Results 1,701-1,720 of 4,782 for speaker:Olwyn Enright
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: It is more difficult when one is dependent on payments.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I do not wish to discuss the issues to which Deputy Shortall referred because I will have the opportunity to do so in respect of later amendments. In defending certain aspects of her strategy, the Minister referred to a survey in respect of which she released a press statement earlier today. I will be obliged to examine the matter in greater detail but I accept certain of the findings,...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: They are still substantially more at risk of poverty.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: SSIAs helped people with money become better off while elderly people who were worse off remained so. That is the reality. That is what it achieved.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: And the people who could not afford to did not benefit.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: The Minister does not issue press releases on the negatives.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I support this important amendment. I read with interest the submission made by FLAC in regard to it. I tabled questions to the Minister on the issue after Committee Stage last week because there was not much concrete information on the operation of the mortgage interest supplement. One of the interesting things I discovered is that there are no statistics on the number of people who...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I move amendment No. 2: In page 6, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: "'Anti-Fraud Initiatives' means those programmes, measures or actions designed to eliminate fraudulent claims in respect of all payments made under the Principal Act, as amended;". Fine Gael is putting forward this amendment because it believes substantial savings can be made through greater vigilance on the...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I will not press this too far. I am glad to hear from the Minister that â¬50 million in savings has been made. However, this causes me to question how much money has been wasted during the past number of years. If such savings have been made as a result of the detection of payments to people not eligible or entitled to them or by people who were deliberately claiming them when they should...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: They were still claiming benefit then.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I am not overly convinced by the attention being given to this matter and the reasons the Minister has given regarding the 5,000 people making claims. If they were notified, payments should have ceased then, but payments continued to be made to them. There was some period for which they received payments that they should not have received them. This issue needs more attention across the...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I support the concept of this amendment. Targets were set in the programme for Government that will not be met, unless there are significant jumps in the rates of payment next year and the following two years. The adequacy of payments are also linked to this amendment to some extent, when determining the benchmarks against which the rates can be measured. The Government currently tends to...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I support this amendment. Indeed, Fine Gael has tabled, along with the other parties, an amendment towards the end of the Bill against the entire section. I do not know whether the decision to abolish the Combat Poverty Agency is one which the Government will regret, but it is certainly one that society will regret. After the decision was made, the Combat Poverty Agency's staff and former...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: The Department does not make such material available until it suits its purposes.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: The Minister's approach to this matter is totally disingenuous and illogical. On the one hand, she talks about the great work done by the Combat Poverty Agency over the last 20 years and heaps praise on it, yet on the other hand she is still going to abolish the agency. That body was doing great work and could have continued to do so, regardless of the Minister's listing of other bodies'...
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: It will not be able to do it off its own bat. That is the problem.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: The agency was independent.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: The Department only publishes material when it suits the Government.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: I do not believe that.
- Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report Stage (3 Dec 2008)
Olwyn Enright: And silencing the agency.