Results 1,381-1,400 of 2,335 for speaker:Joe O'Brien

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Well, what is wrong is Covid-19. I think that is the simple, immediate answer. We are still recovering from it. The referral process is still recovering from it, but it is recovering. In September and October, we had 613 or 614 new starters. Comparably, when you look at October 2019, the figure was 726. We are therefore getting back to a monthly starter rate that is getting closer to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Yes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I will take Deputy Calleary’s point first. He may have missed my opening statement. When I talk about CE, I always talk about two halves, the activation side and the service side. I clearly stated that this morning as well. I always acknowledge it. There have been challenges in CE prior to Covid-19 about referral rates. There were issues prior to my time, because of the low...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Community Employment (CE) is an active labour market programme providing eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis. I am aware of the challenges caused by the Covid-19 public health restrictions and the resultant impact on many CE participants and schemes. As the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Department provides a range of income supports and employment activation programmes for unemployed or underemployed persons including the Rural Social Scheme (RSS) and Tús. RSS and Tús both provide employment opportunities for participants with community and voluntary organisations in their area. The RSS is a demand-led income support scheme, providing part-time employment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Department provides a range of income supports and activation programmes for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. These supports include the Rural Social Scheme (RSS), Tús, and Community Employment (CE) scheme. While there are differences in the objectives and delivery of these schemes and supports, they each share a common payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Rural Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) is a demand-led income support scheme, providing part-time employment opportunities for farmers and fishermen and women who are in receipt of specified social welfare payments, and who are underemployed in their primary occupation. The scheme offers participants the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in their communities. Following a Government...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: As the Deputy will be aware, CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, SIPTU and Forsa, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme for CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors who are employed by CE scheme sponsors. This...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Impact Assessment (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Every year, the Department of Social Protection carries out a range of social impact assessments on the welfare measures contained in the Budget, using the Economic and Social Research Institute’s tax-benefit microsimulation model. Social Impact Assessment is an evidence-based methodology which estimates the likely distributive effects of policies on household incomes, families and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Rural Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) is an income support scheme that provides part-time employment opportunities for farmers and fishermen and women in receipt of specified social welfare payments, and who are underemployed in their primary occupation. RSS is specifically designed and delivered to certain qualified people of working age whose income falls below certain limits. The valuable...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: As the Deputy may be aware, CE and Tús participants whose contracts were originally due to finish during periods of Government restrictions, going back to October 2020, have had their contracts extended on a number of occasions. This ensures participants and schemes were supported during periods of COVID related public health restrictions and while getting back to normal level of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: As the Deputy is aware, the Department of Social Protection delivers a range of employment and income support schemes including Community Employment (CE), Tús and the Rural Social Scheme (RSS). The aims of CE and Tús schemes are to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and long-term unemployed people by providing valuable work experience opportunities, while CE also provides...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis to improve their prospect of returning to employment. As the Deputy may be aware, earlier this year, Minister Humphreys and I...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Food Poverty (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 – 2025, which was published in January 2020, includes a commitment to ‘Develop a comprehensive programme of work to further explore the drivers of food poverty and to identify mitigating actions’(Commitment 61). The Food Poverty Working Group, which I chair, was established in May 2021 and aims to tackle the issue of food poverty in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: As the Deputy will be aware, CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, SIPTU and Forsa, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme for CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors who are employed by CE scheme sponsors. This...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Men's Sheds (24 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The emergence of the Men’s Sheds in recent years has been a very positive development for communities across Ireland. They provide a safe, comfortable and inclusive environment where people of all ages can share skills and work on meaningful projects and connect with their communities. My Department is providing a range of supports which both Men's and Women’s Sheds can avail...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (23 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis to improve their prospect of returning to employment. The Department is aware of the challenges resulting from the COVID-19...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (23 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: As the Deputy will be aware, CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, SIPTU and Forsa, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme for CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors who are employed by CE scheme sponsors. This claim...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Family Resource Centres (23 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, administers the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth allocates core funding for the FRC Programme and, since 2019, this funding amount has been a total of €18m each year. Tusla provides core funding to 121 FRCs in marginalised communities throughout the country, which enables...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Sports Funding (23 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: A new €9m fund - the Community Activities Fund, was launched by my Department in November 2021 and continues into 2022 to support community groups impacted by COVID-19. This fund will support groups, particularly in disadvantaged areas, with their running/operating costs such as utility or insurance bills, as well as with improvements to their facilities. Groups will also be able to...