Results 1,581-1,600 of 2,335 for speaker:Joe O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Food Poverty (6 Jul 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). This commitment is to be delivered by a number of Government Departments working in collaboration. Following the Social Inclusion Roadmap...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (6 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: 544. To ask the Minister for Health if consideration has been given to applying the vaccine bonus whereby a person is considered fully vaccinated four weeks after their first dose of a vaccine (details supplied) as part of the exemptions from mandatory hotel quarantine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29925/21]

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Public Participation Networks (6 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: My officials are working to progress the commitment given in the Programme for Government to carry out a comprehensive review of the Public Participation Networks (PPNs) and the Local Economic and Community Plans (LECPs) to ensure that they are fit for purpose for climate action and community development. Late last year my officials went to tender for a root-and-branch review of Public...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Data (6 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Financial services for my Department, including banking arrangements, are provided on a shared service basis by the Financial Shared Service Offices of the Department of Justice. As such, my Department does not hold a bank account in its own right and so has not incurred any negative interest charges for savings or funds on deposit. With regard to the Dormant Accounts Fund, while my...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (6 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 619 and 620 together. The Community Services Programme (CSP), which is administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department, currently supports more than 420 community organisations to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model. One of the objectives of the CSP is to alleviate disadvantage and address local...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Cycling Facilities (5 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I thank Senator Currie for giving me the opportunity to address the Seanad today, on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, to talk about the important issue of investment in cycling infrastructure, which will ultimately make our cities, towns, and villages more accessible for everyone. As Senators will be aware, the programme for Government sets out an ambitious and...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Cycling Facilities (5 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I will note the points made by the Senator and relay them to the Minister when I see him later this week. I will also mention some smaller scale initiatives being progressed by the Department of Transport to support and promote efforts to increase active travel. These include the recently launched safe routes to school programme, which will provide funding to accelerate the delivery of...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Social Welfare Payments (5 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important issue. The Government acknowledges and I personally acknowledge the important role that family carers play. We are fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the programme for Government and the national carers strategy. My Department provides a range of income supports to financially assist...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Social Welfare Payments (5 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, met with organisations representing carers and listened to them outline the scenarios the Senator described. We have the pre-budget forum next week, which I will attend with the Minister. I expect we will hear more about the organisations' views on this area. It is worth noting that despite the substantial extra financial demands due to the pandemic, and in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I genuinely thank all the Deputies for their contributions and acknowledgement of the importance of community employment. I will give some points of information in response to Deputy Moynihan's question. The 2008 Labour Court recommendation deals with the CE supervisor and assistant supervisor pension issue solely. It related to these two categories of employees and did not deal with job...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 108 and 113 together. As the Deputies will be aware, CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation on the provision of a pension scheme for CE supervisors and assistant supervisors who are employed by...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I thank both Deputies for raising this. I expect they appreciate that there is a negotiation process ongoing and that I would be very slow to impact that adversely, so I will not comment on the details except to reiterate and to acknowledge the work of CE supervisors, assistant supervisors and participants across the country. I have met supervisors and participants from Newmarket, Ballina,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: We would be very unwise to change the conditions right now when we are in an atypical situation. I hope we are coming to the end of a period and it is looking good for coming out of Covid. There has been very little movement in the labour market during the pandemic. That is a large part of the reason places are currently empty. There were no places for people to go until recent months....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: We will be paying particular attention to CE schemes that are providing essential services. The operational forum recommenced on 11 June. We will be having other meetings in September and some months after that to determine how we can get through these challenges over time. It came up during the proceedings of the forum that many schemes were not aware of the service support stream. I...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for her question. I appreciate that the challenges caused by the Covid-19 public health restrictions have impacted on CE schemes. They have impacted on referrals to CE schemes and the services they provide. I met representatives of a number of CE and Tús schemes on 11 June last. We had a constructive exchange of views on the very real challenges facing the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: 457. To ask the Minister for Health if consideration has been given to easing restrictions on nursing home visits to permit fully vaccinated residents to leave their care homes for walks with visitors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29114/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Strategies (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: 458. To ask the Minister for Health the status of Ireland’s progress on implementing via legislation the WHO Code of Marketing on Breast-milk Substitutes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29115/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Strategies (1 Jul 2021)

Joe O'Brien: 459. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the implementation of action item 3.13 of the National Breastfeeding Action Plan which pertains to the WHO Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29116/21]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (30 Jun 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and others with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis. The focus of CE is on long-term unemployed people, that is people who have been unemployed for more than twelve months. A key qualifying condition for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (30 Jun 2021)

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