Results 381-400 of 900,810 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' speaker:Rory O'Hanlon

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Nov 2021)

Ciarán Cannon: 16. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of changes to the carer’s allowance announced in budget 2022. [57708/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Nov 2021)

Colm Burke: 53. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the changes to the carer’s allowance and domiciliary care allowance announced in budget 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57475/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Nov 2021)

Colm Burke: This question concerns changes in the carer's allowance, which I welcome. What happens in the case of someone who provides care for a period of seven or eight years and who is then disqualified from many other schemes? This person took time off work to be a full-time carer for both parents, who have now died. He looked after them for eight years and now finds he does not qualify for a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Nov 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Question Nos. 9, 16 and 53 together. The carer income supports provided by my Department include carer's allowance, carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance, and the carer's support grant. More than 135,000 carers are supported by regular income payments and spending on these in 2021 is expected to be in the region of €1.5 billion. As part of budget 2022,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Nov 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank the Minister. I very much welcome the changes because anyone who is providing care to his or her elderly parents is saving the State a huge amount of money in real terms. This is about cases where caring stops after a parent has passed away and carers are coming back into the system. I ask the Minister to examine this so that people can come back into the system and not be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for the question. As the Deputy is aware, the community employment, CE, scheme 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, to improve their prospect of returning to employment. Scheme...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Claire Kerrane: I hear what the Minister of State is saying. I welcome that he has obviously had a lot of engagement with CE schemes. That is really welcome. However, there is clearly a problem here. The last time I raised this issue, there were 1,400 vacancies in jobs available in CE. Before that, there were 1,200. Now there are over 2,500 CE vacancies with people looking for people to join them on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Well, what is wrong is Covid-19. I think that is the simple, immediate answer. We are still recovering from it. The referral process is still recovering from it, but it is recovering. In September and October, we had 613 or 614 new starters. Comparably, when you look at October 2019, the figure was 726. We are therefore getting back to a monthly starter rate that is getting closer to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Claire Kerrane: No, I think there has been an issue with referral since before Covid-19. I believe that there have been a number of vacancies in many cases. I will check with that disability group, but I am nearly sure it has been a number of years without referrals. I will certainly check that because I do not buy that it is Covid-19-related. On the six-year rule, people who may be coming to the end...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Dara Calleary: I was not intending to come in on this question, but I get really frustrated at the narrow view of the Department that CE is an active labour market programme. It is much bigger than that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: Yes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Dara Calleary: Those on the scheme may not participate in what the Department defines as the active labour market, but they are providing a service to their community and they have a purpose in their life. In that context, we need to look at the six-year rule. We need to look at the services being provided. If there is that level of vacancies within CE at the moment, that means that services are not...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Employment Schemes (25 Nov 2021)

Joe O'Brien: I will take Deputy Calleary’s point first. He may have missed my opening statement. When I talk about CE, I always talk about two halves, the activation side and the service side. I clearly stated that this morning as well. I always acknowledge it. There have been challenges in CE prior to Covid-19 about referral rates. There were issues prior to my time, because of the low...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Transport (25 Nov 2021)

Public Transport

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Transport (25 Nov 2021)

Aindrias Moynihan: 8. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if consideration will be given to providing free travel passes to persons with epilepsy who are not in receipt of a social welfare payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57991/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Transport (25 Nov 2021)

Aindrias Moynihan: There are up to 40,000 people around the country affected by epilepsy each day. If we leave aside briefly the medical impacts of it, one of the restrictions on people with epilepsy is that they are not allowed to drive. Their licence is restricted. As the Minister can imagine, that is a huge impediment on people in ordinary, everyday life, whether they are going to or from work, going...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Transport (25 Nov 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are currently approximately 1,012,000 customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2021 is €95 million. It is important to note that, in general, access to free travel...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (25 Nov 2021)

Heather Humphreys: No.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (25 Nov 2021)

Catherine Connolly: It is. The Minister should look at her first tender to see who won the bid. Who was successful as opposed to who was unsuccessful? We must look at this again. If the Minister has any influence, now is the time to use it in view of the committee report. I thank the Minister. I am over time.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (25 Nov 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I understand the Deputy's concerns. I reassure her that I have done everything I can to ensure the importance of social value and community linkages are reflected in the procurement process. We have engaged extensively with the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, yet we hear that some of its members seem not to have received the information that we have given. The one issue we must...