Deirdre Hargey
South Belfast · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“His double standards, including his condemnation of and opposition to equality and rights for our LGBTQ+ citizens, have caused real harm to others. The revelations about his double life expose the staggering hypocrisy of the DUP's moral facade. We need to know whether failing to act sooner left more vulnerable people at risk.”
“One week ago today, Jeffrey Donaldson was found guilty of 18 child sexual offences, including rape. That conviction was made possible only by the strength and resilience of the two victims who came forward and reported the abuse. Donaldson was an abuser. He abused children, but he also abused his position in politics and faith.”
“They now say that they knew about his behaviour, but, crucially, they did nothing to expose his inappropriate hypocrisy and double life. The 'Spotlight' programme and other reports have shown that senior members of the DUP — its most senior figures, including the then leader, Edwin Poots — were aware of serious issues and allegations abou…”
“It is therefore not credible to suggest that the intelligence agencies were blind to his compromised double standards and double life. <BR /> <BR />Those questions demand answers from the DUP leadership. They demand answers in the House from the deputy First Minister, who was closely associated with Donaldson.”
“It is clear that there is a huge disconnect between Whitehall and the reality that is being felt by people on the ground. A British Treasury policy that is managing decay, real-terms cuts and disastrous policy decisions such as Brexit or the funding of wars over public services comes on top of existing disparities between how public servi…”
“The answer is not the short-term fixes or cash injections that we have had in the past, which have allowed for the repeated Treasury script of record settlements and inability of the Executive to manage their finances — scripts that are often parroted in the Chamber.”
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“A parent with care will be able to make representation to my Department if they would like an attempt to collect the arrears where the case started on or before 1 November 2008 and the arrears are more than £1,000; the case started after 1 November 2008 and the arrears are more than £500; or the arrears occurred under the 1993 to 2003 legacy schemes case, which was transferred to the 2012 child maintenance system, and the debt is more than £500. Where no representations are received or collection of the arrears is not possible, my Department may exercise the power to write off the debt.”
“A high proportion of the arrears are now deemed to be uncollectible, and attempting to collect the arrears is now deemed not to be cost-effective. <BR /> <BR />It should also be noted that it was estimated that more than 50% of the arrears were due to the Department and, therefore, would not benefit families. Where the arrears value is £65, the regulations enable the arrears to be written off without notice to either parent. This is in line with the current threshold used in my Department for debts owed to government. <BR /> <BR />If a case has debts subject to Scottish insolvency, the regulations will enable the debt to be written off when that expires.”
“Again, my Department has ensured that the adequate safeguards are in place to protect the interests of other account holders. <BR /> <BR />With regard to historic arrears from 1993 to 2003, the regulations extend my Department's write-off powers to enable the arrears of up to £57·9 million that had built up under the 1993 to 2003 legacy schemes to be addressed and set out the circumstances under which these powers can be exercised. Members may wish to note that the arrears relate to legacy child maintenance scheme cases that could be more than 20 years old and where the children are now adults. It is also likely that the arrears balance was inaccurate due to the penalty assessments and inaccurate or out-of-date calculations at that time.”
“This helps to ensure that child maintenance calculations result in non-resident parents paying an amount that more accurately reflects their means. The notional income shall be calculated at 8% of a confirmed asset's total value where the asset value exceeds £31,250. You may wish to note that protections have been included to ensure that the use of these powers is proportionate. That would include certain circumstances, such as when the asset is used for business purposes or is the primary home of the parent or a child. <BR /> <BR />The regulations extend existing powers to apply regular and lump sum deduction orders to joint and unlimited partnership bank accounts and use lump sum deduction orders on sole traders' accounts.”
“These changes will also help to prevent non-resident parents with complex financial arrangements from artificially lowering their child maintenance liability. <BR /> <BR />The regulations also close existing loopholes by introducing new provisions for orders. The orders enable regular or lump sum deductions to be made from joint, sole trader and unlimited partnership accounts. Powers are introduced to allow the arrears that occurred under the 1993 and 2003 legacy schemes to be written off in certain circumstances. These powers allow my Department to give certainty over its approach to the arrears. <BR /> <BR />On the child maintenance calculation and amendments, the regulations introduce a power for child maintenance service to determine a notional income from assets held by a non-resident parent.”
“Following the conclusion of the consultation and an analysis of the responses received, work began on taking forward the required legislative changes to successfully implement the compliance and arrears strategy. There are two packages of regulations, which I will outline separately. <BR /> <BR />The first package is the Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments No. 3) Regulations, and these introduce a number of changes to child maintenance legislation. Changes include improving the way in which child maintenance liabilities are calculated, increasing the range of collection and enforcement powers to help collect more money for children and addressing historic arrears that built up under the 1993 and 2003 child support legacy schemes.”
“The objectives of the strategy were to continue to prioritise resources to benefit the children of today; to continue to encourage parents to collaborate over their child maintenance arrangements where they can and where that is in the best interests of their children; to continue to minimise the child maintenance arrears being incurred; to further improve compliance through changes to child maintenance calculations; to strengthen collection powers across the child maintenance schemes; and to address the historic arrears that have built up under the former child maintenance legacy schemes and avoid government funding of high-cost attempts to recover historic arrears, which would, in fact result in no additional money going to children.”
“The regulations have enabled my Department to amend the child maintenance legislation to deliver the child maintenance compliance and arrears strategy. I will begin by setting out the background to that strategy, and then I shall detail the regulations. <BR /> <BR />In November 2017, my Department was included in a consultation by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the proposed child maintenance compliance and arrears strategy, which also included England, Scotland and Wales The approach taken has been to ensure that people are treated equally across those areas.”
“<BR /> <BR />I thank Members for their engagement and support until now, and I thank the Committee for its deliberations. I commend the Bill to the Assembly for its approval.”
“I appreciate all the questions, points of clarity and points of view that Members have raised. My officials are taking a report, and, where we need to, we will write separately to Members who raised specific issues that, maybe, I have not particularly answered in the summing up. I remind Members that the key elements of the Bill are the introduction of a notification process, replacing the current consent process; the more specific framing of the circumstances in which an inquiry may be launched; and the ending of the statutory house sales scheme for housing associations. My purpose in bringing forward the legislation is to ensure that housing associations can be returned to private sector classification and, with that, provide protection for social housing development and affordable housing programmes.”
“We have to get it right. We have to set a direction of travel to ensure that we deal with the issues that have been raised around underinvestment, restructuring, the revitalisation of the Housing Executive, looking at the mixture of housing and tenures and ensuring that those who are in critical need have a roof over their head.”
“That was around the housing in west Belfast at that time and the surveys that were carried out. I do that now in the community that I live in. We have taken on NAMA developers. I have gone to court to challenge NAMA developers. I have protested on the streets about NAMA development and the impact that it has. I have been an activist on these issues as well, and, of course, I am attuned to all to them. Land — public land, particularly — has to be used for the greater public use and should not be sold off just for private development. I am in tune with all of the issues, and I have said before that I am keen to engage with any Member who has recommendations or suggestions, not just on this — I hope that people can understand the reasons why I have to bring this legislation — but on the wider housing development programme.”
“They have to see delivery. Someone waiting eight, nine and 10 years for a home is basically unacceptable, and we need to put interventions in place to ensure that that does not happen. <BR /> <BR />There has been a lot of talk about housing being a critical issue. It is a human rights issue, and I know that some have talked about civil rights. Obviously, we see on our screens the impact of America — the issue of National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) land and regeneration. As a Minister, I am from a working-class community, as I said. I grew up in a Housing Executive estate, and I am proud of my class identity and the community that I have come from. I am a community activist, and I come from parents who were civil rights activists. They helped, as early as the late ’50s, going into the ’60s, in the the initial civil rights campaigns.”
“<BR /> <BR />Members raised homelessness and said that this was only being done in the midst of a pandemic. I acted on street-based homelessness within six weeks of coming into office to ensure that people were not out on the street and that there was temporary accommodation for them. I want to build on that in the time ahead. That said, street-based homelessness does not reflect the even bigger homelessness issue of those who sofa-surf, are in overcrowded accommodation or have been in hostels for far too long, particularly in areas of highest and greatest need. North Belfast and Derry were mentioned; there are other areas as well. The issue of urban and rural is something that I am seriously considering, because the housing development programme has to be primarily targeted at those areas of greatest need as well.”
“I will work with housing associations and others, because, even in the devising of this, we have been working with housing associations, the housing policy forum and others, and I will continue to do that. I know that Members have raised these issues specifically, and our officials will keep an eye on who raised them and will ensure that we update Members, as well as the Committee, as we go along. <BR /> <BR />In terms of regulation, these are technical changes. I know that they change things slightly, but some of the issues were around oversight and regulations that the Department has never had to invoke on housing associations up to this point. The key part is that the regulator will continue to have powers to make an intervention, and that engagement will be critical in the time ahead.”
“However, I will obviously make strong representations at the Executive, because I clearly see housing rights as human rights and human rights as housing rights. I am very clear on that. Obviously, the role of housing in building sustainable communities is something that I really value as well in terms of building the vibrancy of communities but at the same time ensuring that we have a housing system that provides for those who need it most and makes sure that there are protections for those who need them most as well. <BR /> <BR />There was some talk around clause 8 and the grant payments. Obviously, that is only for housing associations in respect of discount to a tenant in a social home. The terms and conditions for it are still being developed; they are not there yet.”
“We have been hit with the biggest pandemic that we have seen in our lifetime, so this will take a bit longer for those reasons. I am committed to bringing that forward as quickly as possible, looking not only at issues like affordable housing for people who want it and increasing the availability of social housing to ensure that those who need it most get access to it and other things like cooperative development housing, which would also use private-sector entity for borrowing — that is an important point — just like social enterprise. <BR /> <BR />I know that some touched on rights in housing, and I agree that it should be a priority in the Programme for Government. Those discussions are still ongoing, and, again, the COVID pandemic means that we are getting back into everyday business and to where we were in January.”
“As someone who grew up in a Housing Executive property and still lives in a working-class estate in the Market area in south Belfast, I see the impact of that right to buy, where over 50% of the housing in that community has been sold off. Ultimately, when those houses get sold, it seems like a good idea at the time for people to have ownership, but, when they are sold on, that creates a waiting list in that community and people are living in hostels for five or six years and cannot get homes. We need a wider plan. The reclassification will not fix everything, and I said that it was my intention to bring forward a wider plan that looks at housing going forward. <BR /> <BR />I have been in post since January, folks.”
“No, you are OK. You have had your say. <BR /> <BR />I know that there has been a lot of talk about ending the right to buy, and there have been concerns about that. The clause abolishing it is in ours as it is a compulsory scheme based in legislation. In short, it evidences the sort of controls that ONS based its decision on. There is a key difference here from what happens in the other three jurisdictions in that our scheme is set out in law, which is not the case elsewhere. There are particular reasons for the scheme here and what ONS was uniquely saying about the right-to-buy scheme here at this time. <BR /> <BR />That said, I want to bring forward — I said this in my opening speech — as soon as possible and in the coming period considerations looking at the right to buy for Housing Executive properties as well.”
“I make no apologies for bringing it this time, because there is a financial consequence that means that there would be a consequence for the number of social houses that could be built and a consequence for co-ownership houses. I know that some Members touched on the fact that there was a delay on that in 2016, so why try to delay it until 2020-21? Why try to delay it for up to another year when we can move on it now and make those changes to ensure that that £21 million, which would otherwise be diverted, goes back into the social housing development programme? <BR /> <BR />I know that there has been a lot of talk about the right to buy —.”
“The Executive will not be constrained by having to provide cover for that borrowing, and much-needed Executive funds will not be required to support co-ownership. <BR /> <BR />I will just comment on some of the issues that were raised in the debate. I feel like I keep getting up in the Chamber and saying that accelerated passage is not the way that I want to do business, yet nearly everything I have brought has gone through by accelerated passage. It is just because of the nature of the issues that I have been dealing with that there has been the urgency with which I had to bring things forward, and that is particularly the case because of the pandemic, which started probably fewer than six weeks after I took up the post of Minister for Communities.”
“I thank all the Members who contributed to the debate. On the face of it, I know, the Bill looks very technical, but at the heart of it is access to homes for those in our communities who need it most. It is only with the reclassification that we are able to deliver more social and affordable homes to our people in the coming years. All Members, I hope, will accept that we urgently need to enhance what we deliver, particularly in the context of the New Decade, New Approach commitments. The legislation, if passed, will facilitate the reversal of the classification of housing associations and see them once again classified to the private sector, ensuring that they can continue to be our partners in developing social homes for people. Associations will continue to have discretion over their borrowing.”
“That consultation will be brought forward in the coming months and will include consideration of how best to protect the social housing stock and the future of the Housing Executive's house sales scheme. <BR /> <BR />I am happy to deal with any points of principle from Members.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Bill will not decrease the regulatory authority exercised by the housing regulator and does not diminish the relationship between the tenant and the association nor the tenant's ability to engage with the regulator. The approach in the legislation has been based on the direction from the Executive as far back as September 2016 and does only that which is necessary to achieve the reversal of the ONS decision. That is why the Bill proposes changes to the current compulsory house sales scheme for registered housing associations, but not for the Housing Executive. <BR /> <BR />I will, in due course, consult on methods of entry to affordable home ownership, both on extending existing schemes and introducing new alternative options, particularly for social tenants who wish to become homeowners.”
“<BR /> <BR />First, the current consent process for a number of functions carried out by housing associations will be replaced by a notifications process. Secondly, the circumstances in which the housing regulator may launch an inquiry into the activities of an association are more clearly framed and based in failure or suspected failure to comply with legislation. Thirdly, the Bill removes the power of the Department to petition for the winding-up of an association, a power that has never been used. Creditor bodies could still do that. <BR /> <BR />Finally, the Bill proposes to end the statutory house sales scheme for housing associations, and it introduces a power to enable the Department to support a voluntary house sales scheme should the associations develop a substitute one.”
“As England, Scotland and Wales have also had the same reclassification decision made by ONS, there was regular liaison between officials here and those three other areas. That forum allowed the Department to learn from others' experience and to gain an insight into the legislative amendments that ONS considered to be acceptable for reversing its decision. <BR /> <BR />The issue of the house sales scheme was unique, as we are the only jurisdiction or local authority with a compulsory scheme for registered housing associations. <BR /> <BR />The draft Bill that this work has produced has eight substantive clauses and three technical clauses. There is also a short schedule. The explanatory and financial memorandum published alongside the Bill provide a detailed explanation of it, and I will briefly outline the Bill's main impacts.”
“That is why the sole focus of the draft Bill is to remove or amend those provisions in current housing legislation that provide for that control.”
“The economic benefits, the use of capital DEL to leverage inward commercial investment and the financial transactions capital that can once again be drawn down will take on additional relevance insofar as they will add to the economic recovery from COVID-19. <BR /> <BR />It may be helpful to spend a few minutes to go through the details of the scope of the Bill. ONS determined that housing associations should be classified to the public sector because it observed the level of control of housing associations, by the Executive through my Department, not to be consistent with a private sector classification.”
“However, from November 2018, my Department maintained the delivery of intermediate shared ownership houses at those levels by securing an additional £49 million of capital DEL grants, with approximately £15 million in 2018-19 and a further £34 million in 2019-2020. The alternative would have been a closure of the scheme for new applications. <BR /> <BR />Unless a private sector classification is returned to housing associations, the only options for 2020-21 and beyond are closure or still further pressure on capital DEL. Social and economic benefits are at the heart of the reclassification in this legislation.”
“Instead of supporting a target of 1,850 new build starts, about half of that number of builds would have been affordable. At a time when the waiting list for social homes continues to increase, that is clearly an unacceptable situation. Since 2016, it has become clear that the ONS classification of registered housing associations to the public sector has made them ineligible to access financial transactions capital or FTC loan funding. <BR /> <BR />The access to FTC has supported housing tenures other than social rented tenures — the most significant of which is the co-ownership scheme. In the last two years, the scheme has supported over 2,000 households into home ownership, and, from April 2015, the scheme has utilised a FTC loan to do that.”
“Since the ONS decision, the British Government have prevented its having that effect on the Executive's Budget by applying a derogation. The Treasury terms for that derogation require that the Executive must, in the meantime, expedite legislation that would reform the relationship between it and the associations so as to permit ONS to return registered housing associations to a private sector classification. <BR /> <BR />The derogation expires on 31 March 2021, and it is unlikely that there will be a further extension to that classification. To put that in context, if 2019-2020 had been negatively affected in that way, the £146 million of capital that my Department allocated to new social housing builds could not have been matched by similar sums of borrowing by housing associations.”
“A private sector classification has long enabled housing associations to complement, with their borrowings, the capital that the Executive have allocated to the development of new social homes. Those borrowings did not score as public borrowing due to housing associations' private sector classification, but they would under a public-sector classification. <BR /> <BR />Under the Treasury's borrowing rules, DFC would need to retain in its capital allocation a sum equivalent to an association's annual borrowing while it is classified to the public sector. That would entirely remove the advantage to the Government and the social housing sector of an association's ability to fund new social builds. The building of all new social homes would need to be entirely funded by the Executive.”
“Thank you, Members. To go back over what was previously said, the ONS published its decision on 29 September 2016 to change the classification of registered housing associations from the private sector to the public sector. Obviously, at that time, the Executive started work to facilitate the reversal. The Executive effectively repeated that commitment in New Decade, New Approach, and that committed us to bring forward legislation, which is urgently needed, to reclassify housing associations as external to the public sector to ensure the continuation of the co-ownership housing scheme and the building of new social housing. <BR /> <BR />The Executive decided to seek the reversal of the classification to its development of new social homes through housing associations.”
“I thank the Chair and the Committee for their recognition of the need to move the Bill as quickly as possible and for their support in seeking Assembly approval for accelerated passage. Members will have the opportunity to raise issues in detail at the Second Stage of the Bill, and I look forward to the engagement.”
“Even with accelerated passage, we will need to find £3 million per month to maintain the co-ownership scheme until the ONS decision can be reversed. <BR /> <BR />Of course, the situation we find ourselves in brings added urgency to the pressures of the Bill. The additional funding will prove much more difficult to find as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Of course, the economic benefits of the reclassification of housing associations here will be of huge importance due to the need for recovery vehicles once we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. We need those benefits as soon as possible. <BR /> <BR />In accordance with Standing Order 42(3), I appeared before the Committee for Communities on 13 May to explain the need for accelerated passage for the Bill and to outline the consequences of it not being granted.”
“However, without FTC, the scheme will be forced to close to new applicants unless an alternative source of funding can be found. Over the last two years, the Department has been able to find that funding with significant support from the Department of Finance. However, the uncertain funding picture is not beneficial to co-ownership. My officials have estimated that to maintain the co-ownership scheme at its current level will require an additional capital funding of £3 million per month. This issue is unaffected by the derogation, which is purely about accounting practice. Without accelerated passage there is a risk that the derogation will not be renewed in 2021-22, and the cost of maintaining the co-ownership scheme for the current financial year will have been met by my Department at an additional cost of £36 million.”
“<BR /> <BR />The British Treasury has allowed a derogation in relation to the accounting impacts of the ONS decision, but that is contingent on our doing what is necessary as quickly as possible to facilitate a reversal of the ONS decision. The derogation has already lasted a year longer here than in Scotland and Wales. Whilst it has been renewed for 2020-21, it is highly unlikely that the Treasury will extend it any further. More urgently, with the classification to the public sector, registered housing associations lost their eligibility to access financial transactions capital (FTC). That government loan scheme has been used in the last few years to support increased homeownership through affordable housing programmes. The co-ownership scheme has supported over 2,000 households into homeownership in the last two years.”
“<BR /> <BR />As required under Standing Order 42(4), I wish to explain why I am seeking accelerated passage and the consequences, if it is not granted. I ask for accelerated passage for the Bill because of the financial implications if we cannot achieve a timely reversal of the ONS decision. The ONS decision means that the borrowing of registered housing associations counts as public sector borrowing, and the Department must provide cover for that borrowing. However, doing so for registered housing associations would impact adversely on our current approach to building social homes, in which the associations match fund the capital grant made by the Department through their borrowing in the private sector. The loss of that approach would see the volume of social homes built each year reduced by almost 50%.”
“Thank you, and I thank everyone in the Chamber. I welcome the opportunity to address the Assembly on the motion. There are compelling grounds for the use of accelerated passage for the legislation. It is, obviously, not a decision that I take lightly, but it is necessary. <BR /> <BR />The Bill is necessary, following the 2016 decision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to classify registered housing associations locally to the public sector for the purposes of government accounting. Similar decisions were made by ONS on housing associations in the other jurisdictions. On the day that the decision was announced, the Executive agreed that the Department for Communities should bring forward proposals to achieve a reversal of the ONS decision.”
“I have seen correspondence from landlords who have blatantly stepped outside the guidance that my Department has given. I encourage anyone who knows about that to contact my Department or Housing Rights, which my Department funds. It provides an excellent service for those in the private rented sector, and I encourage people to go and get legal advice from it. I will be meeting our housing division tomorrow. One of the issues that I want to look at is what further interventions I, as a Minister, can make in respect of unscrupulous landlords who are using the pandemic in a way that, to be honest with you, is disgraceful. If I can take forward further protections or measures in the time ahead, I am more than willing to do that.”
“Thanks very much for your questions. I am more than wiling to engage on social security; it is a critical issue that needs to be looked at. However, we do not have all the economic levers to make the decisions that we want to make. We are reliant on a block grant from Westminster. I think that, if we can get into a process of the transfer of those levers, we will be able to make all the decisions that we want to make and have the resources to do it. That said, I am looking at other resource options such as financial transactions capital and whether there other things that we could be doing in the time ahead. <BR /> <BR />On the issue of private renters, the Evictions Bill was brought in. It was done very quickly and there were reasons for that.”
“I will continue to protect workers and the public with regard to accessing buildings, whether it is a local shop or a social security office, because people are still nervous. As I said, I was in Strabane on Friday, and staff are comfortable with the measures that are there at the moment, but, if there is any easement, they want assurance that their safety is still the priority. Notwithstanding the economic and social challenges that that poses, we have to step through this to ensure that we keep the R rate as flat as possible to ensure that our health system can cope. I will continue to work on this in the time ahead, but, again, I will be led by the medical advice and engagement with the trade unions and employers.”
“It will be critical, because it is not a case of just opening the economy again and getting people back to work; it has to be done safely. There have to be measures in place to ensure that there is social distancing and that screens etc can be put up, if they are needed. There are also other issues with buildings. There might only be one toilet, so how do you clean it? How do you sure that clean surfaces are maintained? We know from the recent medical advice that indoors still carries the highest risk. We could not move this week to allow families to meet indoors because of the issue of shared surfaces and the transmission of the virus via those surfaces. <BR /> <BR />I will continue to be guided by the medical and scientific advice.”
“It is important that the scientific advice and analysis is accurate; it is also important that we see the impact on the virus of any easements. It will take a week or two to know how the R number — the rate of transmission — is affected. We cannot jump in and do all of these things at once, because, if that sends the rate of transmission above 1, it puts increased pressure on our public health service. That would be the wrong thing to do, and many Members would rightly get up in the Chamber to condemn it. <BR /> <BR />Through the Economy Department, a forum has been established that works with trade unions, business representative bodies and employers. They provided guidance a few weeks ago on essential workers and others. The forum continues its business.”
“I am glad that the Member got to ask his question. First, I make no apologies for implementing measures that protect the most vulnerable and those who need support at this time. I will continue to do that unapologetically in the time ahead and engage with citizens. The take-up of the schemes that have been implemented through my Department shows that people really need them at this point, and they will need them going forward. <BR /> <BR />In step one, we did not include dates; indeed, each step will have a different approach. The virus is very much still here, and people are very much still losing their lives. As we move through each of the steps, it is important that we have the most recent medical advice.”
“If legislative changes are needed to do that — I am looking at all options at the moment; nothing is closed — it will be done in consultation with councils to look at their unique circumstances and their pressures. It is, obviously, a good announcement that we have managed to get the £20·5 million for the first couple of months, and we will start to move through the next phase of that in collaboration with councils, NILGA and SOLACE as we go forward.”
“I continue to work with councils, and we have been engaging over the last couple of months and weeks. I intervened with a council that was going to let workers go and advised that it should explore all other options first before letting workers go at this time, because we need to retain our workforce as we move through the pandemic. I am glad that the furlough scheme was used. It was utilised in that council area to ensure that those 70-odd staff were not let go. I want to continue to work with councils in the time ahead on the financial pressures that they have, on future investments, on regeneration and, I suppose, on capital investments that can be made in their areas.”
“The other thing is that we have social security benefits that are open and accessible to people who need them. The issue has been raised with the Economy Minister, the Finance Minister and others to look at additional supports, but it has to be an engagement with the Irish Government as well. <BR /> <BR />There is social security that people can apply for, if they are based here. There are complex issues, and it is something that we need to look at, going forward. I am committed to trying to find a solution, but this does not rest just in my Department. There are issues with the Irish Government as well that we need to continue to raise. Indeed, if you have solutions or ideas, come and speak to me directly. I am more than willing to hear them, and my door is open.”
“Firstly, this is an issue that you need to take up with the Irish Government, and we have continually raised with them the payments that they have made —.”
“I have made the decision to suspend for three months, and we have been moving to telephony. That does not suit everyone, and the important thing is that payments continue. This is in line with public health guidance on social distancing, isolating and staying at home and going out only when necessary. We will continue to review that as we approach the three months to see whether there is a need to extend it. We will do that in liaison with the Chief Medical Officer and the scientific officer.”