Results 5,681-5,700 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Government is committed to encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship and this includes improving the level of PRSI based benefits available to self-employed people while ensuring the sustainability of the social insurance fund. Self-employed contributors have been eligible for the invalidity pension since December 2017. For the first time, this has given the self-employed...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: SAFE Level 2 registration is carried out by my Department and allows a person to verify their identity once, not just for access to services provided by this Department but also for a number of public services. Once a person completes a SAFE 2 registration, they may be issued with a Public Services Card (PSC) as a physical token that proves they have had their identity verified to the SAFE 2...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Section 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation deals with the appointment and role of a Data Protection Officer. All public authorities and bodies including Government department's are required to designate a Data Protection Officer (DPO). The Department has appointed a Data Protection Officer in line with the GDPR. As the Deputy is aware, the functions of the Data Protection Officer...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Proposed Legislation (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: On 7th December 2017, I published the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017. The Bill delivers on the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to tackle the problems caused by the increased casualisation of work and to strengthen the regulation of precarious work. This is a very important piece of legislation which will improve the security and predictability of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Payments (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Fuel Allowance Scheme is means tested and assists pensioners and other welfare dependent householders with meeting the cost of their heating needs during the winter season. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal heating expenses. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. The scheme operates over the colder weather period (currently 27 weeks). The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget Submissions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Government acknowledges the crucial role that family carers play in Irish life and is fully committed to supporting carers in their role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for a Partnership Government and the National Carers’ Strategy. It is also reflected in the fact that my Department expects to spend in the region of €1.2 billion during 2018 on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: JobPath is designed to support people who are long term unemployed to obtain and sustain employment in the open labour market. The JobPath companies have no role in selection of jobseekers for referral to the service. My Department selects clients for the JobPath service by means of a random selection process and protocols for selection currently preclude the selection of anyone who has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Government intends to introduce a Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to establishing level of entitlement for all new state pension contributory claims from 2020 onwards (TCA2020). I launched a public consultation on this proposal earlier this year in May. The consultation sought input on a range of relevant factors which included the amount of contributions needed for a full rate...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Living Wage Introduction (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Legislation in relation to the setting of the National Minimum Wage has existed since 2000. More recently, the Low Pay Commission was established in 2015 and its primary function is, on an annual basis, to examine and make recommendations on the national minimum wage, with a view to providing for incremental adjustments which do not impact negatively on jobs or competitiveness. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 22 May 2018.  The application was awarded to the person concerned on 12  September 2018 with effect from 24 May 2018. The first payment issued to her nominated bank account on 20 September 2018.  Arrears of allowance due from 24 May 2018...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: My department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 19 April 2018.  Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: An application for carer's allowance (CA) was received from the person concerned on 31 July 2017. It is a condition for receipt of a CA that the person being cared for must have such disability that they require full-time care and attention. This is defined as requiring from another person, continual supervision and frequent assistance throughout the day in connection with normal bodily...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 31 August 2018. The application is currently being...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The cost of increasing the age limit for a qualified child for the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) to when the youngest child turns 18 years of age is not easily estimated. There are significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise.  For example, customers may no longer be within the welfare system, while others could seek to move from alternative payments such as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Maintenance Payments (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: My Department is currently reviewing the maintenance and liable relative procedures, insofar as they relate to the payment schemes operated by this Department.  From a broader perspective, the wider issues relating to maintenance are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Justice and Equality, who has responsibility for the Family Law Acts, which govern...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. When a person who is receiving CA stops providing full-time care and attention or where their means exceed the statutory...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: A policy to introduce the Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to pensions calculation was adopted by Government in the National Pensions Framework in 2010, as was the decision to base the entitlements of all new pensioners on this approach from around 2020. In advance of this, on the 23rd January, the Government agreed to a proposal that will allow pensioners affected by the 2012 changes in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Data (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: Applicants for state pension (contributory) are awarded the highest entitlement rate achievable based on the totality of their social insurance contribution history.   When an application for state pension (contributory) is received, the Deciding Officer will first assess the person's entitlement to a standard Irish pension, based on their Irish social insurance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Government intends to introduce a Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to establishing level of entitlement for all new state pension contributory claims from 2020 onwards (TCA2020). I launched a public consultation on this proposal earlier this year in May.  This formally closed on the 3rd of September.  My Department has now started studying the submissions. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (26 Sep 2018)

Regina Doherty: State pension (contributory) is an insurance-based payment, paid to people from the age of 66 who satisfy a number of qualifying conditions.  The number of persons currently in receipt of state pension (contributory) is 404,136.  The following table shows the number of state pension (contributory) recipients over the past ten years.  Due to demographic trends and...