Results 2,441-2,460 of 5,269 for speaker:Joan Collins

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I support this amendment. The cut, from six weeks initially to five weeks now, has put huge pressure on people. Fuel poverty exists and it should be acknowledged and recorded for posterity, particularly when the big companies are talking about fuel increases in February or March next year, which will put further pressure on people. We might consider the potential of having it index-linked...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: What timeframe does the Minister have in mind?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I want to support the amendment. It addresses an area the Government has consistently not looked at in respect of raising money. In other European countries, utilising employers' PRSI to provide services for their citizens is a key and significant factor. Although I cannot currently lay my hands on the figures, an increase of 2% in employers' PRSI would garner over €1 billion. That...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: May I ask a question? The witnesses might take it on board. Perhaps I am wrong.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I tabled a parliamentary question on employer's PRSI. I asked for a breakdown of companies with fewer than 100 employers and those with more. I was told that figure could not be established. It is important to find that figure out, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, so that we can know how it would impact on them.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2017: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I will do that.

Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill 2017: Second Stage (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I, too, have huge doubts and reservations around this and will be opposing the Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill 2017. It is hugely ironic. When I joined the post office in 1979 as a post office clerk, within one year equal pay was introduced for women in the workplace. That legislation came in from Europe as equal pay for work of equal value. Decades on, because the EU banks operated...

Topical Issue Debate: Child Care Services (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I thank the Minister. The case the group is making is that there is a particular need within the lower Inchicore area, where there is quite considerable deprivation. It is suggesting that the Minister target specific initiatives which would assist the community in the area. The level of child poverty in Our Lady of Lourdes national school is 22%. The rate in Dublin generally is 6.6%. We...

Topical Issue Debate: Child Care Services (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I thank the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, for coming into the House to discuss this question. I have received an email from Ms Aoife Hannan, the project manager with the Kilmainham Inchicore Network. It was sent on behalf of the child care professional group in Inchicore. The Minister has received a professional report that has been drawn up since...

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: I thank the Taoiseach for his report on the homelessness crisis, but what I wanted to raise with him is public housing on public land. That was the main content of my question. He sort of half dealt with it. Part of the approach of Rebuilding Ireland includes the proposal to have 125,000 people in HAP households. By 2021, that will cost the State €1 billion a year. Providing these...

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: During the past week, while within the House there was the fiasco of a crisis that never should have been a crisis, life continued in the real world. Tragically, two homeless men died on the streets, one in Ranelagh on Monday night and the other outside the Four Courts. Two families came to my constituency office having been served with termination notices in respect of their homes in the...

Other Questions: Child Maintenance Payments (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 42. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on whether there is a problem regarding the issue of maintenance recovery in relation to lone parents, particularly lone parents who have proven abuse issues with a parent of their child; and if she has instructed her Department to examine resolving this issue in order that the child involved benefits from child...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Non-Contributory) (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 59. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when she will bring a complete report to Cabinet on the pension anomaly introduced in 2012. [50316/17]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Revenue Commissioners Data (29 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 105. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of appeals received and processed by the Revenue Commissioners in each of the past five years from 2012 to 2016. [50847/17]

Social Welfare Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: Deputy Daly has tabled amendments to delete the reference to Social Welfare Act 2017 and substitute "Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2017". She has tabled a number of amendments to the Pensions Act 1990 to the effect that solvent firms should not be allowed to close a defined pension benefit scheme except when the scheme has reached a minimum standard of six consecutive weeks. Another...

Social Welfare Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: We are taking ten minutes each. Before I turn to the Bill, I wish to set out a few background points. In budget 2009, medical cards were means tested and the automatic entitlement to a medical card for over-70s was abolished. In the emergency budget of 2009, the social welfare Christmas bonus was abolished, jobseeker's allowance for those under 20 was reduced to €100 per week,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: First-Aid Training (28 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 154. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when Government funded, compulsory occupational first-aid training will be introduced for all physically able teachers and SNAs (details supplied). [50177/17]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (28 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 178. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the schools in the Dublin 8, 10 and 12 areas that have an autism spectrum disorder, ASD unit (details supplied). [50178/17]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Ministerial Staff (28 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 231. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to set out the number of special advisers employed, including the new special adviser recently recruited from a company (details supplied), by him; the roles these advisers perform; and the amount they are paid. [50256/17]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (28 Nov 2017)

Joan Collins: 334. To ask the Minister for Health the process of tendering for the shop in Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin ; and when it went out for tender and so on (details supplied). [49950/17]