Results 16,901-16,920 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Instruction to Committee (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I had only five minutes.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, subsection (1), line 10, to delete "Social Welfare Act 2009" and substitute "Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009". Amendment No. 1 changes the name of the Act from the Social Welfare Act 2009 to the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009 to reflect the proposed amendments to the Pensions Act. We will discuss the remaining amendments in conjunction with this one.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Amendment No. 22 contains the definitions necessary to the introduction of amendments to the Pensions Act 1990. Amendment No. 23 in section 41 of the Act is consequential to the proposed amendments. It amends the section to the effect that the funding standard will apply to the proposals in amendment No. 24. Amendment No. 24 outlines changes to section 48 of the Act which modify how the...
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I admire Deputy Crawford for raising a pensions issue that is of relevance to the man he mentioned, although perhaps not to the debate on this Bill. The legislation before the House has been introduced to try to support workers in some way. Different things are happening with pension schemes at present. The situation has changed drastically in recent months. The number of insolvencies has...
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: They are just being moved down the list of priorities. It is absolutely right that at the moment workers are paying into a scheme that guarantees the pensions of existing pensioners. In one third of schemes, increases for those pensioners are also being guaranteed. The workers themselves will not even get what they thought they were going to get. It has actually become the case that the...
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: That would be a taxation issue.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I am not responsible for tax but I will check with the Minister for Finance on the Deputy's behalf. The amendments are also to assist schemes that are now in difficulty but the long-term frame for pensions is a bigger issue and will be dealt with in that framework. Questions were also asked about the restructuring and in-deficit. The Pensions Board must be satisfied with the section 50...
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: As regards the Unite proposal, the decision on that was made by the Minister for Finance but obviously there was a discussion on it. Unite wanted a guarantee for 20 years and the State to carry all the investment risk. It was determined, however, that it was too much to carry an investment risk like that for 20 years. Deputy Enright asked about the nature of the correspondence from the...
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Yes.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Yes, that is correct as well.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: That is correct - a question was put on foot of that.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: No. We are in constant communication with them, but they are not pursuing.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I am sorry but that was a different time and a different issue.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to discuss a particular case.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The Deputy's initial question was about Waterford Crystal. Other questions were asked about the tax amount.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: As I indicated, â¬2.9 billion was the tax take. As regards the self-administered area, I am not aware that Revenue has a breakdown of the detail, but I will try to see whether that is available.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I do not propose to accept the amendments moved by Deputy Enright, which, as she said, are both quite similar. Members have paid into the scheme according to their salary, so therefore they get their benefits accordingly. The more one is meant to get, the more one would lose on this. As I indicated earlier, many companies have one scheme for higher executives and another one for ordinary staff.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I accept that not all companies have, but a lot of companies do. Therefore, the proposal would not have any greater impact in many of those. I appreciate the difficulties Deputies have in dealing with this issue at short notice, but we all have the best intentions to try to support companies that have run into terrible difficulties. This time last year one would not have envisaged that we...
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: No, that is not it.
- Social Welfare Bill 2009: Committee Stage (28 Apr 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The long-term pensions framework will deal with a wide range of issues, including retirement age and future provision. Some of the measures will not kick in for a couple of years because people first need to be prepared. I do not intend to hold off for three years or more. Deputy Shortall asked a question on existing pensioners. While they will retain their existing payments, any future...