Results 1-20 of 25,138 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Out of courtesy, I will reply. We have done much work on reasonable accommodation because employers were not taking up the grants. We want them to do so in order that places can be adapted for people with disabilities to come to work. That is the number one point. We put a lot into this, so it will be launched very shortly. On Deputy Fitzpatrick’s query, could he bring the case...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The community welfare service is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring that applications are processed and ensuring that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. It is a key service and deals with approximately 12,000 claim applications per month. Over 2,600 additional needs payment claims are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy brought a number of incidents to my attention, which is particularly useful for me because we can learn from and act on that. The information pertaining to the people the Deputy has raised with me is confidential. We have gone through all of that and have come back to the Deputy with an answer. The intention is not to lose documents or anything like that. The tracking of the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Offices (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy and I think the same way on this. We want people to get their money. Like the Deputy, I want them to get it when they need it. We are sorting out the issues the Deputy has raised with me and will learn from them. I advise all Deputies to bring any issues to my attention and I will take them up and see whether we can get them sorted. The Department of Social Protection is here...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. The activation support programme provides funding to local organisations and agencies to implement training and education initiatives. It is focused on the needs of social welfare recipients, and their families, who are very distant from the labour market. There is a plethora of other initiatives that help people to get back into the labour force. The Department makes...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The expenditure in Cork involved the provision of €59,000 to two organisations: the social and health education project, SHEP, and Cork Education and Training Board. SHEP is an Irish community education and development organisation based in Ballintemple, County Cork. It received funding towards the provision of its certificate of personal development in a number of locations in Cork....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Government is committed to supporting older people to access timely, high-quality, person-centred and integrated care in the most appropriate setting and to support positive ageing across the life course. To this end, the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people brought forward a proposal for the establishment of an independent...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department has activation programmes. The level of unemployment among young people tends to be higher and we specifically want to focus on young people and on getting them back into the workforce. I visited Kilkenny yesterday and there was a jobs fair there. I have to say-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Yes, and that is why we have a Minister of State with responsibility for older people. I can only speak of what my Department is trying to do. I am also happy to work with the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, to progress any suggestions she might have in terms of how we can work with older people. We meet with Age Friendly Ireland....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: There is a great nationwide programme, also in my own county, the university of the third generation, I think.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Yes. They do really good work.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I have spoken to them in my role as Minister for business about how they could contribute. We should tap into that resource. I know some of those involved well and they have a lot to offer. I agree with the Deputy. We are missing a trick in terms of the valuable resource that we have in our older generation. As he said, we need some way to activate them. I am happy to examine how we...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The figures were for a ten-year period during which 69% of appeals were subsequently allowed or partially allowed. We are not trying to block people from getting their payments. That is not what I am trying to do. That is not true. Look at the statistics. The number of people receiving disability allowance has increased massively in recent years. Slightly more than 100,000 people were...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Deputy Bruton is absolutely right. I also see that in my office. Much of the medical information is not put down. It is on the provision of further medical information that the payment is granted. We have done a lot for carers. A pension scheme has been introduced for long-term carers. The carer's support grant has been increased to its highest ever level. The weekly carer's payment...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: -----that from June a couple will be able to have weekly earnings of €900 and €50,000 in savings and still qualify for the full carer's allowance payment.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: An interdepartmental group has been set up to examine what further work we can do on the means test. I assure Deputies that I am committed to working with our carers to continue to give them support in carrying out the valuable work they do.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department's activation and family support programme provides funding to assist local organisations and agencies to implement training and education initiatives to address the needs of recipients of welfare payments and their families who are distant from the labour market. The programme is demand-led and is designed to fund one-off projects in response to local customer needs, as...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy Tully for raising this matter. As she will be aware, one of the main ideas in the Green Paper I published for consultation last year was to consolidate disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension into one single payment. I sought people's views on an approach to providing additional support to those most in need by increasing payments for those people with most...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I agree with the Deputy's initial question. There are too many different payments trying to do the same thing, whether it is disability allowance, invalidity pension, blind pension or partial capacity benefit. Sometimes people are on long-term illness benefit. For children there is domiciliary care allowance. The Green Paper, in fairness, was trying to put a more unified and coherent...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: That is what I am trying to do and what the Green Paper was trying to do, but people were not happy with it. I listened to their concerns. There is a lot of information and we did a lot of consultation during the Green Paper when it was published. We will take lessons from those too. There is now a Cabinet committee and I know there will be a huge focus on this. We have to come together...