Results 6,941-6,960 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Community employment scheme supervisors are employees of private companies in the community and voluntary sector who receive public funding and are not employees of my Department or public servants. While the motion calls for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to meet with unions with a view to addressing the issue of CE supervisors’ pensions provision, the issue is...

Other Questions: Legislative Measures (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Could I be very careful with language? I ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to give me a teeny bit of latitude if I ramble on. No one is getting away with anything. What is happening in Irish Life is entirely legal so no one is getting away with anything. Second, we do not have the proposed amendments. What we have are the draft heads of a Bill. We do not have the amendments yet. This is...

Other Questions: Legislative Measures (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am not sure what the people who are contacting Deputy Bríd Smith are expecting.

Other Questions: Legislative Measures (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: We will have that when the amendments are dealt with on Committee Stage and we can have a look at them, but the proposals in the heads of Bill seen by Deputy Bríd Smith beforehand will not stop what is happening in Irish Life because Irish Life is not doing anything illegal. If the new legislation were passed, the only change is that it would be obliged by legislation to give a 12 month...

Other Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Tackling poverty remains a fundamental aspiration of all of Irish society. In particular, A Programme for a Partnership Government includes a firm commitment to develop a new integrated framework for social inclusion to tackle the inequality and poverty that, unfortunately, still exist in society. This will be a successor to the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 and its...

Other Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Autumn. Sorry.

Other Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: My apologies. I missed the very last line of that whole spiel. The strategy will be published in the autumn. The key element of the national action plan for social inclusion involves the national social targets for poverty reduction, which the Deputy mentioned, which set out the Government's ambition to reduce and, it is hoped, at some point in the very near future, to eliminate poverty....

Other Questions: Anti-Poverty Strategy (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Much of the money we use or that we spent towards the last plan was ring-fenced for certain schemes. I do not see any difference with regard to achieving the objectives in this plan. As I said, it is a whole-of-Government approach. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is not going to wipe out poverty on its own. As much as social transfers have an enormous impact on...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy would have to ask. The carers allowance and all of our schemes are statutory schemes. I appreciate that it does not seem to make sense to the lady who has already applied successfully for the full carers allowance for her son. When she makes an application for her daughter, despite the fact that it is only half a carers allowance it is still a new application and under the...

Other Questions: Legislative Measures (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 41 and 75 together. Second Stage of the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017 concluded on 4 October 2017 and Government approval to draft provisions for a number of additional items to be included in the Bill on Committee Stage was obtained from Cabinet. These provisions are currently being finalised by the Office of the Parliamentary...

Other Questions: Legislative Measures (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I can categorically say "no", but I am not sure to what the Deputy is referring. Nothing has been watered down. The amendments have not been drafted. I do not know what the Deputy is referring to or what she is holding in her hand. What we released in the heads of the Bill are currently being drafted in amendments. There are no changes, no lessening, no meetings with anybody. I have...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Obviously, the Deputy is right when she says everybody presents voluntarily. Nobody is made to stay or coerced to sign anything. Nobody can sign anything on behalf of anybody else. Whoever told the person who contacted the Deputy that his personal progression plan had been signed on his behalf was inaccurate. It cannot be signed by anybody. If someone does not sign up to his or her...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I assure the Deputy and anybody else who happens to be listening that the system is not in place for the reason suggested by the Deputy. We are engaged in finding sustainable employment for people. The system is in place for six months after somebody finds a job to ensure the employment is sustained. The person who helped the jobseeker to find the job in the first place has a...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Department is committed to making decisions on entitlements as quickly as possible. In general, applications under social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions, including those mentioned by the Deputy, take longer to process. Before a decision can be made on entitlement to domiciliary care allowance, evidence of the additional care needs of the child must be...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I agree with the Deputy. I acknowledge the value of the work of carers and their commitment to the people for whom they care. The Deputy and I are well aware that this country could not afford to pay carers if it wanted to do so. There is a huge debt of gratitude owed in everything we do. To be fair to the Government and its predecessor, we have taken some small measures to try to show...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: All of this is speeding up the application process.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I disagree with the Deputy. The reason for publishing their names is obvious, that is, to act as a deterrent for people who think it is okay to defraud the State. There are plenty of instances where people make mistakes and they will never see the inside of a court room. Deputy O'Dea is aware that we only take people to court in the first instance if the amount by which they have defrauded...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am sorry but I cannot hear the Deputy.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I do not agree with the Deputy's 10% contention but that is not surprising. The Deputy spoke about €40 million as opposed to €400 million but if the figure was €4 million, that is €4 million too much.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Fraud (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is my responsibility to determine how my Department will spend the spoils of the Summer economic statement that is being issued tomorrow and how to share the money equally between the people who need it the most in this country. A sum of €4 million is a lot of money but €40 million is an awful lot of money. If we can save €400 million by publishing peoples' details...