Results 3,481-3,500 of 4,782 for speaker:Olwyn Enright
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: I agree that significant savings can be made in the area of rent supplement and that there should be a reduction in what landlords receive. However, I have a difficulty with the manner in which the Minister is approaching this. She is, in effect, asking 85,000 households to negotiate directly with their landlords. Some will have the ability to do this, but others will not. The Minister...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: The difference is that people in receipt of RAS and people in local authority accommodation can work as much as they want. People on rent supplement cannot do that. The Minister is not making a fair argument because people do not have that opportunity if on rent supplement. In the majority of cases, she is taking that money directly out of the social welfare payment. Why did the Minister...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: It told us at a committee meeting a few weeks ago it does not do that.
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Question 4: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the remit of the 60 facilitators employed by her; the social welfare recipients they are currently dealing with; the average caseload of each facilitator; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17302/09]
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: I am glad that every time I ask this question, the number of facilitators goes up by ten. There is some progress. If facilitators are to work, they must have time to spend with people. Sadly, they must deal with an ever-increasing group of people who have varied needs from lone parents to people with disabilities to people who are unemployed. When the Minister launched something for one...
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Is the Minister convinced her facilitators are able to draw together all those groups? I am concerned that unemployment is continuing to increase rapidly, even in areas where there is what the Minister described last week as a "plethora" of groups. Are the facilitators able to cut through the layers of bureaucracy to assist people and get them onto courses? When the Minister spoke last...
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Question 5: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the position regarding the proposed transfer of community welfare officers to her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17303/09]
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Will the Minister clarify her comment that responsibility for all schemes, with the exception of the blind welfare allowance, will be transferred to the Department of Social and Family Affairs by September of this year? Is that subject to agreement at the discussions with the national industrial relations institutions? Will it happen anyway? One cannot hand over all the schemes if those...
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Sorry.
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: I would like to ask a brief supplementary question about an issue I have already raised. I refer to the demands being imposed on the social welfare service and the community welfare service by the lengthening queues. Will more staff be deployed from within the resources of the Department of Social and Family Affairs to deal with such problems? The community welfare service is at breaking...
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Yes.
- Departmental Staff. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Not necessarily - not if the system is changed.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Further improvement needs to be introduced immediately. What has happened so far is not working. I have already cited the example of Boyle. The five towns with the longest waiting periods, Edenderry, Navan and Tuam, at 15 weeks and the other two at 13 weeks, have been at the top of the list for at least the past six months. I know Edenderry particularly well. There has been no dramatic...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: What do I tell the people in Edenderry?
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: While I appreciate that some changes have been made, I do not hear a sense of urgency in the Minister's responses. I accept that there is a problem in the 14 branch offices that we have highlighted here but there is a problem in other areas too. What will the Minister do about the fact that when people are out sick or on maternity leave, the system seems to break down in those offices...
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: They will all have to be trained.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: Then the Department needs a backup system.
- Social Welfare Benefits. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: It is not working.
- Social Welfare Payments. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: I tabled this question because I have been contacted by a number of people about queues they have experienced in post offices. I appreciate that part of this matter is the responsibility of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The biggest concern is about unemployment payments on the first day they are delivered. I accept that people can collect...
- Social Welfare Payments. (30 Apr 2009)
Olwyn Enright: I will not but I could not believe how much was going in compared to the population. That postmaster said there is a real risk for them. They are in a rural area and there is no full-time Garda station, yet this massive amount of money is being deposited there. If the payments could be ordered twice a week it would make it somewhat safer for small post offices. It is not the Minister's...