Results 1,861-1,880 of 2,335 for speaker:Joe O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (14 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 639 together. Rethink Ireland (previously Social Innovation Fund Ireland) is a charity created by the Government in 2013. Launched in 2016, Rethink is an organisation set up by the Government to stimulate philanthropy and aid the development of social innovation in Ireland. The organisation has done this by establishing a philanthropic fund of...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Regulatory Bodies (14 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Charities Regulatory Authority (the ‘Charities Regulator’) was established in October 2014 pursuant to the Charities Act 2009. The Authority is the State organisation responsible for registering and regulating all of Ireland’s charities, with the mandate to promote good governance practice. The Charities Regulator is fully independent in the performance of its...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Cross-Border Co-operation (14 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The PEACEPLUS Programme 2021-2027, with a value of over €1.145m, is a new North South cooperation programme, which will have a lasting impact on peace and prosperity in the region, succeeding both of the current (2014-20) PEACE IV and INTERREG VA Programmes. The core programme area includes Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland, namely Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Cavan,...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Regulatory Bodies (14 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Charities Regulatory Authority (the ‘Charities Regulator’) was established in October 2014 pursuant to the Charities Act 2009. The Authority is the State organisation responsible for registering and regulating all of Ireland’s charities, with the mandate to promote good governance practice. While my Department has been assigned responsibility for the Charities...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (16 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Community Employment (CE) programme is a community centered labour market initiative established for the purposes of social inclusion and activation, to help long-term unemployed people and other vulnerable groups to enter the workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment. CE projects are sponsored by groups wishing to benefit the local community, namely voluntary and...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (21 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: My Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) supports over 420 community-based organisations, to provide local services through a social enterprise model. CSP provides an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager. An application window for funding for additional staff...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (21 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention. This is a national programme that is delivered in both rural and urban areas by Local Development Companies to help those in the greatest need. SICAP aims to address high and persistent levels of deprivation through targeted and innovative, locally-led approaches. ...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank Deputies for their contributions. There are some areas of difference but it is fair to say the Bill has been broadly welcomed, as have the measures in the budget. I know there is an ongoing question of income adequacy and we are still in a cost-of-living crisis. I understand the concerns about core rates and how people see them as inadequate. The full picture has to include the...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Referral to Select Committee (23 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands pursuant to Standing Orders 95(3)(a) and 181(1).

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (22 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: With regard to CE, Tús and RSS, but CE and Tús in particular, the job market is in a good place and that means the people who previously were not getting employment and might have looked at CE are looking at employment. That is good, and it is the way we want it to be, but it puts pressure on organisations that are dependent on CE places. At the moment, we have 18,750 people in CE...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (22 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: Our response at the moment is based on a learning from Covid. During Covid we had these local community response forums and that was the model that we, in a slightly different way, kick-started again at local authority level. We have community response forums that are operating at every local authority level now, initially in response to the Ukraine situation but which are also now working...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (22 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I can come in on one of the points on funds that are dedicated to different areas. Each lot area, each area that a local development company looks after, gets a SICAP allocation based on the deprivation index and based on the level of deprivation in that area. I opened a new programme the year before last, the Empowering Communities programme, which is even more focused on those areas that...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (22 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: Briefly on the CSP, prior to this year the salary contributions to the 400+ community services programmes were on a flat rate. They all got the same contributions, whether they were one of the projects that had good revenue-generating capacity like the tourism ones that were mentioned, or a community centre in a deprived area. That was not ideal, particularly for the community centres in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (29 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 98 and 99 together. Officials from my Department hold regular meetings with representative associations to discuss issues of mutual interest in relation to the delivery of all employment programmes; Community employment (CE), Job Initiative (JI), the Rural Social Scheme (RSS) and Tús. With regard to the issues raised by the Deputy, the Department has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (30 Nov 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 406, 408 and 416 together. Officials from my Department hold regular meetings with representative associations to discuss issues of mutual interest in relation to the delivery of all employment programmes; Community employment (CE), Job Initiative (JI), the Rural Social Scheme (RSS) and Tús. With regard to the issues raised by the Deputies, the...

Immigration: Motion [Private Members] (6 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I will take a moment to speak about racism. It is racism as opposed to racists that it is important to address. Racism is an everyday fact of life for people of colour in Ireland. It is this way because racism goes unidentified and unchallenged by many of us who would never classify ourselves as racist. As the Minister of State with responsibility for community development and the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (5 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: My Department's mission is to support vibrant and sustainable communities across this country, and in doing so to deliver on a wide range of strategic interventions, funding programmes and policies to support urban and rural communities. In 2019, my Department published Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities - A five year strategy to support the community and voluntary sector in...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (5 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The charity fundraising campaign called ‘Ireland for Ukraine’ was established by a coalition of media outlets including RTÉ, Virgin Media Television, TG4, Sky and many others, as a collective effort to raise funds to support the humanitarian response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Community Foundation for Ireland is the charity partner for the fundraising appeal...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Voluntary Sector (5 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: While I cannot comment specifically on Community Childcare Centres, I am aware more generally of the challenges faced by community and voluntary groups and organisations around recruiting and retaining volunteers. In publishing the National Volunteering Strategy 2021-2025, Government has acknowledged the importance of volunteering to the well-being of the nation, and has set out a plan...