good wishes and the compliments he gave me earlier. I am very glad I have no responsibility for the public health response or the contract tracing. The witnesses who were here yesterday are the people to whom the Deputy probably should have addressed those questions. Regarding the payments, there does not need to be an extension because the law allows people...

Covid-19 (Employment Affairs and Social Protection): Statements (20 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: If those people are self-isolating and have certs from their GPs stating they are self-isolating because they are vulnerable, they can apply for the two two-week periods. However, somebody who is vulnerable obviously does not stop being vulnerable after the two weeks, so then such people are entitled to apply for the Covid PUP as long as they make a declaration that their income has fallen...