Results 5,021-5,040 of 12,590 for speaker:Willie O'Dea
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: This amendment makes a great deal of sense. The social welfare system is bedevilled by traps and we seem to be creating more traps as we go along. Take the position of lone parents and the fact that part-time employment is now a significant phenomenon in this country. Lone parents, because of their family responsibilities and so on, generally take up part-time employment. A large...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: I agree with Deputy Ó Snodaigh. Let us see if the new resolution process is working.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: The Minister started dismantling the mortgage interest supplement before we know if a new insolvency system works. The Government is taking away a quarter next year and a quarter in the following year. It will take a year or 18 months to see if the new resolution process is working. Why not delay the start of the phasing out until we see if the new process works? That is all we are asking...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: I wish to speak on section 11. As I understand it, section 11 proposes that the mortgage interest supplement will be phased out over the next four years. I do not understand the rationale for this. I do not want to delay the House, but all I can say is that 143,000 mortgages are in arrears and the problem appears to be getting worse. It may be getting worse more slowly, but that does not...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: The Deputy does not have much credibility himself. He was elected for the Labour Party. He was out canvassing for the Labour Party-----
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: Is he stabbing them in the back?
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: I am talking about credibility.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: That is right, through the Chair.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: There will be no Labour Party to canvas for the next time.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: We are opposed to section 9. I accept the Ceann Comhairle's ruling on amendment No. 13 but what I was trying to achieve was that people over the age of 65 who lose the transition pension should not be subjected, when they apply for jobseeker's allowance, to the usual requirements to seek work, training, etc. I note the Minister in her opening speech yesterday indicated she had given an...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: The Minister gave that instruction to the Department that these requirements-----
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: That is fine. I accept that. We are opposed to this section generally because the philosophy behind it seems to be that if one cuts young people's social welfare sufficiently, one will force them out to work and into training places, which are available in abundance for them. The problem is depicted as a lack of ambition among the young and not a lack of opportunity and that there are...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: As there will be other speakers, I will not labour the issue but this is a particularly contemptible and pitiless cut. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh stated, people have paid for this benefit, as it is part of that for which one pays one's social insurance. One does not get a bereavement grant unless one satisfies the appropriate contribution conditions but from henceforth, while one will...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: I would not like to give that advice to my constituents in Limerick.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: Not only are the offices closed and the budget cut but the average of what one currently receives in Limerick and the mid-west region is hardly worth speaking about, because the budget for such exceptional needs payments has been cut repeatedly. At a recent meeting of the social affairs committee, I confirmed it had been cut to such an extent that community welfare officers have referred...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: That really is contemptible. It is an insult to the people who already are traumatised by the death of a loved one for the sake of €17 million. I could give the Minister 50 proposals off the top of my head that would achieve savings of more than €17 million. Will the Minister put some marginal additional levy on some item and remove this measure? If she were to do nothing...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: On a point of order, it is usually customary to call people based on the parties they represent.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: I have no difficulty whatsoever with Deputy Nulty and I assure you I will give everyone ample time to speak.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: That is what the Ceann Comhairle does.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 Oct 2013)
Willie O'Dea: So we are last. Is that correct?