Results 8,401-8,420 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Review (30 May 2019)

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. The person concerned has been in receipt of a half-rate CA since 19 June 2014 as her husband had been claiming an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Illness Benefit Eligibility (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: An application for Illness Benefit was received from the person concerned on 8th May 2019. The person concerned does not satisfy the PRSI qualifying conditions for payment of Illness Benefit. One of the qualifying conditions for Illness Benefit is that a person must have 39 weeks of PRSI contributions paid or credited in the relevant tax year (or 26 weeks of PRSI contributions paid or...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Payments (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: If a person secures part-time or casual work (up to and including 3 days per week), they may be entitled to a Jobseekers payment for days in which they are not employed. The person concerned must demonstrate that they meet the other conditions that apply to qualify for a Jobseekers payment, for example, be available for and genuinely seeking work and in the case of Jobseekers Allowance,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Eligibility (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: Carer's benefit (CARB) is a PRSI based payment, made to a person 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. Before a decision can be made on entitlement to CARB, evidence must be provided in respect of the care recipient’s care requirement, the level of care the carer provides, the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: A person is required to have 520 contributions paid to qualify for the State Pension (contributory). It is reasonable to require people who seek a contributory pension to have made at least 10 years paid contributions into the Social Insurance Fund which finances it, over 50 years of working age life. While it was lower in the past when PRSI coverage was less widespread, legislation...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Waiting Times (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process. One such example is the carer's allowance (CA) scheme. To qualify for CA,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Delays (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 153 and 155 together. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. All claim decisions taken by the Department’s Deciding Officers and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payment Data (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. There is no automatic entitlement to a payment under this scheme. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: Rent supplement continues its important role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting some 21,250 recipients for which the Government has provided €132.4 million for 2019. Staff in this Department engage with customers throughout the entire lifecycle of their claim, including on regular reviews for all schemes on an ongoing basis, as a control measure and to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Overpayments (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: Effective debt management is a key part of the overall control work of the Department. Ensuring that persons who have been overpaid make an on-going contribution to the recovery of their debts is a key element of this work. Overpayments of social welfare assistance and benefit payments arise as a consequence of decisions made under the relevant sections of the Social Welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Data (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: The total number of persons in receipt of a jobseeker's allowance payment at the end of April was 144,026; of these, 93,626 recipients had been in receipt of this allowance for a period exceeding one year.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Youth Unemployment Data (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: Government policy to reduce unemployment is twofold. The policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs have created an environment in which business can succeed and has led to the creation of more than 400,000 jobs in Ireland since the economic low point of 2012. Secondly, through the Pathways to Workstrategy, my Department ensures that as many new jobs as possible are filled by people taken...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Data (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals legislation provides that it is a matter for an Appeals Officer to decide whether an appeal can be fairly determined by means of a summary...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (30 May 2019)

Regina Doherty: Since late September 2018, my Department has been examining the social insurance records of approximately 90,000 pensioners, born on or after 1 September 1946, who have a reduced rate State pension contributory entitlement based on post Budget 2012 rate-bands. These payments are being reviewed under a new Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to pension calculation which includes provision for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Very funny.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: While I totally agree with the premise of what the Bill tries to do, I cannot in good conscience agree with the unintended outcomes the Bill will produce if we pass the legislation, so no, I will not support it tomorrow. We want to ensure that tips are given to the people who receive them.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: A tip is a gratuity from the patron of an organisation to reward good service. We propose to pass legislation to amend the Payment of Wages Act to ensure that tips cannot form part of anyone's wages and that tips are just that: a gift or gratuity between a patron body and a service. In addition, we have agreed with the industry a code of practice on transparency of the tips policy of each...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Living Wage Introduction (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Legislation in relation to the setting of the National Minimum Wage has existed since 2000. 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 adjustments which do not impact negatively on jobs or competitiveness. The Commission thus takes an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Civil Registration Legislation (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The sections in the Civil Registration Act 2019 concerning registration, and re-registration, of births of donor-conceived children will come into operation as soon as the relevant sections in Part 9 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 (CFRA 2015) are commenced. Commencement of these sections is the responsibility of the Minister for Justice and Equality, whom I have asked to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Engagement between my Department and representatives of CE supervisors has commenced and I expect that it will take a number of weeks to reach a conclusion. All parties to the engagement process have agreed that the detail of the discussions should remain confidential while the engagement is ongoing and I would ask Deputies to respect these wishes and allow the talks to continue free from...