Ben Dunne said: “I wouldn’t have it on my conscience to pay someone €203 a week and ask them to try to live on it.”

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says a further 200,000 people will lose their jobs in Ireland in the coming days because of coronavirus.

Health Minister vows to keep testing people for Covid-19 as number of confirmed cases set to surge.

Fianna Fáil's Finance spokesperson Michael McGrath has said the country does not need “some complex, cumbersome scheme” regarding a freeze on mortgage payments.

Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has said she hopes that the government will not need to enact powers to monitor mass gatherings or treat those affected by the virus, but who refuse to self-isolate.

Dr Jim Stewart of Trinity College Dublin has said there is a “window of opportunity” at present because the Social Insurance Fund is in surplus.

People who want to work beyond the age of 65 should be able to do so, Willie O'Dea told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland

"The Taoiseach will have to make that call at the appropriate time, I'm sure he'll engage with Deputy Martin on it."

Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has accused the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin of pushing for a general election date because “he has lost control and he doesn’t like it.”

Fine Gael has been accused of failing children, with 92,000 young people now living in consistent poverty and 4,000 in emergency homeless accommodation.

A stormy meeting on the controversial Public Services Card this morning saw Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty say her department would take their objection to accusations of illegality levelled at the card “as far as it takes to vindicate our position”.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has ordered gardaí to remove the Public Services Card as a means of identification on its vetting forms.

Former Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has called for the new scheme to enrol private sector workers automatically in a pension scheme from 2022 not to be privatised.

A mosque in Tralee has been targeted in a graffiti attack with the words “Islamic State out” as gardaí in Cork confirmed they are treating the appearance of a Nazi slogan over a social welfare office as a potential incitement of hatred incident.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection was registering entire private companies for the Public Services Card despite an ongoing investigation into the project by the Data Protection Commissioner.

The Government’s policy of retaining its citizens’ personal information upon registration for a Public Services Card has no impact with regard to preventing welfare fraud, the PSC’s original purpose.

By their actions shall we know them. The handling by the Government of the public service card (PSC) saga speaks volumes for how it governs.

Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has said that based on their own legal advice, her department does not accept the findings of the Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the Public Services Card.

The Government’s decision to challenge the Data Protection Commissioner’s highly adversarial rulings on the Public Services Card has been condemned as “ludicrous” and “incredibly bizarre”.

Is it possible that the botched introduction of water charges is to lose its blue riband status as the most spectacular failure in public administration this century?

The Public Services Card is in breach of several aspects of data-protection law, according to the state's watchdog.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by a Romanian man, who lived here legally for three years before being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, over the Department of Social Protection's refusal to pay him disability benefit on his return to Romania.

Social Justice Ireland has called for social welfare rates to rise by €9 a week.

Eamon Ryan has an excellent way of communicating to people what needs to be done on climate action, be it at the corporate and Government level, or the personal one, writes Alison O'Connor

A Romanian man who lived here for three and appeal over being refused disability allowance here.

Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has defended the Minister for Health and the Government for their actions in relation to revealing details of the escalating cost of the national children’s hospital.

More than 3,300 households in serious mortgage arrears have been spared the loss of their homes with the help of the Abhaile scheme.

Fine Gael has said its wants Fianna Fáil to agree to a two-year extension to the confidence and supply deal to allow the Government remain in office.

Several ministers have rejected calls for Attorney General Seamus Woulfe to be shown “the red card” over his comments at a lunch last Friday.

A 71-year-old man known as Frank was interviewed onRTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland recently. He was due to enter emergency accommodation the following week because his landlord was selling the flat in which he lived.

Data protection experts are worried the new public services card could lead to identity theft.

IN a world where the idea of privacy is almost as quaint as a pony-and-trap jaunt from The Quiet Man, it may seem pointless to express concern over the announcement, yesterday, by Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty, that a person must have a public services card if they want to use the services provided by her department. 

The budget will be a test of Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe, who now has complete control as a result of the two portfolios of finance and public expenditure being brought under his remit.

Mary Mitchell O’Connor admits she is disappointed at being demoted by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

A man arrested in Limerick in connection with the London attacks was working as a chef using a PPS number issued in the name of murdered terrorist Rachid Redouane.

Leo Varadkar’s radical plan to ban workers from striking has provoked a backlash among trade unions and parties and threatened to destabalise new pay deal talks with public sector employees.

Former Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said that it was her “absolute conviction” that “protest in Ireland is a sacred right”, but said it was also her conviction that it should be peaceful protest.

THOUGH it can be difficult to get a person of a certain age to discuss pension provision, it is far, far easier to do that than face old age without one that might support a lifestyle other than the genteel poverty faced by many of today’s pensioners.

A hard-hitting campaign encouraging people to report social welfare fraud will be launched today by the Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar.

Figures provided by the Department of an Taoiseach show that the cost to the taxpayer of flying Enda Kenny, his wife Fionnuala, and his staff to the US for St Patrick Day events totalled €33,555.