Results 81-100 of 1,030,774 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Catherine Martin OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh)

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (11 Jun 2024)

Joe O'Brien: I acknowledge the important role community employment schemes play in providing valuable opportunities to participants and in supporting the delivery of key services to local communities across the country. I can confirm that in March the OECD published an impact evaluation of Ireland's active labour market programmes for long-term unemployed people finding positive labour market impacts...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (11 Jun 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister of State for his response. Community employment schemes have always been perceived as a labour market activation instrument. Is its value in supporting valuable social enterprise now a more dominant source of its benefits, particularly as we have close to full employment? The work done by community employment schemes in communities is very valuable. Should we be...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (11 Jun 2024)

Joe O'Brien: I thank Deputy Stanton. From my point of view I see the benefit of community employment as threefold. It supports many very important community services. As I have said, and as the OECD has said, it helps bridge the gap between the labour market and people who have found it difficult to break into it. It also has a very important social inclusion aspect for many individuals who access it....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (11 Jun 2024)

David Stanton: I acknowledge the great work done by the Government. We are beyond full employment. This is what I have been hearing recently. I have heard commentators use this phrase. As communities find it difficult to recruit new community employment candidates to sustain their work, do we need to think differently about the role? Do we need to think about it in a different way, potentially with...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pensions (11 Jun 2024)

Violet-Anne Wynne: Go raibh maith agat for the information. It is fantastic to hear that there will be a webinar. I decided to raise this matter with the Minister of State because it has been highlighted to me by my constituents that there is an anomaly whereby some foster carers, most of whom are women, find themselves unable to qualify for full contributory State pensions. It is apparently possible to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pensions (11 Jun 2024)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Deputy. I should have opened by acknowledging the work that foster carers do in Ireland. There is an exceptionally high rate of foster caring for children who need care in Ireland and we must ensure that maintains. In fact, we need to grow it, which we can do by further supporting foster carers. It is important to say that the foster care allowance is payable by Tusla to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pensions (11 Jun 2024)

Violet-Anne Wynne: I acknowledge that the weekly payments have gone up. When the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA, conducted a survey prior to the increase in the payments, 50% of the carers surveyed said they experienced financial difficulties due to their commitments to caring and have considered giving up fostering because they are worried about being able to provide an adequate level of care. The...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Pensions (11 Jun 2024)

Joe O'Brien: I am coming at this question from the point of view of my role in the Department of Social Protection and my knowledge of the foster caring side of matters is being added in, to be honest. It might be appropriate to send the question to the other Department to get more detail. The Deputy mentioned children over 12 and a disability requirement. I do not think the situation is that rigid....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Social Welfare Appeals

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Ruairi Ó Murchú: 6. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the current waiting times at the Social Welfare Appeals Office; if additional resources will be allocated to it; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25416/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Ruairi Ó Murchú: I wish to ask about the current waiting times at the appeals office and if additional resources will be allocated to it. The Minister gave a general answer in respect of the times involved. We dealt with the issue of hubs previously. Some of the teething problems seem to have been sorted out but we seem to have a backlog. The sooner this can be dealt with, the better.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. The social welfare appeals office is an office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in respect of social welfare entitlements. Appeals officers are independent in their decision-making functions. The office is currently finalising its annual report for 2023, with the data showing...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Ruairi Ó Murchú: We would all welcome any streamlining of systems, whether the IT systems or the process generally. My office still encounters issues. We are dealing with a particular carer's benefit appeal that has been hanging around since February. Average timescales are sometimes made up of some cases that are all right and other cases that are very difficult. Some cases take too long to resolve. It...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: To tell the truth, my constituency office staff also use the appeal line for TDs and representatives. We all deal with social welfare appeals in our constituency offices. What happens in the vast majority of cases, as we know, is that not all the medical information is provided at the start and the application is turned down. Once that happens, you are into review and appeals. The...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (11 Jun 2024)

Social Insurance

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (11 Jun 2024)

Paul Murphy: 4. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will support withdrawing the planned increases to employees' PRSI and increasing employers' PRSI towards European levels instead; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25407/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (11 Jun 2024)

Paul Murphy: Tomorrow night we will vote on Second Stage of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. As it stands, the Bill proposes to increase employees' PRSI every year for the next five years. Given that employers' PRSI is the lowest in Europe and given the cost-of-living crisis workers face, will the Minister withdraw the Government's proposal for an extra tax on ordinary workers and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy Murphy. The PRSI system plays a fundamental and supportive role in our society. For the PRSI contributions they make, employees and self-employed workers receive benefits for the periods spent out of employment during periods of unemployment, illness or maternity, for example, and upon retirement from the workforce. One of the findings of the latest actuarial review of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (11 Jun 2024)

Paul Murphy: This is a stealth tax increase on ordinary workers. It has not been subject to anywhere near enough media scrutiny and public discussion. The Government is, with one hand, taking money from ordinary low-paid workers and, with the other, putting money into the pockets of businesses through the employers' PRSI tax break it has given businesses through the business support package. A...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Insurance (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: If the Deputy wants to keep the pension age at 66, he should realise it has to be paid for. That is the reality. Sometimes he is a bit detached from reality. With him, it is usually a case of spend, spend, spend on the grounds that somebody else can pay for it. That is how he operates. He got his answer at the weekend. People are not buying his view. The Government parties won over 500...