Results 6,961-6,980 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

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

Regina Doherty: -----which will act as a deterrent to those considering deliberately defrauding the State, through my Department, then that is something we should do. There is a view out there that we are deliberately going after people but I do not subscribe to that. It is not in my nature. If there is a compassionate case to be made by people, then they need to be listened to but people who...

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

Regina Doherty: I am certainly not saying it is exhaustive but I am saying it is worth a try. We need to be strong and firm so that people know that if they are in need, my Department is here for them and will actively and willingly help. That does not mean, however, that we are soft and that people can take advantage and willfully and knowingly defraud the State of money that rightfully belongs to someone...

Other Questions: Employment Support Services (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is interesting to note that the personal progression plan does not belong to Seetec. Whenever we have conversations in here on such plans, nobody every complains about them in the context of Turas Nua or Intreo offices. The personal progression plan belongs to the Intreo service in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. When individuals present as jobseekers, that...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The media campaign on false self-employment was aimed at ensuring there would be better public awareness of the important service the Department provided in determining employment status and helping to develop a better understanding of the scale and nature of false self-employment. The main advertising campaign was run over a two-week period, with digital and social media promotions...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: New and legitimate forms of work have emerged and will continue to emerge. It is not just happening in Ireland. In fact, Ireland is probably lagging behind the rest of the world in the uptake of new forms of work, which is not bad. We constantly talk about bogus self-employment and attribute it to a particular industry, as if it were bad. People being made self-employed when they do not...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I heard Mr. Jack O'Connor on radio on the day we launched the campaign and he was in flying form. If he was being paid by the word per minute, he would be a wealthy man. I wish him every success in County Wicklow when he runs in the next general election. I know that he will do well.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: I hear what the Deputy is saying and while I do not wish to be disrespectful to him, it goes so far as to address the issue of those who are being forced to declare as self-employed, but many choose to be self-employed for a variety of reasons, including the flexibility offered by working for one company one month and another for three months or receiving a higher premium for working on a...

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

Regina Doherty: As the Deputy is well aware, my Department takes very seriously criminal prosecutions against persons who defraud the social welfare system and against employers who fail to carry out their statutory obligations under social welfare legislation. This reflects the Department's specific obligations to ensure the welfare system operates in a fair and cost effective way and that public funds are...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The previous Government introduced increased protections for deferred members of defined benefit, DB, schemes that were wound up. The wind-up priority order was amended in the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2013. Prior to those changes, pensioner benefits were given priority over the benefits of active and deferred member schemes. The changes to the wind-up priority order...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is being amended.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy knows where it is.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Some legislation takes eight years to go through this House. The Bill is a priority for me.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Deputy asked me a question and it would be nice if he let me answer it. There is a reason we take turns speaking during questions. He should allow me to speak. A few amendments to the Bill need to be finalised with the Attorney General to enable me to introduce them on Committee Stage. We hoped to take Committee Stage before the end of May but I am not ready to do so, for which I...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----and the companies that pay into these defined benefit schemes to ensure everybody wins.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: We intend to introduce a total contributions approach to establishing a level of entitlement for all new contributory State pensions from 2020 onwards. The Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023 sets out how it is intended to implement the total contributions approach, TCA, to calculating entitlement to the contributory State pension. The criteria required for a full pension under that new...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Self-employed people came into our current social insurance system in 1988 and, accordingly, such a person would have a maximum of 32 years of contributions when the total contributions approach becomes operational in 2020. Depending on the final determination of the number of contributions required in our new full State pension, this may pose a challenge for some of the people who will...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Under the current system, a person must have a minimum of 520 contributions before he or she can qualify for a payment. I do not see that changing unless we get an overwhelming response in the consultation that it should change. Any extra credits, such as illness and homemaking credits, must be added after the 520 contributions apply.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: Once a person has made the minimum of 520 paid contributions, the caring, illness and working abroad credits and any other credits that may be available are added to the 520 contributions. Nothing is prescribed in the public consultation. We want to hear what people have to say and, after 3 September, we want to arrive at a solution that we can all stand over and we are all happy with in...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Reform (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: The universality of the payment is a recognition of the fact that families with children have higher costs than those without. That has always been the principle and, given that it is enshrined in my personal belief, will remain so for as long as I am Minister. My comments do not mean that anything will be frozen. Rather, we are using whatever money we have to try to improve and expand...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Child Benefit Reform (19 Jun 2018)

Regina Doherty: When I was asked about the Mangan report at the Institute of International and European Affairs, IIEA, conference, I said that I would be open to reading it and considering its contents. I have never read it but would not be arrogant enough not to see the value in examining something. The Government and I have no plans to means test. It is probably with good reason that the Mangan report...