Results 10,621-10,640 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme (27 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1019 and 1020 together. Rent supplement continues to play a key role in supporting families and individuals in private rented accommodation, with the scheme currently supporting approximately 20,400 recipients. The scheme provides short-term income support, to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Housing Assistance Payment (27 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: Under the Supplementary Allowance scheme, the Department may make a single Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income. Decisions are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (27 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: The COVID 19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment was introduced in March 2020 as a time-limited emergency measure to meet the surge in unemployment which resulted from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. For self-employed people, they must have experienced a collapse of income and be available to take up other full-time work if it was available to them in order to qualify. Where a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic (27 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I am advised that the information requested in respect of the breakdown by profession of working age persons diagnosed with Covid-19 by the Deputy is not available in my Department, it does however fall under the remit of my colleague in the Department of Health. However estimates of the employment sector for those medically certified for the Enhanced Illness Benefit claim are available each...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (27 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: The Department offers income supports through a range of social insurance benefits and means-tested social assistance payments. Entitlement to social insurance benefits, such as Illness Benefit, is dependent on a person's Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contribution history. Where a person does not have sufficient contributions to qualify for a social insurance benefit or reaches the end...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I am seeking the House's approval for this Revised Estimate in order that we can continue to provide much-needed social welfare payments to our people. I am referring not just to payments related to the pandemic but also to all of our ordinary payments, namely, child benefit, pensions, carer's payments, payments to lone parents, payments to people with disabilities, as well as much more...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I will try to talk quickly. I appreciate the Deputy's support today. It is not ideal, and I wish we had more weeks in the payment of the four-fifths rule so we could bring in what will probably be the decision next week or early the following week by the Government, but those decisions are being worked on and are imminent. They will be made very shortly. However, I can confirm that the...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: The first thing I have to say to the Deputy, and I hope I do not sound disrespectful when I say this, is that the Estimates are not fictitious. They are based on our guesstimate as to what the outturn of all of the topics within the Vote will be. While there is the elephant in the room of the one payment, it is unfair to call them fictitious. This is what we do every year. We do not get...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I acknowledge that the Estimates are historic, if that is the way the Deputy wants to put it, but I hope he understands that I cannot bring forward Estimates on the basis of decisions that have not yet been made. I must put on the record of the House that the presentation of the Estimates today in no way ties the hands of the next Government or restricts its ability to make any changes in...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: On the Covid-19 money, I totally agree with the Deputy. I know that the narrative is growing and I wish to God it was not, but every single euro will be spent in our economy, whether it is by an 18 year old, a 28 year old or a 38 year old, exactly in the manner he described. It is very welcome and very needed. I do not know who is leaking to any of our newspapers but it is certainly not...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I am not sure that there were any direct questions. I disagree with Deputy Barry when he says that an outcry regarding the original pandemic payment led to the changes we made the following week. I do not think that is true, given that I was at the table. I will bring the Deputy back to 13 March when we introduced the illness Covid payment of €350 per week and allocated some...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: To answer the direct questions the Deputy asked, I am not sure it is accurate to say that only 1% of our pensioners get a Christmas bonus; they all do.

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: That is not the case. There are 585,000 pensioners in the country and we pay weekly payments to approximately 1.2 million. Either way, I will come back to the Deputy with a written answer on that, if that is okay. The next three things that the Deputy asked about, with the exception of the question of arrears, might be nice asks but the reason I have to say "No" is because they all...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I refer to the difficulty with regard to the people that the Deputy thinks have been excluded. I will deal with them separately, if that is okay. Seasonal workers are not excluded from the social welfare code. They are all actively either on jobseeker's benefit, JB, or jobseeker's allowance, JA, with all of the wealth of support payments surrounding that. They are not being abandoned or...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for acknowledging the confirmation we gave this morning that the Covid payment will extend well beyond its original end date, which was 9 June. There is real merit in making adaptations to the back to work enterprise allowance scheme but that would require legislation. The Deputy will probably be part of the next Government and I encourage whoever is privileged to be in...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: First, the Deputy raised the anomaly that exists for people returning from maternity leave to the wage subsidy scheme. From what I can gather, and I only heard it at the same time as the Deputy when the Minister for Finance said it in the last session, the Minister is bringing a memorandum to the Cabinet tomorrow. The issue has been resolved and the announcement of how it is to be resolved...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I could not.

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: That is no problem. I was asked why we established the pandemic payment in the way we did. The pandemic legislation is based on unemployment legislation that is currently the law of the land. The EU regulations are the regulations of the European Union. These determined the age categories between the ages of 18 and 66 to which we could pay the Covid-19 PUP. The EU regulations govern...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: Absolutely.

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Regina Doherty: I will begin by responding to Deputy Ellis, although there was not really a question. When he expresses concern that Ministers are making decisions, he is obviously referring to me, in particular, as an unelected Minister. I do not make decisions. The Cabinet makes decisions and, thankfully, it is a collective responsibility. I hope the decisions we have made in recent months have been in...