Results 1,981-2,000 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The telephone allowance was abolished in Budget 2014. The savings arising from the initial reduction and subsequent discontinuance of the telephone allowance meant that my Department was able to retain the other valuable elements of the household benefits package such as the electricity and gas allowance and the television licence. My Department will spend approximately €232 million...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Expenditure (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to around 627,000 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: According to the latest census figures, in 2016 there were 593,411 people aged 66 and above in the country, and this would have increased in the period since then. Paying each person aged 66 and over a Universal State Pension weekly rate of €250 that year would have cost over €7.7 billion, if restricted to people resident in the State and not including those who have...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Expenditure (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The cost implications of reversing all cuts and changes to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) since 2008 are very complex to estimate and would require significant resources and time to prepare. There are three significant barriers to undertaking this costing exercise. Firstly, by reversing the amendments made to the OFP scheme, this would likely result in a substantial cohort of lone...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme Expenditure (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The allowance is being paid from mid-July to allow parents sufficient time to prepare for back to school. The rates of the payment for the 2017 scheme are being increased from...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Leave (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1225 and 1226 together. The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of maternity benefit is approximately €10.3 million for each extra week, at the current rate of €235 per week. Maternity benefit is currently paid for 26 weeks. The table estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of maternity benefit by 16 weeks to 42...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Parental Leave Expenditure (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: I understand that the Deputy is referring to a total of 18 months leave which would be shareable between parents rather than an additional 18 months of sharable leave on top of the current provisions. The Department of Justice and Equality have responsibility for maternity and paternity leave which are provided for in the 1994 and 2004 Maternity Acts and the Paternity Leave and Benefit...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Expenditure (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: Maternity Benefit is a payment made for 26 weeks to employed and self-employed pregnant women who satisfy certain pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions in order to avoid the need for them to work pre and post-delivery of their baby. The original scheme was introduced in 1970 and was extended to include self-employed mothers with effect from June 1997. In 2017 it is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Poverty Data (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The latest CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) results for 2015 show that the consistent poverty rate, for people in households headed by a person whose principal economic status was “unable to work due to illness or a disability”, was 22.4% in 2015. The at-risk-of-poverty rate was 34.8% with the basic deprivation rate at 53.2%. Neither Eurostat nor the OECD...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Services for People with Disabilities (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: When works were being carried out to existing buildings to convert them to Intreo Centres, universal accessibility was incorporated into the design where it was feasible. In a small number of situations it was not feasible to incorporate full universal accessibility as part of the Intreo roll out. My Department deals with any accessibility issues where we become aware of them and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: There is no statutory retirement age in the State, and the age at which employees retire is a matter for the contract of employment between them and their employers. The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 provides that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the standardising of State pension age for all at 66 years and the cessation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Eligibility (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support, which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependants and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are just over 57,000 families with more than 126,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on FIS...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Support Services (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Department has established an internal working group and an Inter-Departmental Group of the relevant Government Departments to consider proposals to advance the Programme for Government commitment on delivering a new Working Family Payment. The Department has carried out extensive analysis of its existing supports. The analysis is at an advanced stage and shows the existing in-work...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an appeal was registered on 20thJune 2017 and in accordance with the statutory requirements that office has contacted the person concerned and asked her to set out the complete grounds of her appeal. On receipt of her response the relevant papers will be requested from the Department of Social Protection and the appeal will then be...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an appeal was registered on 22ndJune 2017 and in accordance with the statutory requirements, that office contacted the person concerned and asked him to set out the complete grounds of his appeal. The grounds of appeal were received by the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 03rdJuly 2017 and in accordance with the statutory requirement of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: Carer’s allowance (CA) is in payment to the person concerned since 31 July 2014 in respect of one care recipient.I confirm that my department received an application for Carer’s Allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 16 February 2017 in respect of a second care recipient. The application of the person concerned was disallowed on the grounds that he was not providing...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Data (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The recipient information and national expenditure for Farm Assist requested by the Deputy is detailed in the following tabular statements. The Department does not collate statistics on expenditure on a county by county basis for Farm Assist. Farm Assist Recipients by County Breakdown Dec-12 Dec-13 Dec-14 Dec-15 Dec-16 Jun-17 Carlow 84 75 76 69 58 57 Cavan 404 344 326 300 265 262 Clare...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Benefit (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: The main social welfare schemes for unemployed persons are the jobseeker’s allowance and benefit schemes. Both schemes provide significant support to individuals so that they can work up to 3 days a week and still retain access to a reduced jobseeker’s payment. The current days based system can provide significant income supports to jobseekers who are casually employed or...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Appointments to State Boards Data (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: In my reply to question number 2040 of 20 June 2017, I confirmed that no former TDs have been appointed to the Boards of any of the statutory bodies operating under the aegis of my Department in the period from 1stNovember 2014 to date. I also advised that, in line with the Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards (November 2014),appointments to State Boards are advertised on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Unemployment Levels (13 Jul 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1246 and 1247 together. The Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) is the official source of employment and unemployment statistics for the State. Reflecting the impact of government policy, and the overall improvement in the labour market, the unemployment rate has fallen rapidly since it peaked at 15.1% in Q1 2012. The most recent figure is 6.8% in...