Results 25,141-25,160 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I never had that honour.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Senator Darragh O'Brien is labouring under a misconception. No child aged seven will be affected by this in either this year or next year. Some children will potentially be affected from 2014 onwards. I do not know if the Senator is intentionally seeking to suggest that from next week children of seven years of age will be affected-----

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: -----because they will not. A transition timetable has been set out. It provides a clear time span in which the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, in particular, and the Department of Social Protection will co-operate to improve and provide for enhanced child care, particularly preschool and after school care. The Senator asked about the...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Currently, 61,000 places are being provided under the early childhood programme, 17,000 in community providers and 44,000 in private facilities. There is a large and significant amount of child care provision. It is not as much as we would like, but it would be wrong to characterise Ireland as a country without either the buildings for child care-----

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: This is important. To some extent, it might be argued that the Senator is suggesting it is impossible for the Irish Government and people to expand preschool and after-school child care places in a rational way over a number of years in parallel with the operation of this timetable. I recall when the early childhood year was announced. I strongly supported it at the time-----

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: -----because I considered it an excellent emphasis on services as opposed to simple cash payments. I have long been of that view and always stated it in the Dáil. That was a budget announcement. I remember, as others will, that there was absolutely no information forthcoming for a considerable period-----

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I remember it in great detail.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: There was no detailed information. In particular, many of the providers lobbied because they were unclear about it, which was fair enough because it was a big change. However, it was also difficult for the Government side to do that. The Senator is now asking us to make exact statements in great detail. Since January, my Department and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs have...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I commend the legislation to the House. I hear what Senators on all sides say and it is positive that there is general acceptance that we should expand child care, particularly at preschool level, and after-school care. A larger expansion is required in after-school care. The discussion is very positive. While I cannot accept the amendments, I accept the spirit in which they were tabled....

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: In case Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh is confused, the only people who will affected by this change in 2012 are those who are new to the lone parent structures. Children over 12 years of age will be affected. In 2013 children over ten years of age will be affected, and in 2014 children over seven years of age will be affected. In regard to persons who were lone parents in April last year,...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: They have a point. We can learn from what has gone well or badly in other countries. By the way, I have been reading about Argentina. A couple of Sinn Féin Members expressed admiration for the changes that had occurred there, but I am not in that camp.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The matters raised by Senator Cullinane are very important but as they are before the courts at present it is not appropriate for me to comment on them. With regard to the pension matters dealt with here, as I stated in my opening comments on Second Stage the previous Government suspended the funding standard in 2008. With regard to defined benefit schemes, consistent and serial expressions...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: They must have different histories.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: The voluntary contribution, VC, scheme is open to people under 66 years of age who are no longer compulsorily insured, namely, they have ceased to be an employed or self employed contributor and do not have an entitlement to credited contributions. As stated by Senator Moloney, there is widespread entitlement nowadays to different types of credited contributions but people do not always...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Application to become a voluntary contributor must be made within one year of the last paid or credited contribution, which is possibly where the woman concerned had the problem. Historically, the entry requirements in terms of minimum number of paid contributions for the VC scheme has always matched the paid contributions requirement for State pension contributory. The purpose of the VC...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: No, that is a separate issue.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: I thank Senators for their contributions. When I first came to this House in my role as Minister, a number of Senators were slightly disbelieving and wary regarding the commitment to reverse the decision on the minimum wage but I reversed it in the first legislation I introduced. The important aspect of that was to help people on very low pay. We have to take account of the context of...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: For those who become lone parents for the first time next week, the vast majority of whom would for obvious reasons be having a baby, they would become lone parents or requalify by virtue of having a child-----

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: No, not necessarily everybody and I will come to that. The vast majority of people would come into that age group provision by virtue of having a child. It is under 12 years for 2012, under 10 years for 2013 and under seven years for 2014. I believe on the part of some of the groups, although certainly not on the part of OPEN or Barnardos, there may have been a misapprehension that all of...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Joan Burton: Yes, but they have a series of steps and obligations which are supportive, encouraging and expecting of people, which is a good mix. I say to my colleagues in Sinn Féin that the work obligation in Northern Ireland and in the United Kingdom is seven years of age. When I was researching this issue I checked whether there was any indication in the North that Sinn Féin had expressed a problem...