Results 6,341-6,360 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I wish to temper expectations somewhat. The 67,000 letters will not issue on one day because we have not taken on 15,000 temporary staff to facilitate such a feat. Rather, they will issue over several weeks. I ask Deputies for their assistance in terms of assuring their constituents who have received a letter when others have not that the letters will be issued to all. Assessing and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The farm assist scheme was introduced in 1999 to provide income support for low income farmers. I think the scheme was introduced by Deputy Brendan Smith's party-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: It replaced the former smallholders’ unemployment assistance payment. In line with the then existing arrangements for unemployment assistance, including the smallholders and pre-retirement allowances, the income of farm assist recipients was exempt from class S pay related social insurance, PRSI, for self-employed workers. Recipients of farm assist who had previously paid class S...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I cannot speak to how - or even whether - the Department or the Revenue Commissioners imparted the information that would have been valuable to the people to whom the Deputy refers. I can only look into the matter on the Deputy's behalf. I can relate to the fact that their contribution record having been broken has resulted in them getting a lesser pension payment now. The options that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I must ask a favour of the Deputy. I would like to arrange a meeting with him at which he can give me examples of the cases in his constituency so that I can follow through to see how many people have been impacted, while also determining if the Department or Revenue informed people of the options available to them. What the Deputy has just brought to my attention seems unjust. I will ask...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is not just farmers who do not read documents in full. That is a charge that can probably be made against every single one of us. The situation he Deputy describes does not sound fair to me, so let us meet and talk about it further.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Pension (Contributory) (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 62 and 63, 73, 80, 90 and 91 and 93 together. I thank Deputy Heydon and all of the other Deputies who submitted questions on this matter. On 23 January last the Government agreed to my proposal that would allow pensioners affected by the 2012 changes in rate bands to have their pension entitlement calculated on a total contributions basis, including a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: If I am hearing the Deputy right, his ideology is that he is happy that lone parents are dependent on welfare-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----and that they would be financially dependent for the rest of their lives. I am sorry but that is not an ideology I subscribe to, even the tiniest bit. We want to provide financial independence for this group of people who are living in consistent poverty that rates far higher than the rest of the population, as are their children. If they want to stay at home then that is a choice but...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----but they do not want to stay at home and be financially dependent on the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: They want to be independent and have fulfilling lives. They want to have active and participative lives. That is what we are going to do. We will ensure that whatever resources and services they need in order to fulfil their ambition, which is having a full life, will be available from my Department and from the Department of Education and Skills.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I love it when I can answer a question exactly the way the Deputy wants me to answer it. At its peak the unemployment rate for the south-east region was estimated at about 19%. The most recent official data from the labour force survey show that at the end of the second quarter of 2018 to the beginning of August, the Deputy is correct, that unemployment in the area is now at about 7.2%....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am not but I will make myself familiar with those statistics later on and I will come back to the Deputy to either refute them or, if they can be substantiated, say that we have more work to do. My figures show that the amount of people taken off the live register is less than the amount of new people employed in the county. This means that people who were not on the live register...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy can correct me if I am wrong but I would have thought that the southern region Action Plan for Jobs and the task force around that could be the body or mechanism to feed into. If not then maybe we will have to look at it and I will come back to the Deputy on it. I can only take responsibility for my Department. There are tremendous amounts of supports available in Wexford and in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is not my job to dress up statistics. The facts are the facts. It is not my job to spin them as "A" or "B".

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: My job is just to relay the information to the Deputy. The Deputy asked for information on the huge unemployment issues in Tipperary and I have explained to him how fortunate Tipperary has been in the past number of years to have enjoyed the recovery it has, but we are not done. I reassure the Deputy that every effort is being made to continue to create jobs, building on the good work of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy might be right about my rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Tipperary given that both my father and father-in-law hail from his good county.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Progress reports on the south regional Action Plan for Jobs are published twice a year and they show that 1,500 new jobs were created in the south east during 2017. Of those 1,500 jobs, 1,200 were created by IDA Ireland. The authority, which the Deputy claims does not come to his county, was responsible for creating 1,200 or the 1,500 jobs.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: If the Deputy wants to have a conversation about building jobs in every single town in every single part of his county, every single one of us would like that.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: However, the Deputy cannot ignore the fact that Tipperary is thriving. It is flourishing. IDA Ireland is paying attention to it and Enterprise Ireland has increased employment there by 16% since 2015.