The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, met with organisations representing carers and listened to them outline the scenarios the Senator described. We have the pre-budget forum next week, which I will attend with the Minister. I expect we will hear more about the organisations' views on this area. It is worth noting that despite the substantial extra financial demands due to the pandemic, and in recognition of the vital role that carers provide in our society, my Department announced that the carer's support grant, which …

I thank the Deputy for her question. I appreciate that the challenges caused by the Covid-19 public health restrictions have impacted on CE schemes. They have impacted on referrals to CE schemes and the services they provide. I met representatives of a number of CE and Tús schemes on 11 June last. We had a constructive exchange of views on the very real challenges facing the unemployment support schemes and how the Department can support schemes over the coming months as they resume more normal levels of service. I…

We would be very unwise to change the conditions right now when we are in an atypical situation. I hope we are coming to the end of a period and it is looking good for coming out of Covid. There has been very little movement in the labour market during the pandemic. That is a large part of the reason places are currently empty. There were no places for people to go until recent months. It is temporary and circumstances are about to change. We are considering a much larger cohort who will potentially be eligible for…

We will be paying particular attention to CE schemes that are providing essential services. The operational forum recommenced on 11 June. We will be having other meetings in September and some months after that to determine how we can get through these challenges over time. It came up during the proceedings of the forum that many schemes were not aware of the service support stream. I want to share information on this because it is useful. CE employment participants over the age of 62 can participate on CE continuo…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 108 and 113 together. As the Deputies will be aware, CE supervisors and CE assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation on the provision of a pension scheme for CE supervisors and assistant supervisors who are employed by CE scheme sponsors. This claim creates some difficulties because the State is not the direct employer of the supervisors. Within t…

I thank both Deputies for raising this. I expect they appreciate that there is a negotiation process ongoing and that I would be very slow to impact that adversely, so I will not comment on the details except to reiterate and to acknowledge the work of CE supervisors, assistant supervisors and participants across the country. I have met supervisors and participants from Newmarket, Ballina, Killinarden and Churchfield in the past four or five weeks. The work they do is astonishing and their embeddedness in communiti…

I genuinely thank all the Deputies for their contributions and acknowledgement of the importance of community employment. I will give some points of information in response to Deputy Moynihan's question. The 2008 Labour Court recommendation deals with the CE supervisor and assistant supervisor pension issue solely. It related to these two categories of employees and did not deal with job initiative scheme or Tús employees or the RSS, which is a different type of scheme. It is in this context that officials in my De…

I thank Senator McGreehan for raising this issue. My Department has responsibility for providing labour market services for people with a disability, assisting them with finding paid employment and preparing them for employment through training or employment programmes. Under the reasonable accommodation fund, my Department helps employers and employees with a disability to take appropriate measures to help a person with a disability to access, improve or retain his or her employment in the private sector. The fund…

Again, I thank the Senator for raising the issue. I will not ask what Department was involved but the situation she described, frankly, was unacceptable. I reiterate what I said earlier. The Employment Equality Acts oblige employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate the needs of both employees and job applicants with disabilities, except where to do so would impose a disproportionate burden on them. Under section 47(l)( a ) of the Disability Act 2005, a public body shall, "in so far as practicable take all re…

I thank Senator McGreehan for raising this issue. First and foremost, it is important to say that my answer is coming from the perspective of the Department of Social Protection, which administers the free travel scheme. The free travel scheme provides free travel on public transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are two broad categories of people who can qualify for the free travel scheme. The first group is those aged 66 and over who are resident in Ireland. This wide category covers a signi…

I understand the frustrations and difficulties of anyone who suffers increased travel costs because of a disability. I understand the situation personally because my father faced this issue in that any time he had an epileptic episode he was off the road for 12 months. Any extensions to the eligibility criteria to the free travel scheme can only be considered while taking account of the objectives of the scheme as well as funding. Any decision that could result in significant extra funding requirements and addition…

I thank Senator Maria Byrne for raising this matter. The telephone support allowance, TSA, which was announced in budget 2018 is a weekly payment of €2.50 equating to €130 per year. Approximately 136,000 customers are currently in receipt of the TSA payment. The estimated full-year cost of the scheme is more than €18 million. The primary objective of the TSA is to support the most vulnerable people at risk of isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, with access to personal alarms or phones for …

I thank Senator Byrne. I accept that the situation is as she describes but would reiterate that the primary objective of the TSA is to support vulnerable people most at risk of social isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, by providing them with access to personal alarms or phones for security. Therefore, the criteria for the allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to the Department in as targeted a manner as possible. As can be seen from recent budget measures…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection, and of the Department, and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The Department of Social Protection processes around 2 million new claims each year. Approximately 85% of these are successful, in that the customer receives the relevant payment. By comparison, a total of 23,664 appeals were made to the Social Welfare…

I am acutely aware that the time taken in processing appeals is hugely important to the people who submit an appeal, and that it directly impacts on their lives. It is a very important point to note that those who apply for formal payments, like carer’s allowance or jobseeker’s allowance, can apply for a supplementary welfare allowance from the community welfare officer while they are awaiting the payment application to be processed. That is an important point to note. The drive for efficiency must be balanced with…

I thank the Deputy for his question and the focus on the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme. My Department is providing funding of €190 million over five years for the current SICAP programme, which is our country's primary social inclusion intervention. This year over €39 million was allocated to the programme, supporting front-line workers in local development companies to deliver SICAP on the ground. The programme does vital work in helping individuals and groups, by improving the life chances o…

I can give a commitment to prioritise SICAP. In terms of the programmes that I oversee, it is one of the ones that I have been shouting about most since I came into office. It is something that we need to raise the profile of across communities as well because so much good work goes on. We have over 500 posts for SICAP workers across the country doing really good work, particularly last year during the crisis. That is not often recognised. I always appreciate the programme being raised here in the Dáil. To put it o…

The Deputy makes a relevant point in relation to the decrease that SICAP has taken over time. I am very aware of that, to acknowledge that again. I draw attention to some areas that come under the area of social inclusion that have received increases in funding in that time period as well. One of them is the Community Enhancement Programme which provides small grants to community groups to enhance facilities in disadvantaged areas. From 2018 to 2020, it has provided €25 million to support 8,000 community groups and…

I can answer Question No. 7 but it is not the question Deputy Paul Donnelly asked.

I am happy to take the question on the basis that it is the multi-annual funding question.