Results 7,561-7,580 of 8,245 for speaker:Bríd Smith

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: If later in the year when the committee has dealt with this issue and discovered there is an anomaly that must be addressed, can a provision to address the issue then be included in the Bill?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: That is not the case. Let us suppose a person has worked from 1984 to 2015 and that person made a home and left a job in 1969 or 1970 to rear children. Finally, let us suppose the person went back to the workforce and worked for 32 or 33 years until 2015. That person would have paid more than a sufficient number of contributions to get a full pension. However, the figure is not calculated...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The Minister has not referred to the fact that the average is disregarded for homemakers after 1994, but it is not for homemakers prior to 1994. The amendment asks precisely that question. The idea is that the average would apply to everyone, not only homemakers after 1994. I do not understand why previous Governments brought this measure in after 1994. It seems there is a disregard for...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I was a family carer and that time is recognised.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: No, family carers are recognised for the purposes of calculating pension entitlements. I know this because I used to have to sign on for credits. That time is recognised and taken into account

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: Yes, exactly, and the women to whom I am referring had insurance records to protect because they worked in the 1960s or 1970s. Then they reared their families and went back to work in the 1980s. They are being penalised for that now.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: There is a big issue coming down the tracks at the Minister because of the age profile of the people involved. The women who fall into this category are beginning to retire.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: They are a big group.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: No, it is the records from the late 1960s and 1970s-----

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I am fascinated by this. Is the Minister saying that under the Unfair Dismissals Act, social welfare payments are not taken into account when determining the award for the individual who is found to have been unfairly dismissed?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: They used to be taken into account. I do not know when that was changed. If a person who was unfairly dismissed received social welfare payments while awaiting a hearing and that must be taken into account in the context of the level of compensation to be awarded, then he or she is being unfairly treated twice. In many cases while they are waiting for the hearing, which could be for two or...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The amendment is trying to address how the State recoups the social welfare payments it made to the individual. It is perfectly legitimate for the amendment to state the money should be taken from the employer who breached the legislation, because he or she has been found guilty in an unfair dismissals tribunal, or the WRC as it is now. This is all the amendment states. It is quite sensible.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I move amendment No. 34:In page 12, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:“23. Three months from the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before the Dáil on the matter of extending the Homemaker Scheme contribution years that can be disregarded for the purposes of determining the yearly average of claimants who raised families in the years prior to April...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I understand but is there a commitment to report back in three months?

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Rent Controls (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: 23. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the measures he plans to take to deal with the escalating rise in rents in the private rental market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35431/16]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Provision (17 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: 55. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on the latest pillar of the Rebuilding Ireland action plan, that is housing supply; the way it will address the housing crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35430/16]

Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Second Stage (16 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The introductory part of the Minister's speech was well written and moving in its aspirations. I could not agree more with the Minister's view that we should use our economic success to build a fair and compassionate society. I could not agree more on the need to remove soft barriers in the way children with special needs are accommodated. I could not agree more that we need schools to...

Post Office Network: Motion [Private Members] (16 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I welcome and support the aims of this motion to save and fully appreciate the rural post office and the vital role it plays in rural life. In recent months, I have raised this and associated issues in the House and have always received the same response from the Minister. I quote the Minister, Deputy Naughten:It is Government policy that An Post remains a strong, viable company in a...

Leaders' Questions (16 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: With 10 cent on the minimum wage.

Leaders' Questions (16 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I absolutely see it. We welcome every job, but what good is a job to a worker who cannot afford to put a roof over his or her head or pay his or her car insurance? I refer to people who are struggling every day and getting into more and more debt. The Taoiseach has not addressed the fundamental issue of inequality that runs through my argument that Government decisions are allowing others...