Results 6,421-6,440 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Stunt.

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Yes, we have 10,000 people who are homeless and it is too high. However, in Northern Ireland there are 49,500 people on the waiting list for a population of 1.8 million.

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: There are 11,889 men women and children homeless in the North where Sinn Féin ran from power.

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is the truth. When Fianna Fáil was acting responsibly in 2016 in supporting the minority Government that was established, Sinn Féin went to the cinema because it had no plan. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Sinn Féin has no policy except hypocrisy. They call for houses to be built as though they had magic beans. Their magic beans did not work in Northern Ireland and their hypocrisy and policy of spin will not work down here, lads and ladies.

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: They should get their act together and bring forward a policy and a plan that would potentially be an objective to what we are in instead of the stunts we are used to - Hauling every one into the Dáil or the time Mary Lou put everyone out of here for hours. It is wasteful, needless time when we have work to do. They are pathetic.

Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The empty vessels of Sinn Féin have spent months attacking the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. They have personalised their housing attack on the Minister and consistently threatened the stunt we are witnessing tonight in the motion of no confidence. They rolled out this old chestnut every time there was a slow news week. Tonight we see the hypocrisy of Sinn Féin in action. Sinn...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Acting Chairman and the members for the invitation to this meeting today. I am genuinely looking forward to a constructive engagement. It is normal at this time of the year to outline how the Department is performing against its budget allocation. I will provide the committee with some details on that, especially focusing on the mid-year review position. My Department has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Deputy for his long list of questions. I will start with the anomaly in 2012 rate changes that we fixed earlier this year. Information letters will issue in the coming weeks to 67,000 Irish residents and 9,000 non-Irish residents. The numbers are broken down as follows: requests for details of home caring periods and processing home caring period cases in respect of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Plus 9,000 non-Republic of Ireland residents. The letters will be sent in the coming weeks. The reviews will take place before the end of the year, with an expectation of making one lump sum payment and then continuing weekly with the new pension payment, to be backdated to March this year. On the fiscal space of €800 million, members are aware that any Government can increase...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: We have to be creative this year. I hope and expect that there will be more than €800 million to be spread around the 15 Departments. The Deputy referred to lone parents in the context of the earnings disregard which he said was not related to the number of children. He is correct - it is not. It is related to the increase in the qualified child payment that we made last year....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Chair and Deputy Brady. I am grateful for their support and comments on the Christmas bonus. From dealing with people whose only source of income is the weekly payment they get from the Department of Social Protection, we all know how worried they were made feel today. I would say there is not a Deputy or Senator in these Houses who did not get countless calls, emails and text...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I beg the Deputy's pardon. Two figures are issued, namely, every month and every quarter. The monthly figures from the CSO for the end of August show that the youth unemployment rate is 13.9%. It is the quarterly figures that we really rely upon, the labour force survey. They reflect a more accurate position. That figure is at 15.4%. Given that it is coming from 30% and going down, the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I agree with the Senator that no child should be living in consistent poverty in a modern society such as we have in Ireland, notwithstanding the challenges we have faced in recent years and most likely will face again. Let us not be naive about the latter. It is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that the State does everything possible to make sure that does not happen. We must also...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I absolutely agree that it is not the answer. Nobody is ever going to refuse an increase in a payment directly into a household. It has been shown right across the European Union that we have the best outcomes from the social transfers system that we have employed and engaged with for scores of years. It is not just about giving extra money. It is also about making sure we improve the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I appreciate that. That particular change in isolation will cost the Exchequer, the tax man, probably in excess of €70 million. To be respectful, on the €290 million the Senator is talking about, given that we have only €800 million to spend this year, I do not believe it is something that is even on the table this year. However, I understand and appreciate the reason...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thank the Senator and will start by complimenting him. We were both elected to the Oireachtas in 2011 and he has been relentless in raising these issues ever since. That was because he had experienced at first hand the impact of the social welfare system's capacity to look after self-employed persons like him. He had not only provided a job for himself for donkey's years but also for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: As the issue of the bereavement grant arises in the context of budgetary discussions, I am reluctant to reply to the Senator, other than to say I understand why it was done away with. What people do not remember is the range of other support payments, many of which come from the Department, that are available to the bereaved. We do not just stop minding people once they become bereaved. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Senator Higgins is dead right when she says that it is not about spending money for the sake of having expenditure lines on a budget. Behind every line is a person, a family, a child who needs support and, in many cases, has no support other than the solidarity and goodness of Irish people. It is not my money, or Senator Higgins's money. It derives from social insurance contributions for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pre-Budget Discussion: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (25 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Would the Senator mind giving me more information? I will certainly bring the matter to somebody's attention, but the last thing we need is to have somebody being hindered who wants to participate in a community employment scheme to be activated in full or part-time quality employment. The supports available encourage people into activation, training, education and, therefore, a career. I...