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How is the government revamping the social welfare system?

That’s one of the subjects up for debate in Leinster House today.

WHAT’S GOING ON in Leinster House?

Every day the Dáil and Seanad are sitting, TheJournal.ie brings you the most comprehensive guide to what our lawmakers are getting up to in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

So, here is what we can expect to be happening in the Dáil, Seanad and Committee rooms today…

3 things we’ll be keeping an eye on

  • 9.30 am, Committee Room 2: HIQA will come before the health committee to discuss almost 9,000 required improvements at centres for older people that were identified last year.
  • 10.45 am, Dáil: A Bill that proposes making changes to the social welfare system will be debated. It looks at several issues including introducing a tougher residency test for foreign nationals applying for social welfare and extending social protection to cover spouses or civil partners of self-employed workers.
  • 12 pm, Dáil: As Enda Kenny is still in California, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore is likely to be fielding queries from the Opposition in Leaders’ Questions.

Everything else happening in the Dáil

  • 9.30 am: After a mixed week on the jobs front, with announcements of both new positions and lossesJobs Minister Richard Bruton is first in the firing line today.
  • 12.21 pm: The Order of Business will be read.
  • 12.41 pm: A Fianna Fáil-led debate on the LEADER Programme, a scheme that provides funding to people setting up businesses in rural areas, will continue today. During Private Members Business the main opposition party will discuss what it calls the government’s “cynical failure to engage in real consultation with the integrated community companies”.
  • Following this, debate on the social welfare Bill will resume.
  • 4.42 pm: Four subjects will come up during Topical Issues.
  • 5.30 pm: The Dáil will adjourn.

Everything happening in the Seanad

  • 10.30 am: The Order of Business will be read.
  • 11.45 am: The upper house will debate a bill that would make examinership available to co-operative societies.
  • The Companies Bill 2012 will then be discussed.
  • Afterwards, Matters on the Adjournment will round out the day in the Seanad.

Everything else that’s happening in the Committees

Agriculture Committee

  • 9.30 am, Room 1:  Discussion on maximinisg land usage and potential will continue.

Jobs Committee

  • 10 am, Room 3: Access to finance for SMEs will dominate the committee’s agenda again today. Representatives from the Irish League of Credit Unions, the Credit Union Managers Association and the Dublin Business and Innovation Centre will attend.

Environment Committee

  • 10 am, Room 4: Environment Minister Phil Hogan will brief the committee on the upcoming European Environment Council of Ministers meeting.

European Affairs Committee

  • 2 pm, Room 3: Discussion on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will resume.

Here’s how to watch what’s going on in Leinster House today:

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51 Comments
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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:22 AM

    The social welfare system has a lot of issues and areas for improvement, you could fill 100 A4 pages with proposals..but IMO the no1 issue that dwarfs all the others: Lifers.

    These are the 80-100,000 who were on the dole when all of us were working and you could not walk down a street without seeing a job offer in a window. There are housing estates all around this country, where there is generation after generation of unemployment, purposeful unemployment, where they life off of it and build their lives around the means tests knowing every facet of every little rule.
    They think the social welfare system is a way of life not a safety net while you deal with your problems. They demand x house in y area. They seem to ”accidentally” have several kids…without ever having paid into the system they expect more from it than someone who has paid tax all their lives. We tolerate and indulge these people while we starve other citizens who have greater need, or who are trying to do something with their life like college students, entreprenuers etc, of services and help. We have built a system where the entire ethos of it is inverted:
    You are punished for working and contributing and rewarded for making a lifestyle choice.

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    Mute John Murphy
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:26 AM

    Great post Ryan

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    Mute Jeremy Usborne
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:27 AM

    Well, when you have the situation where 1in 8 Irish adults are disabled to the point where finding work is impossible, what can you do?

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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:41 AM

    Ryan your article is a load of rubbish your tarring all the un employed with the one brush or maybe your a vindictive person who leads that lifestyle you write about yourself.

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    Mute DeShawn Jersey
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:46 AM

    Great comment Ryan, completely agree. I get so annoyed about high levels of social welfare but what’s actually annoying me is the people who weren’t working in 2001-2007, they obviously have no intention of ever working. Social welfare should be diminishing based on number of years spent receiving it IMO.

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    Mute jason bourne
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:53 AM

    What are you talking about jack? He is not tarring all the unemployed with one brush. He is highlighting the serious issue of people who CHOOSE to make the dole a lifestyle choice. That is a major problem which successive governments fail to address.

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    Mute Martina Lavin
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:55 AM

    Jack, I think he made it pretty clear who was talking about in his comment. Lifers, ie, can work, but choose not to. Big difference between those and people who genuinely seek employment and those who are legitimately disabled. My estate alone had plenty of people who have no intention of ever seeking employment. Why would they? I pay a mortgage on a two bedroom townhouse, while lad next door pays FA for the luxury. He has lived there for 6 years and has no intention of working and never been on an internship! Yet I have friends who have become unemployed with mortgages shoved on jobsbridge and no one is giving them any help to pay their mortgages! Why is he entitled to rent allowance having never contributed to tax system while my friends receive nothing!

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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:00 AM

    Maybe we could check the teeth of everyone claiming the dole and any gold ones found take them out and sell them and give the money to the government to fund the below cost drink in the dail bar.

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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:05 AM

    I dont know anyone who chooses to be on the dole thats just people who have cosy jobs been vindictive.The money is been wasted on TDs Senators Councillors and all the advisers the government pays for doing nothing….Get Real

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    Mute Martina Lavin
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:07 AM

    Well if you’re a dole lifer, I’m sure gold teeth wouldn’t be something you’d be wasting taxpayers money on….

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    Mute Sargon
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:10 AM

    No Jack, you get real. There is a very real culture of unemployment among certain segments of our society. Do you suggest just letting them live off the state forever?

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    Mute James Murphy
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:17 AM

    I know of a couple of lifers as you put it, it’s a disgrace really. I don’t know how they get away it.

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    Mute Declan Conway
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    Jun 5th 2014, 11:01 AM

    In the UK, they are now proposing that immigrants will have to work for five years before claiming welfare and benefits. That could (and should) be extended to all.

    Look at Spain. You get generous benefits for 2 years – and then nothing.
    If we should do that is up for debate.

    Nonetheless, we have a huge national debt of 225 billion.
    This year we pay 9 billion in interest on the bailout – the same as our entire education bill.
    Next year it will be 10 billion, and 11 billion in 2015….and around that level for several years after.
    We are the most indebted nation per capita in the industrialised world, which probably makes us the most indebted nation in the whole world.

    And yet we spend 31.2% of our annual GDP on handouts – second only to France on 31.8%.

    We have to make some big, necessary changes soon, or bigger, far uglier changes later.

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    Mute TractorPat
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    Jun 5th 2014, 12:59 PM

    Super post Ryan. And spot on. Every town has these estates with generations of ‘lifers’. Scam bridge and CE Schemes forced upon people unfortunate to have lost their jobs while these lifers are left to their own devices to sign on with no questions asked. Pay tax and you get screwed but never pay it and only claim it and you’re a free bird without a care in the world. Open your eyes Joan Burton and your staff.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 1:21 PM

    @Jeremy I think you mean the ones that are unemployABLE? I say we have a time limit for most people. Tell them they have to go to work, or they can work for a reduced rate of 125 for the state part time.
    @Jack I was gonna say it’s a post not an article but typing at 85wpm I usually end up writing an article instead :P

    People here lookin at my public FB pics think I’m some kind of preppy rich kid, this is not class snobbery, I may have that D4jck look from hanging around UCD too long, but I grew up in a working class council estate, I was independent because unfortunate circumstances meant I had to be, from the time I was 18. I saw these people up close.
    My mother worked two jobs, she’d come home at 5pm make me dinner then go back out to work for her night job at 7pm. I started my first job at 10 where in the newsagent I always liked the main manager because he gave me loads to do, my first official job was 16 and I got so obviously bored packing shelves that the manager wanted to put me on stock control. I came from a parent with a work ethic that rubbed off on me, and so I see the sharp contrast between that and the lifers I’m talking about.
    I was FORCED to not work for a while cos of ilness and I don’t know how people voluntarily do this, be at home all day with nothing to do, I can’t sit still and do nothing. So I’m posting on here, I’m working out, I’m going for a run I’m writing policy papers for when I go back to politics…I can’t see how anyone can just…do nothing.

    @Jack if we imported our govt from the most perfect country out there, these 100,000 would still exist and we need to do something about them. Social Welfare was put in because private chairty was not enough to deal with poverty, but it was there to keep your BASICS together while you were in transition between times where you carried your own resources. It was not designed for drinking money, for holidays
    NOBODY out there minds paying taxes, even some higher ones, so kids can go to school or college /mother can feed her kids…they don’t mind that, but to take nearly half of what they’ve EARNED off them and to give it to people who didn’t ever even TRY to earn…that’s disgraceful and intolerable. When you see 50% of your wages vanishing then know your neighbour has gotten that money and has never sent out a single CV in 5 years it makes you very angry.

    @Declan we have a similar rule for immigrants atm.
    There should be 3 things:
    1. Stronger training options / requirements
    2. An allowance / total payments cap of 450 a week (inc CB)
    3. A time limit

    Basing lower rates on age as they do now is CRAZY they should be basing it on circumstances I lived in Dublin and as under 25 would be getting 100 a week but I was independent, the council who were means testing my mother when she was sick refused to believe I could be from Dublin and living on college campus, they woudn’t take account of our special circumstances or my RA job in UCD they harassed her with a bill for 6k sending her a letter saying they KNEW I was there and she was lying to them, and that she owed the money or the sherif would be down.
    Were doing this to a hardworking woman who worked 2 jobs most of her life but they are scared out of their boots to go to Tommo or Jayo the mad things house and ask him if he’s really living with his gf.
    That needs to stop.

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    Mute Aisling Brady
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    Jun 5th 2014, 1:23 PM

    but, sadly, what he says is true – there are estates in this country where not one family has ever gone out to work, even in the good times when work was available. What other country in the world would put up with this situation? Of course not every unemployed person is like that, and there are people who never worked through no fault of their own, but a very large number of unemployed are that way because they choose to be so and you must be blind if you cannot or will not see that.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 2:25 PM

    The UK has a v similar problem so has the USA , they often take measures far too blunt without solving the problem.

    We may have to end up setting some kind of minimum income (as opposed to hourly wage) and locking the welfare rates down at 75% of this to preserve the incentive, we could also do a subsidy based system where if you take a full time min wage job the state will continue to give you say 25% of your jobseekers for the first six months. The problem now is all the incentives are to screw the system rather than to work. The second you as much as think of workign they start yanking things off you. But if you continue to pop out kids etc you just get rewarded with more money and a bigger house.

    For these baby machines, we can’t cut money off of kids who already born, but I suggest we send the message out now, from 2015 onwards, you don’t get childrens allowance unless you are working or in education.
    One parent payments need to end, they should be told ”if you want to get money for the child, get it from the father, it’s his responsibility he had sex without protection it’s his child” if the girl can prove it’s his child, have the state attach 50% of his wages to go onto a second welfare debit card for her that is keyd to only spend on childrens products. You’d best not sleep with total strangers without at least using protection and you won’t be in a situation where you don’t know who the father is.

    ”I need a house” should be met with ”then you’d best get on with educating yourself so you’re qualified for a career because you’re renting or getting a mortgage, were NOT giving you a house, end of story..buy one yourself, and live with your parents until you do”

    Introduce these people to a bit of personal responsibility, let them see YOU are responsible for YOUR actions and YOUR life, you can’t expect everyone else to fund you. I mean the rest of us have to live by these rules don’t we? We get a bit of help and that’s it. Any time I got major help from the state something was expected from me in return, and the help was not open ended. So if we can live by those rules they can too. It’s just like the criminal justice system with the same people it’s all part of the EXACT same problem: No personal accountability and responsibility, they just take take take take take and get away with it.

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    Mute tink04
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    Jun 5th 2014, 7:38 PM

    Ok Ryan, I totally agree with you on most of your points. I lived in an area with “lifers” who knew the system inside out and abused it continually. I know girls who had more kids to get higher child benefit. But I am also a lone parent. After being brought up by hard working parents, I met the father of my kids at 19, got married and had “an existence” in one of these estates. It wasn’t a life. I refused to buy into the advice from everyone to lie and claim lone parents therefore scrimped and saved as much as possible and worked hard. My husband turned out, not surprisingly, to be a complete waste of space. Any job he ever had, I found and forced him into. When we split up I was working part-time and increased my hours and also applied for lone parents. I have continually taken him to court (at my own expense) to try to get maintenance from him but to no avail. I have always had some form of employment, went back into education when my youngest started school and have tried to get out of the SW cycle. I could not have done any of this without the help of SW. The problem now is there are no jobs, the government is trying to force everyone into internships, to lower the expectation of minimum wage IMO, and in turn taking jobs away from people. In one week, on the Fas website, there were 32 jobs that would suit me..26 of them were internships! The thing to remember is that there are genuine people out there who are trying to break the cycle, not everyone is a typical “lifer”.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:14 PM

    think I don’t want anyone to think I expect the system to expect people to live flawless lives. We all make mistakes in our life, some of us make big ones. I beleive as a general life rule in cutting people some slack, because people always cut me slack when I got myself into trouble.

    I’m not saying a well meaning woman, who is perfectly respectable etc can’t get into a situation where she is pregnant etc unexpectidly. I’m not suggesting THAT alone by definition makes one a knacker by any means, I know girls it’s happened to, it can happen to you even if you’re being quite responcible…once…some of these are having 3-4 accidents one after anoter.
    I also understand there are people who may be genuine, or start that way, and whatever way the circumstances play themselves out they feel boxed into playing the system out of raw pragmatisim to do whats best for them and their kids.

    I’m not saying state take hands off, I’m saying the state help you, I’m saying the state ENFORCES your right to get money from the father, once parentage is proven, I’d have the state attach his wages and just give them to you. I’m not saying hands off your on your own, but to change the rules so that people are trying where possible to deal with their own problems.
    I know in a way it seems judgemental and harsh but thats the way they’ve left us, we’ve no choice now.

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    Mute richardmccarthy
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:45 PM

    Congrats Ryan, best comment ive read for quite some time.

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    Mute tink04
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    Jun 5th 2014, 11:11 PM

    I get where you are coming from, there is unfortunately no enforcement for fathers to pay, I’m sure there are men out there being advantage of also. Some of the ideas I have seen you put forward on this thread for social welfare could definitely work but will we ever get a government who will get the system right??? Hopefully!!

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    Mute James Lyons™
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:33 AM

    Drug test suspected junkies. You’d see some of them come straight out of the post office to their dealer. I don’t want my taxes paying for heroin

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    Mute John Murphy
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:36 AM

    Food and clothing vouchers instead

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    Mute James Lyons™
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:44 AM

    Spot on! It’s probably unethical to randomly drug test people suspected junkies on benefits (people can spot a junkie a mile away) but they’re starting to do it in Australia

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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Jun 5th 2014, 11:08 AM

    Didnt know ye had clothing shops in Longford

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 1:28 PM

    Like crime, I would caution against advocating things that sound tough just because they sound tough.

    Think it through a bit. Some US states did this they found v few actually on drugs and terminating their payments didn’t even cover the cost of the testings.
    I’ts a side debate but I think we should be developing drug centres where drugs are legalized to adults it would bankrupt the criminal world, have a tender for it’s running and management each year state gives company a flat fee for managing it, keeps all the profits. No marketing no advertising, let centres have safe injection sites and needle exchanges, make it life imprionsment to get drugs elsewhere even on first offence (to sell) and they’ll become the sole focus and bankrupt the dealers.

    There is an easier way to stop money going on narcotics instead of essentials, a way that does not humilite people who are on social welfare. When I was on JA for a while and SickPay after it, after going through college and doing everything I could to confound the odds of where I grew up affecting my adult hood, going to that SW office, and que in the post office, was a humiliating degrading experience, you really don’t wanna add to that with food vouchers.
    My idea is to pair up with someone like VISADEBIT and develop a chip n pin smart card, with the VISA Logo on one side the INTREO logo on the other. It will process food, clothes, the pharmacy, all that but wont process alcohol, cigs and it clearly can’t pay for drugs. There won’t be any way of transfering the credid, it will just be loaded up each week.
    Once we have that we can (As we already should) stop this ”signing on” nonsense, if you have to manually collect your money every week, signing on is pointless.

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Jun 6th 2014, 4:17 PM

    those who wanted to would soon find away around the system ryan , they would get the food, clothing etc from their card ,and then sell it on to others and use the money for drink drugs gambling whatever. i do agree with a lot of what you say on here, i see ‘lifers’ everyday drinking and smoking weed ,in and out of the bookies or the sw office, men of 30+ years of age who have never worked a day in their lives, have 3 or 4 kids to different woman and pay nothing to keep them , they get a house from the local authority, wreck it and get a refurbishment or a new house , they are usually ‘extended’ families of 2nd or 3rd generation lifers with uncles, brothers ,cousins etc all doing the same.
    i worked since leaving school ,both here and in the uk, up to 90 hours a week at times, for a few years i ran my own business, but now due to illness i can no longer work , i paid my tax’s prsi and all those other things working people have to pay, yet i get less in sw payments than these jokers who have never worked a day in their lives. it is wrong and something should be done about it , but it also hacks me off when people on sites like this start labeling everyone on benefit as ‘scroungers’ or ‘parasites’ over the years (especially when i was self employed) i probably paid more tax etc than most of those giving out will ever pay ! i would love nothing more than to be able to get out of bed in the morning put on my working clothes and do a good days graft ,sadly for me i never will do so again , there needs to be cuts to benefit but only in specific cases, not like this governments ‘one size fits all ‘ solution but targeted cuts to those abusing or ‘playing’ the system . anyway congratulations on a very well written and thoughtful post.

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    Mute Les Rock
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:05 AM

    By giving it to the people who actually need it

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    Mute Eoin O'Connor
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:30 AM

    Actual solution: Basic Income.
    Clear out all the needless bureaucracy and degrading means-testing for recipients and simply pay each resident of the country an unconditional income regardless of whether they work or not.
    This would (1) offer each person an economic floor under their feet and provide for basic needs in a way that does not tether them to the state in the way the current welfare system does; and (2) de-couple income from formal employment, so that people who have a greater degree of economic freedom to choose jobs that they actually find fulfilling instead of degrading jobs they only accept out of sheer necessity.

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    Mute Tommy C
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:01 AM

    Eoin does that mean that workers get that money ontop of their wages and salaries?

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    Mute Sargon
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:12 AM

    And where will we find the money to pay everyone without them contributing anything?

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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Jun 5th 2014, 10:45 AM

    Take it off the TDs Senators and all the government hangers on that are below the radar .
    The government love to see me and all the brainwashed disagreeing because then they snick in laws before we know it.Its called divide and conquer.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 1:45 PM

    Tommy it’s hard to describe, don’t wanna do 4 paragraphs explain it…basically BASICALLY it would mean abolishing social welfare, replacing it with a universal income of whatever rate that everyone would get, for some above x wealth/income the system would automatically tax it back, the rest would get to keep it and it would work as a subsidy or in the place of welfare.

    I did a study on it in first year but I’ve forgotten most of the mechanics, I think the savings on admin were predicted to be at least 30% (SIPTU would LOVE that..and I’d LOVE to be the one to breif them on it..with a huge big f—ing smile on my face!). I think if they can find a way to make it work well it would be far superior.

    The thing they worry about is what they call in social policy the ”malabu surfer effect” that some would just choose not to work then, and if we had to bring in rules etc we’d end up with the same red tape with welfare, but two things to that:
    1. We have people using money from the state as a lifestyle choice NOW
    2. A few simple rules, requiring itnervews and engagement with likes of INTREO would still save far more than the webwork of allowances schemes etc we have now, it would at least REDUCE the red tape.

    This is kind of like the good bank plan instead of the bad bank plan. This plan is better in theory but since nobody else has tried it, our political leaders are too timid and afraid they’ll make a mistake if they’re the first, same way they won’t leaalize drugs yet, they don’t wanna get the method-model wrong and end up taking a political risk. IMO though UBI would be far far better.

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Jun 6th 2014, 4:23 PM

    we pay our tds and senators and very few of them do anything!

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    Mute David Swan
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    Jun 5th 2014, 11:35 AM

    The first thing that should be looked at is the disability allowance, before I get slated I know the majority are in genuine receipt of it. But there are very many who never worked during the Boom years who moved from job seekers to disability payments. Thus getting a medical card and every other allowance going, and also ensuring that they can’t be nudged back into employment. The amount of junkies and wasters claiming to have some bullshit condition that prevents them from working, yet have the ability to rob, beat and terrorise the rest of society!!! I’m open to correction but I think that disability benefit is still payable whilst on holiday in the Joy!!!

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    Mute Denise Friary
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    Jun 5th 2014, 11:39 AM

    Thanks for that comment Doctor David.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 1:40 PM

    It is a problem Denise. AFAIK I’m not 100% sure I am ready to be corrected I’m gonna try to look this up, but I think depression and addiction are treated as disability.

    Not that they are not, but with the way the DSM has been weakened to serve the drug companies in recent years, and with them trying to pathologize many normal traits, many have a tougher standard for mental illness that in order to be considered a serious condition they diagnose you with, rather than general emotional problems, it has to be interfering with you basic daily functioning like socializing. That should be the standard with DA and 3 independent mental health professionals (not GPs) should all agree, their guidelines should show that if someone has never worked that person should be given extra scrutiny.
    There are a lot of fakers out there ruining these supports for people with genuine depression.

    Addictions a condition too but if it’s not already the payment should be tied to engagement with a tratment programme and there should be progress on it.

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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:16 AM

    Your not wrong there thats the first thing them TDs do is fill out the expenses and its the poor Tax payers foot the bill.

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    Mute Reality Cheque
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    Jun 5th 2014, 11:18 AM

    Something that would really improve the social welfare system:

    A series of measure to make it easier for people to sing on and off payment when they have part-time or short contract employment. At the moment, the system promotes long-term unemployment because it is so difficult to sign back on if you have been working for a short period of time. The result being that people who are generally trying to find work and will take such part-time/temporary jobs are treated with more suspicion than those who have been unemployed for years.

    Some industries, such as leisure, tourism, food and third-level education depend on having a flexible workforce available to them at short notice. Workers who will work seasonally, such as the summer or over term time (third-level education), often in different venues/locations and with multiple employers. The current social welfare system cannot cope with industry’s demand for flexible labour. Full-time, pensioned, salaried work is not an option for everyone. And, is not conducive to supporting industry’s who actually need part-time/flexible workers.

    Practical suggestion that would make a huge difference for people willing to work, able to work, instead of penalising these people and treating them like criminals when they go into their local social welfare office to inform them that they have part-time work that they wish to to undertake.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Jun 5th 2014, 1:32 PM

    This is a HUGE problem. The system is very inflexible, and the staff are so far inside the bureaucracy that to them these mental rules make total sense.

    When you sign off it takes 3 days to sign back on, which is absurd, the technology exists now that we don’t need these paper means tests, we can link revenue computers bank accounts and sw all together in the same server, instant means tests and approcals should be possible.
    They also have to loose the way they reduce payments, ATM they don’t calculate it based on money you make or time, but days.

    So if you get say a newsagent, say you’re a management or business graduate and you have someone offering you a part time management job, 3 days a week, but each day is only 2 hours to fill a gap. Every ”day” you do ANY work is considered a full day worked. So you might only get 30 euro for the 2 hours, but they’ll reduce your welfare by a full day.
    They should have it rigged so that whatever way the formula comes out, you are left BETTER off for taking ANY work than taking none.

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    Mute Denise Friary
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    Jun 5th 2014, 9:10 AM

    I bet they will make time to fill out their expenses forms

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    Mute David Swan
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    Jun 5th 2014, 12:07 PM

    You don’t have to be a doctor to see them in the post office on Pay Day / Free money day!!!

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    Mute Denise Friary
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    Jun 5th 2014, 12:26 PM

    So what are you doing in the post office the same day, Id say collection some pay out yourself

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    Mute Cathy Cussen
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    Jun 5th 2014, 12:22 PM

    So your a high paid man of the world, here lads i’ve this great idea lets turn poor people on the poorer people and not on our self seems to be working.

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    Mute Treasa Réiltín Ní Dónaill
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    Jun 5th 2014, 8:49 PM

    Unfortunately people have developed this unbelievable sense of entitlement to everything, simply cause there lazy, and additionally because the welfare in this country is bloody ridiculous. We cater for it way too much. And job bridge shows the greedyness on behalf of the employers too- rather abuse the unemployed then actually create jobs. In addition to curbing how easy it is to sit around and claim benefits your entire life, they should introduce measures to prevent employers from exploiting people. Maybe a limit to the amount of interns a company can employ, and drug tests and proof of job seeking for the unemployed. Companies today will refuse candidates who are fully qualified for positions, because they’d rather get someone they can throw 50 euro a week at for the same thing.

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    Mute David Swan
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    Jun 5th 2014, 12:36 PM

    Eh no, they sell stamps too!!

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    Mute Rex Gardener
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    Jun 5th 2014, 12:29 PM

    Radical solutions is needed! stop reproduction completely no more babies no more future no more people using welfare services, if this solution cannot be done then im not happy because these people should be in complete poverty

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