Results 9,301-9,320 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by over 80 private transport operators. There are currently approx. 977,000...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: As the Deputy is aware, Community Employment (CE) supervisors and assistant supervisors have been seeking for several years, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme. CE sponsoring authorities are the legal employers of their CE supervisors, CE assistant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Firstly, I would like to say that my thoughts are with all workers who have been temporarily laid off or who are faced with job losses at this difficult time. I want to assure the Deputy that the purpose of the emergency measure, which relates to redundancy entitlements following temporary periods of lay-off and short-time work due to Covid-19, is to ensure that employees have a continued...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2011 provided for increases to the State pension age to make the State pension system more sustainable as life expectancy increases. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State Pension (Transition). This measure standardised the State pension age for all at 66 years. The legislation provided for increases to the State pension age - to 67...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: 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 7 July 2020. It is a condition for receipt of a CA that...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Flexible Work Practices (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department’s main social welfare supports (excluding the pandemic unemployment payment) for people who are unemployed are the Jobseeker’s Benefit and the Jobseekers Allowance schemes which provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full time employment. The 2020 revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure this year...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The purpose of the emergency measure, which relates to redundancy entitlements following temporary periods of lay-off and short-time work due to Covid-19, is to ensure that employees have a continued link to their job, have a pathway to return to their employment and also to mitigate the serious risks to businesses and jobs. It is important to note that an employee’s right to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: 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. My department received an application for CA from the person concerned on 15 June2020. It is a condition for receipt of a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The SAFE registration process, which my Department uses to authenticate a person's identity, is a face- to-face process which results in the issuing of a Public Services Card (PSC). At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, my Department temporarily postponed the SAFE registration process. This decision was taken to comply with HSE and WHO guidelines in respect of social...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Government has requested employers to be as flexible as possible in allowing staff time off to look after their children or other members of their families during COVID 19. Some of the flexible options include offering paid compassionate leave, allowing employees to work from home, altering shifts so that employees can coordinate caring between themselves and partners or another person,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Under the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 (No. 1), and subsequent regulations, the Government, having regard to the manifest and grave risk to human life and public health posed by the spread of COVID-19, amended and extended the Social Welfare Acts to provide for entitlement to illness benefit for persons who have been...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Family Resource Centres and Community Facilities are funded from a range of different sources across different Government Departments and agencies. For example, the Family Resource Centre Programme, which supports Family Resource Centres (FRCs) throughout the country is administered by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. Some of the supports provided by my Department are outlined below. ...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: LEADER Programmes (9 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: LEADER is a multi-annual programme with a budget of €250 million over the period 2014-2020. €225 million of this budget was allocated at the outset of the programme to Local Action Groups (LAGs) who deliver the programme and approve projects at local level. This allocation covers both core project expenditure and the administration costs of the LAG. The balance of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Flood Relief Schemes (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies and the Office of Public Works (OPW) has responsibility for capital flood relief activities. However, my Department has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events such as flooding under the humanitarian assistance scheme. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme replaced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme from 1 September 2020. Subject to satisfying the relevant eligibility criteria, employees may claim casual (i.e part-time) jobseeker payments or Short-Time Work Support payments for days of unemployment, even where their employer is claiming the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme for days of employment. The normal...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Invalidity Pension (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Invalidity pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and for no other reason and who satisfy the pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions. The department received a claim for IP for the person concerned on 25 May 2020. She was refused IP on the grounds that the medical conditions for the scheme were not...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned applied for State pension (contributory) on 22 July 2019, in advance of reaching pension age in September 2019. According to the records of my Department, they have a total of 260 paid full-rate Irish social insurance contributions. They had not provided details of employment in any other country. Since their contributions fell short of the requisite 520 paid full-rate...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Maintenance Payments (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Child Maintenance Review Group established by my Department is set to examine certain issues in relation to child maintenance in Ireland. The judge-led group is composed of eminent legal, policy, and academic professionals, and officials from my Department and the Department of Justice & Equality. The Group will focus on the current treatment of Child Maintenance payments, the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget Process (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: As part of the budgetary process, my Department organises a pre-Budget forum annually for community, voluntary, employee and employer representative organisations to discuss and debate policy issues and present their thoughts and proposals on the upcoming Budget to each other, to senior officials of the Department and to me. This Forum offers a unique opportunity for the representatives...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pensions Reform (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The General Scheme of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2017 ( which subsequently became the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017) contained a number of defined benefit pension related measures. The proposed defined benefit pension provisions were of a very technical nature and involved complex policy and legal issues. In an effort to achieve a resilient solution,...