Results 14,721-14,740 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The report states that 89% of the people who participated in JobBridge were very satisfied with the experience.

Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits Applications (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 and 123 together. I assure the Deputies that provision of good customer service is paramount to the Department and there is a good understanding and awareness of the importance of medical-related schemes to customers. A total of €3.4 billion was spent on illness, disability and caring schemes in 2013, including a total of €2.5 billion on the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: Economists like the one mentioned talk about displacement effects and the people who would have got work anyway. Based on research from 2011 and 2012, contrary to the suggestion of Deputy Ó Snodaigh about opportunity cost, JobBridge generated positive value to the Exchequer of €15 million over a full year. Perhaps what the Deputy's economist is failing to take into account is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh does a great disservice to the 30,000 people who have done JobBridge on an entirely voluntary basis at over 13,000 host organisations range from SMEs, larger companies, community organisations and not-for-profit organisations of various kinds.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The Deputy does people a great disservice to describe their attempts to get back on their feet or, having finished various courses including high-level college courses, to get a job. It is a bit sad that Sinn Féin should decry-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: It is regrettable. Is Sinn Féin's view of Ireland that we will all be on social welfare and does it want no one to be at work? Sinn Féin seems to want no one to be at work.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The scheme is to allow people who have completed education and are, in the current market, unable to get employment-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Internship Scheme Funding (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department will spend close to €1.1 billion this year in a range of employment, education and internship schemes. The major scheme is the community employment scheme, with expenditure of close to €358 million. The back to work allowance accounts for close to €113 million, while JobBridge spending stands at €82 million. All modern economies invest in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The Deputy has extensive experience of membership of the Government and during the long period in which Fianna Fáil was in government there was much talk but never any action on this important issue. If people are renting and likely to be renting in the long term, our aim and objective are to ensure a family has secure long-term accommodation. That is the best and most stable solution...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: If the Deputy makes the details of the case to which she referred in Tallaght available to me, I will pass them to the community welfare service in Tallaght with the permission of the family she is dealing with because the objective has to be to keep families in homes. The practice of landlords of indicating through websites that rent allowance is not acceptable is not helpful. On the other...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: With regard to the position in Dublin, the community welfare service, the homeless persons unit, the HSE's asylum seekers and new communities unit, Departments and agencies dealing with housing, the local authorities and other stakeholders are coming together to facilitate homeless people in accessing private rented accommodation. The community welfare service in Limerick provided a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Guarantee (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: As I have done in other areas, as we progress the negotiations with Europe to commence the youth guarantee, the scheme is currently being piloted in the Ballymun area. I would be very anxious to see full provision for young people with disabilities.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Guarantee (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: However, it is important that the existing opportunities are fully maintained for young people with disabilities because they are popular.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Guarantee (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The issue is that we get the fullest use of the existing schemes. I want to say to employers who may be listening or reading this, if it is reported in the media, that we offer, through the Department of Social Protection, very significant wage subsidy schemes for employers who take on people with a disability of any age although, of course, this includes young people. Many people in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Guarantee (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: I am very familiar with some of the work that is being done in this area and know it is very important in helping young people to access employment successfully, either on a full-time or a part-time basis, whether it is done under that scheme or in the wider context of the youth guarantee. I hope the Deputy shares with me, as he probably does, the common goal of seeing more young people able...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Guarantee (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: -----employers should be aware of all the other marvellous creative things they can bring to employment. I want to ask employers to consider the possibility of including in their organisations people with a disability.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 84 together. The Government has provided over €344 million for the rent supplement scheme in 2014, the purpose of which is to provide short-term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Youth Guarantee (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: From visiting and meeting many of the groups and organisations that work with young people with a disability, sometimes intellectual and sometimes physical, I realise there is significant pent-up demand to allow young people with a disability to participate in the labour force as well as in all the educational opportunities that the State has to offer. I am sure the Deputy supports this...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Respite Care Services (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: The current payment of €1,375 per annum is more than twice the amount of €635 per annum paid in 2002 by the previous Government, of which Deputy O'Dea was a member, and-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Respite Care Services (10 Jun 2014)

Joan Burton: -----is higher than it was at the height of the boom in 2006, when it was €1,200 per annum.