Results 5,181-5,200 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Working Family Payment Data (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I agree with the Deputy that in a world where any man or woman goes out to work, he or she should be able to earn enough to sustain a family. My point, which may have been made clumsily, was that when we sit down for negotiations with the public sector, we do not decide what a nurse should be paid if he or she has two, four or ten children. The salary is the salary, which is why it is more...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Budget 2019 (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The ESRI report assesses the impact of the tax and social welfare measures in budget 2019, using SWITCH, the ESRI tax and benefit microsimulation model. As the Deputy will be aware, my Department also uses SWITCH to produce an annual social impact assessment of the main tax and welfare budgetary measures every year. In general, SWITCH analysis shows that households at the lower end of the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I probably owe Deputy Byrne an apology if he thinks I was criticising him or the Opposition. The Opposition from all sides of this House has been nothing but incredibly helpful with regard to this process in recent months. I have acknowledged this on so many occasions that I have forgotten how many, but I will do it again. When we changed over in August, we upset a system with the premise...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Department is not employing any blanket certification currently. Deputy Brady will see in every single local and regional newspaper throughout the country that we have spent a significant amount of money to inform people as to when their payments will be made over the Christmas period. There will be no changes to effective illness benefit whatsoever. People who get paid on a Monday...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: International Agreements (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for this question in particular as it is an issue on which we exchange correspondence weekly. In addition to the general EU regulations governing interoperability of social welfare between the 28 member states of the EU, Ireland has concluded ten bilateral agreements on social security with jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Quebec, Switzerland, USA,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: International Agreements (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I believe the Deputy is talking about preparations for Brexit and the security of the common travel area in particular. For the record of the House, I met with Esther McVey MP at the beginning of 2018 when she was the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Both of our Departments have subsequently been in constant negotiations and discussions with regard to preparations for the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Commencement of Legislation (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: At the risk of repeating everything I have just said to Deputy Boyd Barrett, and in case Deputy Brady was not listening, I will reiterate exactly what I have just said. I plan to bring a memo to Cabinet at the beginning of next year. Deputy Brady obviously knows more about my schedule than I do given that he has a date and I do not. It will be the beginning of next year. With the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Commencement of Legislation (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: By whom?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Carer's Allowance Delays (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: The social welfare appeals office functions entirely independently to and separately from the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Department. It is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. All decisions taken by my Department’s deciding officers and designated persons are appealable to the chief...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Carer's Allowance Delays (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: Notwithstanding the difficulty in the length of time for processing an initial claim and then for a claim to go from review to appeal or from appeal to the deciding officer, it is genuinely unexplainable and unacceptable that when an appeal is made and the deciding officer decides in the positive for the carer, a carer would have to wait as long as the Deputy's constituent has. I am not...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for bringing up this issue, although he might be late to the party. We have had a number of discussions on this issue over recent-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: My Department-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I certainly was not reprimanding anybody about their presence. I was-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I mean no disrespect to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle but there is no need to remind me. I was referring to-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Illness Benefit Waiting Times (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: No. We certainly will not. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. My Department transferred the administration of the illness benefit, IB, scheme from a legacy IT platform to its newer core IT platform in August 2018. Although the system change has worked effectively for more than 80% of illness benefit customers, significant difficulties arose for a number of customers following the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I tell the Deputy again that I can only deal in the facts. I have received a daily report on illness benefit since the proverbial hit the fan during the summer. It was an incredibly stressful time for the thousands affected in exactly the manner the Deputy has just described. I apologise sincerely again to all those recipients who were mucked around on foot of our attempt to change things...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: Calls to our helpline are back down to normal levels. People have all but ceased to send me individual representations from constituencies.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: If Deputy Pringle has people who are still distressed, I ask him to give me the details and I will resolve matters immediately.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Illness Benefit Payments (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I do not mean to split hairs or fight with the Deputy, but anyone who comes to me with an issue and a personal public service number will see that resolved on the same day. I appeal to the Deputy that if there are people living in Donegal who feel they are still experiencing difficulties and he provides me with their personal public service numbers, I will have the matters resolved today. I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Commencement of Legislation (19 Dec 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 45, 69, 73 and 79 together. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue which it is particularly important to address now that so many people have been waiting for so long for ratification. I am aware of the pressing need to make technical amendments to the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, including those sections of Part 9 which provide for the...