Results 25,541-25,560 of 33,581 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: We were to receive correspondence in respect of the draft report and the contact.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: The Deloitte report.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There was toing and froing in regard to the report. Did we get it?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There must have been an awful lot of it.

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe. Déanaim comhghairdeas leo. Don chéad uair riamh tá cothromaíocht inscne i gceist maidir le mná a bheith ós ár gcomhair. Tá éacht déanta acu. I was impressed with Mr. McKeon's opening statement. I was about to congratulate him until he started to talk about Turas Nua and Seetec. Mr. McKeon's...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: One point that jumps out at me in looking at all of this is that the so-called free market is not free at all. Government and taxpayers' money backs up the free market all the time in helping employers to employ people and so on. Is that not right? A substantial amount of the budget goes to the so-called free market. Certainly, it is not free and it is certainly functioning on the basis...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: It is utterly free in the area of housing and the rent supplement. I will come back to that presently. It is utterly free in the narrative of each Government. However, the reality is that the market could not function without taxpayers' money one way or another in terms of low wages, where the Government steps in and so on. Is that not right? It is important to put it in perspective.

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I do not know whether society is based on the free market but the free market has been imposed on society at a great cost. Eight people are dead since August. We are going to start now. Those are my compliments. I thank Mr. McKeon for the contact number for Deputies. My experience and that of my office is not that we get our own way but that we are treated with politeness, speed and...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I will stop the witness there because I have heard that. I have heard Mr. McKeon say that and I do not want it repeated as a stock answer. I know that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has a view. I am guided by what Údarás na Gaeltachta has told us publically, by our experience on the ground and by the advice of the co-operative movement, which visited...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Mr. McKeon can speak about one or two cases but what I am highlighting is not my personal view. I am highlighting the views of the co-operative movement that came before the committee and I am highlighting the view of Údarás na Gaeltachta. At the very least, I ask that the Department sit down with these organisations and ask them what is going on and what difficulties they are...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Mr. McKeon's Department has not done this. In his opening statement, he made a point that I agree with and for which I respect him. He said the Department "recognise[d] the value of non-market activity". He gave examples such as caring and home-making. I would give the example of these schemes and the community employment schemes. This society could not function without it. The reason I...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I understand that it is the process of writing to the Department.

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I refer to the co-operatives also. I am using the English word. Comharchumainn agus eagraíochtaí atá pobalbhunaithe. Bhí Cathy Ní Ghoill anseo faoi dhó ag cur in iúl dúinn chomh deacair agus atá sé.

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: That was not apparent.

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Is that review available to us? I would love to look at that review .

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I thank the Ms Stack. Before I move off this topic, I note that it is also our experience that one has to go with Turas Nua or Seetec. One does not have a choice. Mr. McKeon indicates that there is a choice, as do replies to parliamentary questions. We are being told that one simply does not have a choice. If a person is called by either of these organisations, they have to take up the...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: They are required to attend unless they have an offer in their hands to go on the other schemes.

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I saw that in the reply that came back. I am going to park that issue. I look forward to reading the review, and I look forward to you taking up these difficulties with the relevant organisations. I will now deal with the issue of home help. Deputy MacSharry raised the issue of carer's allowance. I welcome that the news that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is now going...

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Ms McGuckin has made that clear. I refer to figures on the carer's allowance on page 29 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. The allowance relates to 65,740 people and the cost involved is €653 million. Obviously, we cannot begin to put a price on the value of what carers are doing at home, most of them at breaking point, out of love for the person they are caring for....

Public Accounts Committee: Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I will address the issue of rent supplement. I ask the witnesses to clarify rent supplement for me. Rent supplement was always administered by the Department of Social Welfare, is that correct? The process is now slowly changing to the housing assistance payment, HAP. What is the total figure for all of the assistance for rent, combining rent supplement, the rental accommodation scheme,...