Results 1,721-1,740 of 1,121,408 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Michael McNamara OR speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Michael Moynihan OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Brendan Howlin OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív56 OR speaker:Catherine Martin OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Denise Mitchell)

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have just one comment, just in case anybody misunderstood what I said. I welcome the one-off payments but the more they are paid, the more necessary it is to have a structure. I have said time and again regarding the Christmas bonuses that their structure should be such that nobody will be able to say in a future year that, because the Exchequer is a bit short, they will not be paid....

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: These are the quick fire questions now.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I noticed that if it had not been for the one-off payment and the fuel allowance the Minister's underlying Estimate was €2 million more generous than required. That is significant because for the second year in a row the Minister has been bang on. An amount of €2 million is not much in the greater scheme of the maths being done here. It shows relaxing the means test on the...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There is no means test on that.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Thus, on the face of it, it looks like if we opened it up with no means test, we would have 6,700 more. How many are getting the carer's allowance?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is 93,000. Of those, how many are getting-----

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It does not matter. How many are getting one that is not reduced by means?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That means 81,000 get the full amount.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Minister is widening it faster than the cost-of-living rise, which is very welcome. She would expect a fair number of those recipients would come up to the full amount again. Is that not right?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: However, it has not exceeded her Department's expectations, because the budget was bang on target at within €12 million of €1.4 billion. The point I am making again is that it does not seem this would open the floodgates, from looking at the figures. Why would anybody who could get €2,000 and who is disqualified on means grounds not take the €2,000?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: However, the evidence on the ground is not too many people are going to leave €2,000 behind them.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Then the Minister should start publicising it.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: People watching in are often confused by the Vote and the Social Insurance Fund. The Minister and I understand this. For the record, can she confirm, in simple terms, that the Vote covers the expenditure on schemes that are, for example, are means-tested, etc.? The Social Insurance Fund is money people get as of right as they have paid social insurance. What the Minister is telling us...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is a significant amount of money. The other issue that has been a concern to me is that our focus is the need to support families. Every child growing up is potentially a worker and every worker is a contributor. Most people contribute from their 20s to their 60s. Some are contributing much later; way beyond that. For the bulk, those are the years they are contributing. If our...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I appreciate that, but I will watch with interest whether the further relaxation of the means test, which is quite considerable, is going to cause this projected tsunami. I predict the Minister is going to come back next year and say the figures are bang on target because this is not causing a tsunami and is not the cause of the increase in carers. There are lots of people caring who have...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: She cannot say.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have a final question, since it comes down to money. The CE supervisors got some arrangement on the pensions.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I understand there was a recommendation made and it is floating around somewhere between the Minister's Department and the Department of public expenditure in relation to Tús and RSS supervisors.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: As the Minister knows, those working on the RSS and Tús are paid considerably less and they did not benefit from the package put together for the CE supervisors, to my knowledge. I understand it is in the system. There was a recommendation made but it did not get through.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I ask the Minister to.