Results 281-300 of 2,071 for speaker:Joe O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Strategies (20 Sep 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Department of Rural and Community Development is committed to supporting empowered, inclusive and resilient communities. Details on the measures undertaken and delivered by my Department to implement specific actions points, referred to by the deputy, of the action plan to support the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2021 are outlined below:Since 2019, my Department has provided...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Bodies (11 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Charities Regulatory Authority (the ‘Charities Regulator’) was established in October 2014 pursuant to the Charities Act 2009. The Authority is the State organisation responsible for registering and regulating all of Ireland’s charities, with the mandate to promote good governance practice. My Department has been assigned responsibility for the Charities Regulator. It...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): State Pensions (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I reiterate and back up what has been said about the important role played by foster carers, and also the difficult job they have at times, often with challenging young people. I have some familiarity with the system. A lot of what is being spoken about will go to the main Department with primary responsibility for foster carers' support. It is important to reiterate that between child...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): State Pensions (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: There is a lot happening in the pensions place in terms of auto-enrolment. There are a lot of big projects going on too. We are looking at legislation for that, and it could be next year before we see a lot of the big changes. That is a broad response to the specific question asked by the Deputy. Between child benefit, the homemakers scheme, the home caring periods and this new measure, I...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): State Pensions (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Deputy got an extra shot at it there, but the point is well made. I absolutely take the point.

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): State Pensions (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for the question. Matters relating to foster caring are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and of Tusla. This Government acknowledges the important role played by carers, including foster carers, and is fully committed to supporting them in that role. Accordingly, the current contributory State...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for his question. The aim of community employment is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and unemployed persons by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their communities. In addition, it helps long-term unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Deputy. We have to be careful if we are going to categorise a whole group of people as likely not able or eligible to go back into the mainstream workforce. We would have to be very careful if we were to do that, notwithstanding that there will be some cases, no doubt the Deputy has seen some himself, where that would be very difficult for an individual. A key strand of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The Deputy will be aware that, particularly over the last 18 months, that we have been highly responsive and adaptive to the needs of organisations who depend on CE and to the reality of the labour market itself. We have adapted and changed the eligibility for CE a number of times. We would like to see a little bit more evidence in terms of the definability and scale of the group as well...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Community Employment Schemes (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: No, I take the Deputy's point but we are talking about potentially changing the eligibility for a whole scheme, where there are 18,000 people involved as well. We have to take policy changes with due consideration.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (6 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: The aim of the Community Employment (CE) programme is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and long-term unemployed people by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their local communities on a temporary fixed term basis. In addition to providing valuable occupational experience and training as a stepping-stone to employment for people who are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: International Protection (4 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: Since the beginning of 2022, Ireland and many other European countries have been experiencing a significant increase of new arrivals seeking international protection. As of the 25 June, more than 21,570 people are being accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS, system as a whole, compared to 12,000 people at this time last year. Combined with that is the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: International Protection (4 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I will be meeting with officials from the Department of the Taoiseach in the next week to firm up and finalise the plan. The message that will be communicated will be similar to what we consistently communicate in terms of outlining the wider context of what has happened, underlining our international responsibilities and the situations people face, and recognising what communities have...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: International Protection (4 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I will certainly bring that request to the meeting next week. I think it is a reasonable one. I want to point to a few statistics that are relevant. In the last three months, we have opened 33 new international protection accommodation centres and 88 beneficiaries of temporary protection centres. That is a total of 111 centres that have been opened in the last three months. The response...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (4 Jul 2023)

Joe O'Brien: Community Employment (CE) 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. It supports projects that provide work experience for long term unemployed persons. The programme is delivered through CE sponsor...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Data (27 Jun 2023)

Joe O'Brien: Last November, I was delighted to launch the 2022 Community Support Fund (CSF) under the Community Enhancement Programme, with funding of €10 million to assist local community and voluntary groups across the country with a multitude of costs including energy and utility bills, other operating costs, minor upgrade works and small capital purchases. The funding is administered on...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Community Development Projects (22 Jun 2023)

Joe O'Brien: My department's Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports over 420 community-based organisations, to provide local services through a social enterprise model. CSP provides an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager. Qualifying organisations must be social...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Legislative Programme (21 Jun 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I am pleased to take this Commencement matter on behalf of my senior colleague in the Department of Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. Currently, there is no requirement to register wills with any State authority. The Private Members' Bill was the fourth attempt to introduce legislation that would allow for the voluntary registration of wills. The argument is being made that significant...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Legislative Programme (21 Jun 2023)

Joe O'Brien: I apologise for not having a copy of my response available.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Legislative Programme (21 Jun 2023)

Joe O'Brien: From the recommendations made by the working group, based on the submissions made by key stakeholders, it is clear that the introduction of the form of registration of wills would be counterproductive and would create more difficulties for individuals than it would seek to resolve. The Bar of Ireland has pointed out that data from the Probate Office indicated that as few as 100 out of 15,000...