Results 441-460 of 2,335 for speaker:Joe O'Brien

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Schools Building Projects (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Senator for raising this matter. On behalf of the Minister for Education, I will outline the plans for additional post-primary school places in Blanchardstown west. For school planning purposes, the Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a geographical information system to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources,...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Schools Building Projects (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to outline the position to the House on post-primary school places in Blanchardstown west. There are currently a number of active projects at post-primary level in the Blanchardstown west school planning area, which will increase local capacity. The current status of large-scale projects being delivered under Project Ireland 2040 may be...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: School Facilities (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Norma Foley, who is otherwise engaged. I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides the Department with the opportunity to clarify the current position of St Anne’s Secondary School, Rosanna Road, Tipperary town. The answer I have is largely from the Department of...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: School Facilities (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Senator for raising this issue and for giving the Department the opportunity to reassure the House that the Department is committed to ensuring that all children can access education suitable to their needs. I take the Senator's point in regard to the school meals programme. Deputy Humphreys and I are committed to rolling this out to as wide a group as possible. There has been...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Schools Building Projects (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to clarify how the Department plans for school places and specifically the position in relation to Duleek. I wish to advise the Senator that requirements for additional school places is kept under ongoing review in the context of available information on population, enrolments and residential development...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Schools Building Projects (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank Senator Keogan for giving me the opportunity to address this issue. I have laid out the criteria the Department uses for assessment. They are fairly comprehensive on the population side and in the broader context of the school options available. However, I assure the Senator the Department will continue to monitor demographic projections and enrolments in the area to ensure all...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: It is a pleasure to be able to bring this Bill before Seanad Éireann. The main purpose of the Bill is to give legislative effect to several of the very substantial improvements in social protection that were announced on budget day. In addition, this year, we are introducing a set of provisions to implement the biggest ever structural reform of the State pension system, which has been...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank Senators for their constructive engagement. I will do my best to answer queries. To answer Senator Burke's initial question, the pension will be based on the higher rate. On the jury service issue we will talk to the Minister for Justice regarding giving an allowance in the circumstances he outlined. With regards to Senators Burke's and Craughwell's point about class K PRSI, prior...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Industrial Disputes (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: My Department operates a number of employment support schemes; including Tús and Community Employment (CE), for long term unemployed persons which also assist communities across the country in the provision of vital services. The Department is very conscious of the important role that these work programmes play and wish to support these schemes. While Tús supervisors are...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Food Poverty (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025is a whole-of-government strategy with the ambitious target to reduce consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. It includes a commitment to “develop a comprehensive programme of work to further explore the drivers of food poverty and to identify mitigating...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 128 and 141 together. The Government is committed to the reduction of all forms of poverty, particularly child poverty, as outlined in the Programme for Governmentand the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 to 2025. The Roadmap is a whole of Government strategy with the ambitious target to reduce consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and make Ireland one of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Industrial Disputes (7 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 235, 237, 243 and 245 together. My Department operates a number of employment support schemes; including Tús, Rural Social Scheme (RSS) and Community Employment (CE), for long term unemployed persons and low income farmers/fishers. I would like to acknowledge the important role that Tús and RSS supervisors play in providing valuable...

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 Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Industrial Disputes (6 Dec 2023)

Joe O'Brien: 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 issue raised by the Deputy, the Department is involved in ongoing discussions, as a partner in a...

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...

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

Joe O'Brien: My Department’s Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality by supporting rural and urban communities and individuals using community development approaches, engagement and collaboration. The procurement process for SICAP 2024-2028 is currently ongoing. Galway County Local Community Development...

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

Joe O'Brien: My Department's Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), is our country’s primary social inclusion programme which aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality by supporting disadvantaged communities and individuals. The procurement process for the next iteration of SICAP 2024-2028 is currently ongoing. The SICAP procurement process is run on a...

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...