Results 19,601-19,620 of 24,567 for speaker:Róisín Shortall

Social Welfare Code. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Previous decisions have been taken on the basis of assessing applicants as a group rather than individually.

Social Welfare Code. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: I understood the issue was that they should not be assessed as a group but, rather, individually. Surely people in the past who were assessed as part of a group would now have a case against the State.

Social Welfare Code. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: I continue to receive complaints about accessing payments from people who were self-employed, whose businesses have gone bust and who find themselves in dire circumstances. In many cases such people are being asked to produce the last set of accounts for their business, which are very often those for 2007. Decisions are being taken in an entirely new scenario at the end of 2009 on the basis...

Social Welfare Code. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Many cases are going to appeal, which creates obvious expense and delay. Would the Minister consider a minor change which might improve the situation? A person now has only 21 days to produce all the necessary documentation, which is very difficult when a person had his or her own business and is looking for accounts and up-to-date information. If people were given a little more time they...

Social Welfare Code. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Three weeks is a very short period.

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: At the outset I ask the Minister to stop using the 6.5% drop in the CPI as a figure in any way relevant to what is happening to people depending on social welfare. Those dependent on social welfare rarely have mortgages or significant foreign travel, and those two elements account for approximately half of the reduction in the CPI. It is not a relevant figure. The decision to cut the...

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: That is up to this year. They are dealing with it.

Child Poverty. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: If the Minister had attended the Barnardos launch yesterday, she would have discovered more about the serious difficulties being caused by the undoing of earlier progress in tackling child poverty. The anecdotal experience of Barnardos is that there has been a significant increase in the number of families with young children that are experiencing poverty. Has the Minister had an...

Child Poverty. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: I am not sure the Minister realises that we are talking about people who are so badly off that they cannot afford to pay the rent on their local authority houses.

Child Poverty. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Exactly.

Child Poverty. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: The Government is undoing that now.

Money Advice and Budgeting Service. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: It would be helpful for the Minister to commit to publishing the waiting times on a quarterly basis so that people might know which office to approach. MABS was established with a completely different brief from the demands placed on it now. It was set up to help people better manage their money in circumstances where they might have run up rent arrears or whatever. In many cases MABS is...

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Question 61: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she will take to reduce the cost of rent supplement to the Exchequer. [40998/09]

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: There is no evidence of the Minister working hard on this issue. Our questions concern how the Minister will reduce the cost of housing in terms of rent supplement. Unfortunately, very little progress has been made in this area and it seems the Minister is washing her hands of the matter. The Minister referred to savings made through actions taken in the past two budgets but she does not...

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: In an entirely different position.

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: The Minister is being disingenuous.

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: The Minister is being entirely disingenuous in the way she is answering the question. What is more, she is showing that she has no grasp of the issue. If the Minister speaks to members of the Simon Community, Threshold or Focus Housing they will all tell her of the severe difficulties she has caused for people at the lower end of the market, the most vulnerable people in grotty bedsits who...

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Passing the buck to the tenants.

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Yes, of the way the Minister did it which was targeting tenants.

Social Welfare Benefits. (11 Nov 2009)

Róisín Shortall: Why does the Minister not actively examine expanding RAS?