Results 8,981-9,000 of 19,411 for speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility Allowance and Motorised Transport Grant Scheme: Department of Health (23 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Some of what I will say arises from the answers to date. I would find it invidious if one were to draw up a list. The problem is that the Department of Health has a list for medical cards, for instance and the Department of Social Protection has a list for the domiciliary care allowance and other schemes. It is not something that should be done but there are procedures in place. It was...

Order of Business (23 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: We heard this morning that the rents in this city were at the boom-time level even though the rent supplement was out of touch with the rents being demanded, that is, some €300 less than the average rent for an apartment and €400 less than the average rent for a house. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, promised action on radio this...

Order of Business (23 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: That is not agreed. No. 14, which deals with the referral to select committee of a proposal for Ireland to participate in the establishment of a battle group, is an odious motion. It is a huge move or development in terms of our international relations. As such, this Chamber should first debate the matter before it goes to committee. If committee adopts it, it should come back here and be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I thank the Minister. This is quite a complex area and, given the number of documents with which we are dealing, it is difficult to see how we are measuring fully the performance outputs. In OECD terms, we are quite low down in ensuring we have a proper monitoring system or accounting by the Government to committees. It is there but I have found in the past number of years that when we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: -----but it was soon identified that we had problems and that the legislation was not fit for purpose. The Ministers listened and, with the Department, came back with better legislation. That would not have been reflected in the 2011 or 2012 outputs. There will be occasions when the Department cannot achieve its own targets and we understand that, but some targets jump out and we must ask...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Coming from years in opposition, one of the reasons one often finds the Opposition does not engage fully in the process of finding alternatives in social protection or finance is we are hampered in that regard because of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: No, not politics. It is a constitutional ban which the Constitutional Convention addressed and asked us to examine; it is in one of the reports. It prevents us from putting forward proposals, be they positive or negative, in response to legislation. That gives rise to the view of why one would bother to make a proposal on a piece of legislation that is on Committee Stage because it would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I presume we are dealing with the broad-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I have quite a number of questions about the document itself which we might get to at some stage. One of the questions, not specific to the document, is a policy question which is starting to emerge, namely, the issue of adult dependents looking for access to job activation. Since they are not in receipt of a social welfare payment, they fall into this category. There are others who are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Every year since the crisis, expenditure on social protection has decreased. At this stage, it is estimated that €220 million will not be spent this year. Every year recently, quite a substantial amount of money estimated for the Department has not been spent. It goes back to the Department or into the social fund. Up to this year, the social fund has been substantially overdrawn....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: If one matches the two, it means that there is a figure of €40 million. I have argued before with the Minister that rather having any of the money allocated from the social fund or elsewhere for social expenditure returned to the Department of Finance, it should be spent because of the benefits. It is included in this document and the Minister has stated on a number of occasions the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: There is a whole range of questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: We will not have the time because there are a number of questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Some of them do not require a Minister to be here. It can be an official.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: The questions are about the Estimates that we have. They are not policy questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: In the case I am talking about, for instance, the woman works for two hours a day, which means she does not qualify for any payment because she does not work enough hours to get family income supplement. There is nobody else in the house, which she inherited from her mother who died two years ago and if she gives it up she can get jobseeker's allowance but she wants to stay in employment and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: She was not married. It was her mother she inherited the house from. There are anomalies and this is the problem. There are people who are caught.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: She was not looking for payment. She was looking for access to the jobs activation programmes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: I understand.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (22 Sep 2015)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: 137. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the steps she has taken since changes to the one-parent family payment came into effect on 2 July 2015, to ensure that persons who qualified previously or were eligible for this payment have not been negatively impacted or affected. [31092/15]