Results 161-180 of 6,987 for speaker:Ruth Coppinger

Committee on Education and Youth: Education for Children with Special Educational Needs: Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: I am just in shock at that claim. It is ridiculous.

Committee on Education and Youth: Education for Children with Special Educational Needs: Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: I am not expecting the Minister of State to have the figure today but the breakdown of schools that do not have autism classes would be very revealing. I am also hearing that religious patron schools are much less likely to have autism classes. It is something I have heard anecdotally but I cannot stand over it. I have heard it a lot though. Why is the Department accepting this? It should...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: I wish to challenge the grounds on which those amendments have been ruled out. First, they are not a cost to the State because the State is currently paying for separated and divorced partners. We are not adding in something. Rather, we are defending the group of people who are now going to be excluded. In the Minister’s introduction and his comments on these amendments, he...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: By creating another one.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: I am not saying that cohabitees should not be included, so the Minister can leave that argument out.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: The Minister is taking away from one-----

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: I am talking about the fact that the Minister has equalised in relation to cohabitants but is now taking it away from people who are separated and divorced, who may have children and who may have maintenance arrangements and all sorts of things. I am asking him how he justifies that. What are those people going to live on?

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: Such as?

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: Such as?

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: There is no payment. I just want to clarify that.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: Sorry, but the Minister cannot name one of them-----

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: The one-parent family payment?

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: What if the person is working and goes above the threshold for that?

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: Can a teacher or an engineer get a one-parent family payment?

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: Someone who might be-----

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: This payment had no means test. That is my point. Anybody could get it. It was a recognition that he or she had lost financial support from his or her partner. A person may still be paying a mortgage or have been getting help with the education of children. The Minister is taking that payment away, -----

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: -----not for existing recipients, but for future recipients.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: This was not means tested. This is a committee where we are meant to be interrogating the Minister and it is very important that he is put under pressure about this. I object to the ruling out of amendments that we cannot even then discuss and debate and which relate to the main issue in the Bill.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Committee Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: I am sorry but I do not believe it is inadvertent. This came up on Second Stage in the Dáil. The Minister has met the groups and heard what they have had to say. The Minister is now deciding to exclude people. I cannot believe it is inadvertent or accidental. The Minister is trying to make the Bill cost neutral by recognising cohabiting people but then removing divorced and...