Results 2,661-2,680 of 5,580 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Out of a total budget of-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: I want to focus on the issue of community employment, CE. The principal purpose of CE is to provide training opportunities for job activation to ensure people come off the live register and are able to secure their way back into employment. Is that a fair assessment of the CE scheme?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes, but the Department’s scope within that is focused on the job activation side-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: They often do not receive funding from any other Department towards the very positive work they do. The funding comes from the Department of Social Protection and it is a job activation measure.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: I accept that that is what it is on the ground. From a funding perspective, however, the people on the scheme are employed at a rate slightly above the social welfare rate to encourage them to participate. The CE supervisor and the assistant supervisor are paid to manage those employees. There is no additional funding in respect of all the positive stuff they do.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Again, that is training for people on the scheme.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: One of the flaws of the scheme is that all the funding relates to the employment or activation element and that there is not significant funding for those other measures Mr. McKeon just mentioned, which make a positive community contribution. With that in mind, people who are in charge of managing those schemes, of budgeting and so on are CE supervisors. They have not received an increase...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Is that acceptable?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes, but even if we take the case of a telephonist, a clerical officer or others on 2008 HSE-consolidated grades, for example, the pay of those public servants is now between 3% and 5% above where it was in 2008.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: The minimum wage, for example, has increased by 30% since 2008.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Is there a reason the national wage agreement was not applied?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Am I correct in saying that the Department could have included them in that agreement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: We know why they are not public servants,. It is because they do not have the pension entitlement that many public servants have. Is that fair?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Does Mr. McKeon accept that they are employed by private limited companies?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: Is it not the case that those private limited companies were established specifically to absolve the Department of its responsibility to have them as employees?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: They absolved the Department of any responsibility towards these people.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: The difficulty is that limited companies often have two, three or four volunteers on their boards. They have no mechanism to fund schemes other than by means of the provision of the CE scheme. If they paid their employees more, the Department would step in and stop them trading recklessly. The Department effectively acts as a shadow director for many CE schemes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: The governance is so poor in many CE schemes that the CE supervisor is the one who largely runs the scheme, with the assistance of people who are willing to put their names to a board.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: The problem is that the very people who are responsible for seeking that are the people who will receive it. The people who received the notification about the employer obligation and so on is the CE supervisor-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes (1 Dec 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: But boards in large numbers of CE schemes comprise a small number of people, and the Department knows this governance issue is there.