Ó Cuív, ÉamonThursday, 9 December 2010 |
Dáil Éireann Debate
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Order of Business
Question put: “That the proposal for dealing with a4 be agreed to.”
Voted Yes 
Question put: “That the proposal for the Dáil sitting tomorrow be agreed to.”
Voted Yes
Social Welfare Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed)
In 19th century Britain only the elite could afford to be bountiful. The Deputy should be very careful of what he proposes.
The Minister stated clearly in the Budget Statement that from now on State cars will be two litre models or less. They will be ordinary saloon cars, which is progress. The budget also proposes a 33%...
The partial capacity scheme will be ready next week, but the much wider approach to disability will not be done ——
That is a very good point.
I remember earlier this year talking about pensioners who had significant extra income but Deputies opposite were very silent at that time.
The problem is negative equity.
I thank all the Deputies for their contribution. Many valid points were made and I will try to deal with as many as I can. Deputy Ring asked about the universal social charge. The charge is not pay...
Rightly so. It was less than €100 million in 2000 and it is now more than €600 million. A great many fundamental reforms took place. For example, we introduced the half-rate carer’s allowance.
This allowed one, for the first time, to obtain the half-rate carer’s allowance in addition to an underlying social welfare payment. We introduced the respite care grant, amounting to €1,700 per year...
This should be compared to the new basic rate for one in receipt of the jobseeker’s allowance, €188 per week. I felt it was important to retain the architecture put in place. I refer to the universal...
Exactly. The Deputy is right. With my background, it would have been tempting to pick out the blind and treat them separately.
I am interested in hearing the Deputy’s views on this. The difficulty with his proposal is that somebody would approach one with a very valid case——
The blind pension for those over 66 is now paid as a State pension; it is not affected.
I am coming to those. Had I picked out the 1,400 blind people, which would not have had any significant effect on the arithmetic, the Deputy would have argued that there are many on the disability al...
That is exactly what I am coming to. If one decided not to cut them all, including the allowance for the blind, it would lead one to the disability allowance and then to the invalidity pension. One ...
According to the 2009 figures, there were 113,000 widows and widowers in receipt of a contributory widow’s or widower’s pension. They comprise a very heterogeneous group because one has a legitimate ...
Widows with children are paid the one-parent family payment. If I decided to create a new category comprising widows with children, separated and divorced people would ask why I was treating them sep...
I am explaining what I considered.
The problem is that if one were to remove all the one-parent family payments, one would have to take another €3 or €4 off those on the jobseeker’s allowance and jobseeker’s benefit. That is where the...
That is a good question. I have narrowed that differential by €10. It has been a tradition to pay more to larger families.
I am running out of time to address the question. I could have saved a lot of money by bringing the third and fourth children——
I am just explaining. Larger families have expenses and child benefit does not meet the full cost of rearing a child, or anything like it, as all of us know. One might ask why I did not take €5, whi...
We have. If the Deputy had attended the full committee meetings——
——he would be well aware that I have given all of those details time and again in the committee.
He tends to breeze in——
The Deputies do not appear to want the rest of the answers. I like to be thorough in responding to points made by Deputies but my time has concluded.
Question put.
Voted Yes
Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages
Deputy Ó Snodaigh should read the rules.
Chuir mé an-spéis sa mhéid a bhí le rá ag an Teachta Aengus Ó Snodaigh, mar dá leanfaimis polasaithe Páirtí Shinn Féin, séard a tharlódh sa tír ná nach mbeadh aon saibhreas á dhéanamh ag éinne. B’fhé...
I am entitled to reply to Deputy Ó Snodaigh’s Second Stage speech.
Deputy Ó Snodaigh spoke at length.
Yes, but I have the right to reply. I have never——
If Members on the other side of the House keep their contributions short, I guarantee I will keep my contributions short.
The figure is €341 million.
All of this amounts to €341 million.
No, the percentage has decreased.
We would never do that.
There is no right for anybody to stop anybody from applying.
Under the social welfare code anybody can apply for any scheme he or she wants.
Whether a person qualifies then is a matter for adjudication. Nobody can stop anybody from completing a form and submitting it. If a form is submitted it must be processed.
Any social welfare officer telling any person that he or she has no right to complete a form is in dereliction of his or her duty. I ask the Deputy to give me the names of the officials who are telli...
If they believed they were entitled they should have applied.
It does not happen.
The Deputy keeps perpetrating this lie against the officials of my Department.
It does not happen.
It casts a serious slur on the officials of the Department to allege they are not applying the law. I can absolutely assure the Deputy that both the appeals office and the officials in my Department ...
Come on. It is obvious they do not want to discuss the Bill.
Does the Deputy suggest the Government abolish PRSI for employers?
What would be the lower rate?
Such a measure would create an incentive to employers to pay the minimum wage rather than a higher rate.
The Deputy is arguing that if an employer employs someone at the new minimum rate, he or she should not pay employers PRSI, whereas if he or she employ someone on the old minimum wage rate, he or she ...
One would have to give up the income base in that case.
Will the Deputy explain the reason child benefit is higher for the third child than for the first and second children?
Many people argue that the first child is the most expensive because one must buy new clothes and so forth.
The payment for the third child is still €27 more than for the second child.
No promise was given as to what I was asked to do. I met with various organisations but no promise was given. I never gave any indication and, in fact——
I said publicly——
The Deputy says I should have exempted carers. What about the people who are being cared for? What about widows?
This is the challenge. The problem is that if one does that and yet must raise the same amount of money, if one excludes the 260,000 people in question, one must then take from the other categories w...
This is Second Stage all over again.
It will do it when it is in Government.
When the Labour Party joins Fine Gael, it will do it.
The Labour Party is in the auction politics game.
We would not have been able to get the money.
Auction politics is all they are at — they have started early.
I do not have much time to address all of the issues raised. On the general situation, since 2004 carer’s allowance has increased by 46.1% for people under 66 years of age, jobseeker’s payments incre...
That is what I am talking about — the people who receive the half-rate payment and receive an underlying social welfare payment, those who get an extra payment for caring for more than one person and ...
With regard to the Labour Party’s partners in Fine Gael——
Fine Gael has proposed over the next four years to cut a further €6 on the jobseeker’s allowance and benefit, which is wrong. I clearly outlined——
I clearly outlined, as did the Government in the four year plan, that cutting rates further should be the last resort and that we were not going to accept there was an inevitability to cutting rates. ...
We are trying to give as many people as possible on as many schemes as possible a chance to work, including one-parent families and widows.
On the issue of who has money and who does not, I read a recent newspaper report — one would not know whether to believe anything in newspapers these days — that suggested pensioners have €16 billion ...
I am always consoled because I look north of the Border and I see Sinn Féin in Government, doing what we have to do here. It gets very responsible——
It is in Government in a state where unemployment assistance is £60 and it seems happy enough with it because it is living with it. I did not hear it asking——
——for the devolution of the payment of social security payments to the North.
Sinn Féin always consoles me. I know one point about it — when you give it responsibility, it gets awfully hard-headed and very responsible. Many issues were raised in regard to tax. I always believ...
We are moving on tax shelters and on the thresholds for inheritance tax so that when money transfers, there will be a bigger take for the State. As Minister for Social Protection, I believed it was ti...
What I find strange about it is that the party’s policy was to have much less revenue accruing from expenditure cuts and to tax much more.
That may be so. I would like to see how the Labour Party would raise another €2 billion at the top end without having rates of tax of 80% or 90%. However, we will be waiting for the Labour Party.
May I conclude?
What we are getting at present is auction politics of a very blatant form. What we are getting is two parties who know they will wind up——
We are involved in auction politics in that two parties are putting forward diametrically opposed policies. One is to try to court the supporters in one camp and the other is to try——
Question again put: “That each of the sections undisposed of is hereby agreed to and that Schedules 1, 2 and 3 and the Title are hereby agreed to in Committee, that the Bill is accordingly reported to...
Voted Yes
Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2010: Order for Second Stage
Question put.
Voted Yes
Written Answers - Social Welfare Code
Was asked: if a person evicted from a local authority house can be considered for rent allowance; the way this can be achieved since they are banned from applying for local authority housing; if arrangements ca...
Social Welfare legislation provides the Health Service Executive (HSE) with the authority to refuse, suspend or terminate payment of a rent supplement in the case of a person who has been required to ...
Written Answers - Departmental Staff
Was asked: if he will respond to points raised in correspondence (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter.
On 1st November, there were 967 staff in my Department participating in the work sharing scheme, 926 of whom are female and 41 are male. This is 18.5% of the Department’s staff. All applications for p...
Written Answers - Social Welfare Benefits
Was asked: the reasons rent allowance has been reduced from €34.80 to €7.70 in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
In the time frame available, I regret that my Department is not in a position to reply to this question. My Department will be in contact with the Deputy over the coming days and will reply in full to...
Written Answers - State Bodies
Was asked: if he has received an annual report for each of the past three years from the chairman of all State bodies under the auspices of his Department; if the pay of chief executives and employees of such b...
The three statutory bodies operating under the aegis of the Department are the Social Welfare Tribunal, the Citizens Information Board and the Pensions Board. In addition the Pensions Ombudsman comes...
Written Answers - Social Welfare Benefits
Was asked: the number of rent supplement claimants for longer than 18 months in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment and living in Dublin; the number that are single, single with children, a couple without children...
There are currently 4,889 people in receipt of rent supplement for 18 months or more living in Dublin and in receipt of either jobseeker’s allowance or jobseeker’s benefit. A breakdown of rent supplem...
Written Answers - Pension Provisions
Was asked: the full entitlement to retirement or old age pension in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
As I informed the Deputy in reply to questions on 10th December 2009 and 12th October 2010, and in previous correspondence, the person concerned has reached pension age and has been sent a claim form....
Written Answers - Social Welfare Code
Was asked: the position regarding the way family income supplement payments are treated with rent allowance applications; if same can be outlined and if such treatment is consistent with other benefits.
Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Rent supplement is n...
Written Answers - Social Welfare Benefits
Was asked: the position regarding jobseeker’s allowance in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork.
According to the Departments records the person in question claimed jobseeker’s benefit from 23 October 2008 to 24 October 2009 when his benefit exhausted. He then made an application for and was pai...
| Last Updated: 09/03/2011 12:47:23 |
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