Results 8,461-8,480 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Flattery will get the Deputy everywhere, which I say tongue in cheek. I cannot tell the House that I have the support of the Minister for Finance because he does not know what I am going to propose and will not until I sit at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Did the Deputy say I should talk to him?

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I talk to him but I have not put the proposal to anybody. The proper protocol, as I learned through lack of experience before Christmas, is to go to the Cabinet sub-committee and that meeting takes place at 2.30 p.m. tomorrow. Depending on the outcome of the meeting, the proposal will go to Cabinet on Tuesday. We can discuss the report for as long as Deputy Moynihan wishes.

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: It will not delay it because, to answer the question for a second time, it involves new money. As such, the money required does not exist in the current 2018 budget. I hope there will be no need for a discussion because I hope the Deputy will be as happy as I might be if it gets accepted on Tuesday. In any event, if he wants to talk about it, that is no problem.

Other Questions: Working Family Payment (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I thought the Deputy was taking the mickey out of me - if the cap fits. The working family payment is a working support which provides an income top-up for low-earning employees with children and offers financial incentives to take up employment. The payment benefits more than 57,000 families with almost 130,000 children through an estimated spend this year of €431 million. It is...

Other Questions: Working Family Payment (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I take on board valuable contributions.

Other Questions: Working Family Payment (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: We are working on the report. As it is an in-house report, we are not waiting for external bodies. I would say the maximum period is three months. If I can do it before that, we will talk about it and put it on the schedule for the committee. The Deputy is right. While €431 million is what is budgeted, there is a bit of wriggle room on the basis that it is not what we spent last...

Other Questions: Working Family Payment (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: People will think I am falling in love with the Deputy because I am agreeing with everything.

Other Questions: Working Family Payment (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I agree with him that the purpose of the payment is to ensure that we support those who are moving from welfare dependency to employment. What we have done so far works, but it may need some tweaking to get a wider net of people into the working family support. As soon as we can have a look at it properly, let us devise the changes that need to made, if any, to ensure we reach the widest...

Other Questions: Working Family Payment (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: That would be best.

Other Questions: Poverty Data (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Is it the same question?

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----of the CE schemes to allow and respect the contribution these people are making to their communities while still remaining under the remit of my Department-----

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: -----which I am legally obliged to do.

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 14 and 18 together. The current rate bands applying to the State pension (contributory) were introduced in 2012, replacing the previous rates introduced in 2000. The rate bands prior to 2000 were less generous, and the improved rate bands introduced in 2000 were a feature of the economic and political environment at that time. The economic crash...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: We are not at cross-purposes. We have had this conversation with a variety of Members of this House on a variety of occasions. I acknowledge that some people were adversely affected because of the averaging system introduced in 2012. I have also acknowledged that we will fix it. The report with my proposals is ready to go to the Cabinet sub-committee tomorrow afternoon. If I get...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am sorry to have been smiling at the Deputy, but it is a case of déjà vubecause his colleague asked the same question about an hour ago. I assure the Deputy that there will be a roadmap. If an agreement is reached this week or next week, it will be very clear what we can do and when. I again say that it will involve new money that I do not currently have. The Deputy asked whom...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: To be 100% sure, I did not say the CE schemes and Tús were unsustainable. They are not providing sustainable, long-term jobs and they were never designed to do that. They are employment activation schemes, which is what it says in the documents from when the Deputy's party started CE schemes. Many people are providing services in their communities and I agree with the Deputy that...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: We have our ways. Everything the Deputy has said is true. There are hundreds, if not thousands of participants, in CE and Tús schemes who are doing social inclusion activities and our communities desperately rely on them. The problem is my Department was not established, and CE and Tús were not established, to provide social inclusion services. It is an employment activation...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The JobPath people, Turas Nua and Seetec, do not select their candidates. We pick the candidates and we only pick people who are suitable for JobPath. It is not the case that people sit down in an Intreo office and say they want to do the CE scheme but we say they cannot and that we are sending them to JobPath. We only send people to JobPath who are jobs ready and need help on a one-to-one...

Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes Review (17 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The problem is that when Fianna Fáil established it, it established it as an employment activation measure which is why it sits neatly into the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. What the Department does not do is provide employment; we provide social inclusion measures. The difficulty with trying to do what I wanted to do before Christmas is that we cannot neatly...