Results 2,761-2,780 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Working Family Payment (3 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: Working Family Payment (formerly Family Income Supplement) is a weekly tax free payment which provides additional income support to employees on low earnings with children. Working Family Payment for the person concerned is currently in payment. The current award period is due to end on the 9th October 2019.   Working family payment is due for renewal from 10th October...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (3 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: The person concerned is currently in receipt of Illness Benefit at a weekly rate of €371.70. He is currently medically certified as unfit for work until the 3rd October 2019 and he has been paid fully up to date. It is open for the person concerned to apply for the long term schemes of Invalidity Pension or Disability Allowance if he is permanently incapable of work, where his...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (3 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 18 July 2019. The application was awarded to the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Review (3 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: As the Deputy will be aware, the Government agreed to establish an Interdepartmental Group (IDG) to explore how social inclusion schemes might be organised going forward.  A number of meetings of the IDG have taken place and a number of bilateral meetings with relevant Departments have also been undertaken.  There was a consultative process with stakeholders and...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: As I was aware that we would be resuming our consideration of Committee Stage of the Bill on this amendment, I approached the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection and asked him if was aware of it. He was not. I asked him if he had a problem extending an invitation to me, which I would be very happy to accept, and he said he had no problem doing so....

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: The amendment seeks that the Minister would produce a report within three months of the passing of this Act, which the House will be aware it is hoped to commence on 1 November as a policy. I am hopeful that the Act will be passed in the next couple of weeks. The amendment provides that the Minister, on the passing of the Act, would produce a report within three months on a policy that has...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: That is not true.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: That is a year away. The plan is-----

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Senator asked a question regarding the timeline, which I did not answer. As per the pensions roadmap issued in March 2018, the plan is to establish the new total contributions approach, TCA, model by quarter 4 of 2020. That plan is on target. There is plenty of time for us to conclude our deliberations, which I hope to have done by the end of this year. I cannot commit to a review of a...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Senator is asking that a report be produced within three months of the passing of this Act.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Senator is asking me for the details of a policy that has not yet been decided. With all due respect to the Senator, when I am ready and the policy has been finalised, the first place it will be brought is the Cabinet. The legislation will then be drafted. It must then go through pre-legislative scrutiny and will then be drafted and published. It must then come to both Houses of the...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: How can I give the Senator a report within three months when I do not know when we will be ready to have a Cabinet-----

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: Again, I am not in a position to accept the amendment. The Senator will appreciate that as Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, in the main, I have a difficult job that is even more difficult at the moment regarding prioritising where our very small resources might be directed. I also have the job of prioritising the resources of a relatively small team to do policy work...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: When the youngest child of a jobseeker's transitional payment claimant turns 14, the claimant may transition to jobseeker's allowance assuming the claimant is eligible for it. This payment has a much lower maximum income disregard at €60 compared with €150 per week on the jobseeker's transitional payment. The tapered rate of jobseeker's allowance is higher at 60%, compared...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: With respect, the amendment proposes the preparing of a report. We are not having a debate as to whether we should be amending the policy to extend the disregard from €150 currently for people who are in work from the €60 jobseeker's transitional payment. I do not have the resources to prepare a report on a policy with which the Government does not agree. I am not trying to...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: Then perhaps a future Government should prepare a report that does agree with changing the policy.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: I think, in fairness-----

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: Through the Chair, I have made three interventions, namely, in the qualified child increase last year and in disregard for lone parents in my last three budgets, so I do not believe I can be found wanting.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: Again, I am not proposing to accept this amendment on the basis that what the Senator is asking us to do already exists. The focus of our employment services provided through Intreo is supporting and assisting people back into the workforce where it is appropriate for them. The Intreo services are already open to anybody who is looking for a job regardless of what their status is. Whether...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Oct 2019)

Regina Doherty: I will let the Deputy know what we did last year. We actively targeted everybody who was in a jobless household and, in particular, the women in those households because in the main it would be men who were on the social welfare register in some way, shape or form, but women were voiceless and identity-less. They are the women we specifically targeted last year and this year to invite them...