Results 1,181-1,200 of 12,584 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: There is a certain artificiality about the whole process. Some of the Minister's answers are disingenuous, to say the least. She responded to a question I asked about school transport by speaking about SUSI, even though I had not said a word about SUSI. I said there was an insistence that people appealing decisions on school transport would have to produce the PSC. That was the position,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: That is my understanding.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: It may not have been an insistence, but that was certainly the direction in which it was travelling.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: What was the purpose of the Data Protection Commissioner investigation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: Just a minute now. The purpose of the Data Protection Commissioner's investigation was to ascertain whether it is obligatory under the legislation for the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to insist on the production of a PSC by those applying for social welfare. The purpose of the investigation we are talking about was to examine the attempt to extend that mandatory...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: -----absence of this report, this thing would have crept out into other Departments. I take what the Minister is saying about 3.2 million people being happy about the convenience of all of this. However, she is wrong when she says that the purpose of the Government's approach was to allow people to access services more efficiently. The purpose of the Government's approach was to force...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: I am not insulting the Minister. She has insulted the Data Protection Commissioner and I am responding to that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: The Data Protection Commissioner refuses to accept that. The Minister is wrong.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: It does not underpin it, according to the Data Protection Commissioner.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: I agree with the Data Protection Commissioner.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: That is a completely different issue because it relates to individual cases.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: How?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: The Minister said she would not descend to personal abuse.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: Deputy Brady quoted the Minister's reply last year. What does she have to say about that now?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: I thank the Chairman and I received his correspondence. In a means testing scenario, a person is allowed to work for 15 hours per week. This amendment would have increased the amount by approximately the value of the minimum wage, or €10; if a person is allowed to work an extra three and a half hours, the means test would have to be increased accordingly. In the case of a couple,...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: I move amendment No. 3: In page 14, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: "Report on current and projected future increases in carbon tax 20. The Minister shall undertake an impact assessment on the current and projected future increases in carbon tax on low income families and shall bring forward a report on same within six months of this Act being signed into law.". This...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: On Deputy Bríd Smith's point, is it still the case that the Minister is not responsible for compiling this report? Who could possibly undertake this report if we asked them nicely on Report Stage?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: My understanding of the legislative position is that the pension age is due to increase to 67 in 2021 and 68 in 2028. That is the current position but the Government can change it if it wishes. The reason advanced for the change is the demography, that is, the ratio of pensioners to the people who pay for the pensions, a difference that will increase dramatically over the next 20 or 30...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: I move amendment No. 9: In page 15, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(2) The amendment to the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 effected by subsection (1) applies only to a recommendation and report under section 10C(2) of that Act received by the Minister in the year 2019.”. On Second Stage Deputy Penrose made a compelling case for acceptance of this...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (No. 2) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2019)

Willie O'Dea: Yes.