Results 20,161-20,180 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

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

Leo Varadkar: Lest anything I said in the past has been misconstrued, I do not deny for one second that there is child poverty. Of course, there is. I also acknowledge that the rate of poverty among children is higher than it is among adults. The rate of child poverty in Ireland is significantly higher than the rate of among pensioners. I acknowledge that the rate of poverty among children in...

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

Leo Varadkar: The JST review is a value for money review which will be an extensive piece of work and will examine the JST payment and how it has been working since its inception in 2013. The review will provide a detailed analysis of the activation of JST payment recipients. On completion of the review, officials will available to discuss its findings with the Oireachtas joint committee. Given that the...

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

Leo Varadkar: Deputy O'Dea is trying to signal to contribute.

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

Leo Varadkar: I want to avoid commissioning a huge number of reports because there is a cost to that, administrative problems in doing it and, potentially, the inability to respond to a huge number of reports that may make recommendations that cannot be funded. I agree with Deputy Kenny: what is the point in having a huge number of reports on which one cannot necessarily act? The sense I have from...

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

Leo Varadkar: Sinn Féin would have chosen family income supplement over the carer's allowance and would have given some people nothing. That is what its submission states. I would be happy to put our submission up against Sinn Féin's.

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

Leo Varadkar: Nor do we.

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

Leo Varadkar: Given the massive tax increases Sinn Féin proposed, its pot was much bigger. However, it still proposed to give carers less than we propose to give them, and it still proposed to give some people nothing when we propose to give people €5 extra per week. We can come back to the matter later if the Deputy so wishes. I seek a solution. A load of amendments seeking reports on...

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

Leo Varadkar: I do not want to divide the House unnecessarily. I think Deputy O'Dea has made some good points. We will reach section 23 later in the day. I am not at this stage asking anyone to withdraw anything that is to be considered at a later stage. I am willing to accept amendment No. 5. I have not chosen that one for any particular reason; it just happens to be the first one.

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

Leo Varadkar: The amendments are quite similar.

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

Leo Varadkar: I would like to amend the new section being inserted by amendment No. 5 on Report Stage so that, in addition to providing that an independent "report shall be conducted on the financial and social effects" of these changes, we also require the report to look at the impact on welfare dependency. That is crucial.

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

Leo Varadkar: Yes, but in accepting this amendment, which I am happy to do, I am also signalling that I intend to make a further change on Report Stage.

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

Leo Varadkar: I think Deputy Brady is actually speaking to section 11 of the Bill.

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

Leo Varadkar: I can answer the Deputy's questions, even though we have dealt with the section. On section 11 as opposed to section 12, the provision does not relate to child benefit but to the supplementary welfare allowance. The proposed amendment will amend the definition of a qualified child under the supplementary allowance scheme to ensure that the qualified child allowance payment is only paid in...

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

Leo Varadkar: That is correct. It is done anyway, but not frequently. Some 408,000 reviews are undertaken every year, but this is done infrequently. I do not have the exact figures, though. It is being put into law so that we have a legislative basis to underpin what is done already, namely, to require employers to give us certain information. This makes it more convenient than potentially having to...

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

Leo Varadkar: I will. To be of use to members, we can distribute the brief and specific answers to the FLAC questions.

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

Leo Varadkar: I am at a bit loss. Are we discussing-----

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

Leo Varadkar: An annual report is done anyway.

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

Leo Varadkar: Not really. An annual report is already conducted that shows poverty rates. We effectively get these reports two years late. We only have the 2014 poverty rates as matters stand.

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

Leo Varadkar: I am looking at the amendment requesting an annual report on child poverty rates.

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

Leo Varadkar: My apologies. The proposed amendment calls for an annual analysis of child poverty rates and an independent report thereon to be issued to the Minister and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection. There is already independent annual reporting of child poverty rates through the Central Statistics Office survey on income and living conditions, SILC, which is carried out as part of...