Results 101-120 of 25,281 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

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...

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

Heather Humphreys: The social welfare appeals office is an office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions relating to social welfare payments. Appeals officers are independent in their decision-making functions. Between 2014 and the end of March 2024, 241,019 disability allowance claims were received by the Department. Those figures are for ten...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Citizens Information Services (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: What I am saying is that I will not be found wanting, depending on the Labour Court outcome. We have to hear what it has to say. These people, as the Deputy knows, are set up in such a way that they are not employees of my Department. That probably emanates from voluntary boards many years ago. That is the way it is, so we have to go through the process. The Labour Court will make its...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The war in Ukraine has resulted in the largest humanitarian effort in the State's history. Ireland has responded to the war with a co-ordinated, whole-of-government response and has provided protection and support to those who have had to flee from the violence in Ukraine. More than 106,000 people have arrived in the State since the European Council unanimously adopted the implementing...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The extension of the directive, which expires in March 2025, as I said to the Deputy, is a matter for the Minister for Justice. She is discussing that and we will decide that as part of an EU response. I have already signalled that I do not think it is sustainable long-term that people would get their accommodation provided for and receive full social welfare payments. We will look at...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: As the Deputy said, that does not come under my remit. I will have to raise that issue with the relevant Minister and ask him or her to come back to the Deputy on it. I have to remind the Deputy that he and colleagues of his have said in the past that not only should Ukrainians get full social welfare payments but all refugees arriving in this country should get the same treatment. That...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I have also seen some of the Sinn Féin election leaflets referring to open borders. We are an island. The only open border we have is with Northern Ireland, and I do not think the Deputy would suggest we have a hard border with Northern Ireland because, in fairness, we put in a huge amount of work-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: -----and a huge effort during Brexit to make sure we would not have such a hard border.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: EU Directives (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: We know what we heard from Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson on Brexit, "It is time to take back our borders", and we know where that ended up, so we need to be very careful here.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Regarding the Department of enterprise, the Deputy is right that it has an important role in getting the message out to employers that all workplaces need to be assessable. That is why I will be shortly announcing a new and improved scheme to support employers in adapting their workplaces for disabled people. The Deputy mentioned transport. I am extending the free travel pass to anyone who...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Citizens Information Services (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I also value the important work carried out by employees of the citizens information service, or CIS. I acknowledge the role they play in providing people with free, quality and independent information, advice and advocacy services throughout the country. It is important to point out that employees of the CIS are not employees of my Department nor are they public servants. They are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Citizens Information Services (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: To be clear, there is a process under way. It has been referred to the Labour Court and a date set for 14 June. We have to let that process run its course. When the Labour Court concludes its work, my Department will not be found wanting in responding. Shortly after I was appointed, we managed to sort out a long-running issue, and it was long running, for CE supervisors. We provided...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Not too many measures are universally popular but I think that everybody absolutely supports the hot school meals programme. I have always been a firm believer that it is not possible to beat a hot meal in the middle of the day. I visited St. Thomas's Junior National School in Lucan with the Taoiseach last week. We saw the children getting their hot meals. They were all sitting down...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I say to Deputy Murnane O'Connor that the hot school meals programme is running in 31 schools in Carlow, covering 5,639 children. In response to Deputy Wynne, Ennis Community School was brought to my attention. I was obviously very conscious the amalgamation, involving some DEIS and some non-DEIS schools - that was the secondary school. We were able to provide that support and solution...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Regarding dietary standards, healthy eating guidelines are set out for the suppliers. They must meet certain standards and I would expect them to do that. There are intermittent inspections by my Department in different schools. It is up to the to the principal and teachers to make sure the appropriate food is coming in because it is being paid for.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I will deal with Deputy Tully's question later. I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for raising this matter. I am committed to addressing the cost of disability and improving outcomes for people with a disability. I announced a number of measures to support people with disabilities in budget 2024, including a €400 lump-sum payment in November, a Christmas bonus double payment in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: One of the main findings of the cost of disability report was that there is a broad spectrum of disabilities. We all recognise that some people need more support than others. We all recognise that. There are some people with moderate disabilities who are able to work and some with profound disabilities who we know will never be able to work. That is the reality. The Cost of Disability...