Results 4,061-4,080 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Local Employment Service (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: With respect, before I start reading out my prepared reply I have a question. When did we have the interaction during which I told Deputy Pringle that a payment was my preferred model?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Local Employment Service (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I call on Deputy Pringle to take it back, because it is not the case. That is one of a suite of measures that we offer as part of the State. It does not make it better, but it certainly does not make it worse. It is one of the offerings we have. We use a number of contracted models to procure public employment services to supplement the service provided directly by case officers as...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Rates (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: As I said to Deputy Brady last week, I am very happy to sit down with him to discuss the Bill. I know I was supposed to call him this week. I am actually more concerned about getting consensus in both Houses. The only way I can do that is to bring our proposals to the joint Oireachtas committee to get everyone's views. The Deputy and I might share the same view on this particular issue...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: Community employment, CE, is the largest employment programme administered by my Department.  It was initially established in 1994 to enhance the employability of unemployed persons by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their communities close to their homes.  Its objective was, and remains, to help long-term unemployed people to re-enter the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: -----and assistant supervisors. I sound like a broken record when I say this-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: We are all well aware, as are the CE supervisors and assistant supervisors I have met over the last months, that they are employees of their host companies, and as such-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: -----I have no role in determining their pension.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: When it was established, it was not to look after people who may have difficulties from a social inclusion perspective. That just evolved. It has evolved in that way and is effective because of the type of services the CE host companies offer to all of our communities. It is normally a volunteering type of effort, for example, with regard to tidy towns, helping our sports clubs and meals...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: -----asking for people to stay on a scheme for another year. We need to recognise the valuable contribution they give.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I will answer this in the politest way I possibly can. When the Labour Court passed down the judgment in 2008, Deputy O'Dea was sitting at the Cabinet table, and he continued to sit at it for a further three years. If there was a simple solution to this problem, I am quite sure the Deputy would have found it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: That is not the answer.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I have responded. I responded on a number of occasions, telling the Deputy that-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I am committed to finding a solution to-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all the people who apply for the different schemes, ensuring that applications are processed as quickly as possible and that decisions on entitlements are made in the most efficient way. In general, social welfare schemes such as these with a number of complex qualifying conditions can and do take longer to process. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I would be very comfortable if the Deputy said to his constituents what I say to mine, namely, that our intention is to introduce it in quarter 3 of 2020. That intention and the roadmap for pensions have not changed since we drew up that roadmap in 2018. There were many submissions on the topic referred to by the Deputy. However, things have changed over the years. The original formation...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Rates (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Commission Bill 2018, sponsored by the Deputy, seeks, among other things, to establish a commission to monitor and make recommendations on social welfare rates at least once a year. The Deputy will be aware that ideas of benchmarking and indexation of social welfare rates are not new. For example, previous studies were conducted by the Commission on Social...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Rates (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: It never ceases to amaze me when I read things in the newspapers which I am supposed to have said or done but which are nowhere close to anything I have said or done at all. They either fail to accord with what I said or did or they are completely made up. I do not know where the idea that the Department is considering indexing against the CPI came from but it certainly did not come from...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Rates (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: I apologise for that. I was talking too much and ran out of time. The launch of the national action plan for social inclusion is pencilled in for 22 May 2019. The Taoiseach is going to launch it. The reason it has been delayed is that, as the Deputy suggested, it involves a multidisciplinary and, more importantly, cross-departmental approach. If it only involved the Department of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Rates (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: If it were, I would be leaving it very late at 22 May. People will have already made up their minds by then. Can I answer the Deputy's other question?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (4 Apr 2019)

Regina Doherty: The introduction of a total contributions approach, TCA, to establishing the level of entitlement for all new State pension (contributory) claims was signalled by the then Government in the national pensions framework in 2010. At that time it set a target date of 2020 for the implementation of TCA. More recently, the Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023 targeted implementation of TCA from...