Results 381-400 of 1,016,880 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Paul Murphy)
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Apr 2024)
Pádraig O'Sullivan: What is the number of persons who have availed of the activation and family support programme in 2022 to fund the cost of training supports and education courses for people on social welfare in Cork?
- 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 Schemes (25 Apr 2024)
Pádraig O'Sullivan: It goes without saying that we all understand the merits of this programme and would like to see it continue to be funded in the future. I looked at previous parliamentary questions from over the years and was interested to learn that the funding in 2008 was €5.4 million, but in 2012 it was just €2.5 million. It has gradually reduced. The last figure I have in this...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions (25 Apr 2024)
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)
Social Welfare Payments
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)
Pauline Tully: 6. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she is considering the consolidation of all disability payments together into one single payment system; if so, her plans to consult and co-design this scheme in conjunction with the disability community; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18411/24]
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)
Pauline Tully: Is the Minister considering the consolidation of all disability payments into one single payment system and, if so, has she plans to consult and co-design the scheme in conjunction with the disability community, and will she make a statement on the matter?
- 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)
Pauline Tully: As the Minister has said, one of the proposals was to merge the disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension into a single payment called the personal support payment. While the Green Paper has been scrapped, and for good reason, there were proposals within which merited further analysis and I believe this is one. In our consultation with disabled individuals and DPOs, there...
- 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)
Pauline Tully: The Green Paper also proposed higher rates for disability payments, and that, too, needs to be progressed. The cost of disability payment needs to be looked at. The priority is to ensure no person is living in poverty. I also refer to a number of constituents who have come to my office because their payment has been cut or curtailed without any warning. There may be perfectly good reasons...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I welcome that we now realise from our meetings that the Green Paper was not going to work. However, the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996 recommended there should be a gradual payment to meet additional everyday costs associated with disabilities. This has come up with me recently too. There is no overall payment to cover the cost of disability in Ireland....
- 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 Payments (25 Apr 2024)
Question No. 7 taken with Written Answers.
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)
Social Welfare Appeals
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)
Peadar Tóibín: 8. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who, having been refused the disability allowance, were successful in their appeals of her Department’s decision to refuse in each of the past ten years and to date in 2024. [17667/24]
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)
Peadar Tóibín: People with disabilities are among the people most discriminated against in Ireland. People with disabilities battle daily just to achieve basic services from the State. A few weeks ago this Government played the part of champions of carers and people with disabilities, but that zeal has disappeared for some reason after the referendum results. People with disabilities regularly tell me...
- 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: Citizens Information Services (25 Apr 2024)
Catherine Connolly: Níl an chéad duine eile anseo.