Results 161-180 of 16,260 for are speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...Fund was first introduced in 2023 to recognise the huge efforts made by communities in welcoming and supporting people coming to Ireland. The funding is specifically targeted at projects that are located in cities, towns and villages that are hosting the Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection and/or International Protection Applicants including towns identified for the rapid build homes...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...just announced the successful projects under the 2023 scheme, with a further 82 projects set to receive €20.4million in funding. In line with the commitment in Our Rural Future , TVRS priorities are reviewed at the end of each scheme year to ensure that funding is targeted effectively to support vibrant and attractive communities and to respond to changing needs and opportunities....

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Local Authorities (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Local Authorities are key delivery partners for many of the schemes operated by my Department, and funding of €210,458,015 and €245,528,487 was made available to local authorities in 2022 and 2023 respectively. On occasion funds are returned to the Department for a number of reasons. For example, projects which have been pre-funded may return funds where the project is...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Projects (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ..., LEADER, the Town and Village Renewal scheme and the Local Enhancement Programme. It is also why I introduced the new Community Centres Investment Fund with targeted support for these centres. are a vital resource for any community. Under the 2022 Community Centre Investment Fund in particular, over €45.8 million was committed for improvement and refurbishment works on over...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The community welfare service is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring that applications are processed and ensuring that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. It is a key service and deals with approximately 12,000 claim applications per month. Over 2,600 additional needs payment claims are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...back to the Deputy with an answer. The intention is not to lose documents or anything like that. The tracking of the receipt of documentation submitted to the office is being followed up. We are going through the issues the Deputy has raised. We do not want this to happen. We want people to get their payments efficiently. The Deputy will appreciate the thinking behind this. There...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy and I think the same way on this. We want people to get their money. Like the Deputy, I want them to get it when they need it. We are sorting out the issues the Deputy has raised with me and will learn from them. I advise all Deputies to bring any issues to my attention and I will take them up and see whether we can get them sorted. The Department of Social Protection is here...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. The activation support programme provides funding to local organisations and agencies to implement training and education initiatives. It is focused on the needs of social welfare recipients, and their families, who are very distant from the labour market. There is a plethora of other initiatives that help people to get back into the labour force. The Department makes...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Government is committed to supporting older people to access timely, high-quality, person-centred and integrated care in the most appropriate setting and to support positive ageing across the life course. To this end, the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people brought forward a proposal for the establishment of an independent...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...role as Minister for business about how they could contribute. We should tap into that resource. I know some of those involved well and they have a lot to offer. I agree with the Deputy. We are missing a trick in terms of the valuable resource that we have in our older generation. As he said, we need some way to activate them. I am happy to examine how we can keep them in the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The figures were for a ten-year period during which 69% of appeals were subsequently allowed or partially allowed. We are not trying to block people from getting their payments. That is not what I am trying to do. That is not true. Look at the statistics. The number of people receiving disability allowance has increased massively in recent years. Slightly more than 100,000 people were...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...'s activation and family support programme provides funding to assist local organisations and agencies to implement training and education initiatives to address the needs of recipients of welfare payments and their families who are distant from the labour market. The programme is demand-led and is designed to fund one-off projects in response to local customer needs, as identified by...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy Tully for raising this matter. As she will be aware, one of the main ideas in the Green Paper I published for consultation last year was to consolidate disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension into one single payment. I sought people's views on an approach to providing additional support to those most in need by increasing payments for those people with most...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I agree with the Deputy's initial question. There are too many different payments trying to do the same thing, whether it is disability allowance, invalidity pension, blind pension or partial capacity benefit. Sometimes people are on long-term illness benefit. For children there is domiciliary care allowance. The Green Paper, in fairness, was trying to put a more unified and coherent...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...together. The organisations representing the disability groups also have to come up with their ideas and solutions and we have to try to find a pathway forward. I know, and we all know, there are people with severe disabilities and we know they are never going to work. We need to make sure they are not being asked to fill out forms and such things. There are also those with a much...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The social welfare appeals office is an office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions relating to social welfare payments. Appeals officers are independent in their decision-making functions. Between 2014 and the end of March 2024, 241,019 disability allowance claims were received by the Department. Those figures are for ten...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Citizens Information Services (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: What I am saying is that I will not be found wanting, depending on the Labour Court outcome. We have to hear what it has to say. These people, as the Deputy knows, are set up in such a way that they are not employees of my Department. That probably emanates from voluntary boards many years ago. That is the way it is, so we have to go through the process. The Labour Court will make its...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...directive in March 2022. In October 2023, the EU Council agreed to extend the period of temporary protection to March 2025. Options as to what arrangements might be in place after March 2025 are being considered at EU level, and the Minister for Justice is the lead Minister for Ireland. The Government has recently implemented changes to the supports to those fleeing the war in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I have also seen some of the Sinn Féin election leaflets referring to open borders. We are an island. The only open border we have is with Northern Ireland, and I do not think the Deputy would suggest we have a hard border with Northern Ireland because, in fairness, we put in a huge amount of work-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...has a role in improving services. The Department of Education has a role as well. The Department of housing has a role in providing grants to help people to adapt their homes. Income supports are only one part of the puzzle here. We need to look at this in the round through the new Cabinet committee and come up with an holistic response across government. The Deputy is right....