Results 9,501-9,520 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the important role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy. My Department provides income supports to carers such as Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The CSO published the first set of data from the 2019 Survey on Income and Living Conditions on 2 September which reported on the level of deprivation in Ireland in 2019. The data showed that the percentage of the population experiencing basic deprivation increased to 17.8% in 2019 compared to 15.1% in 2018. By contrast, the level of deprivation had trended downwards between 2013 and 2018....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, my Department engaged external consultants to conduct a review of all current contracted Public Employment Services (PES). They were also to advise on the design and development of future contracted PES. The consultants have completed their review of public employment services and have recently submitted a report to my officials. In accordance with...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Programme (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Any provision for contracted Public Employment Services in 2021 will be in the context of managing and responding to the labour market impacts of Covid-19. My Department will work to ensure there is sufficient capacity within the Public Employment Service to provide a high-quality service to help individuals back into employment. In July, the Government announced that we would be...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been put on a statutory basis since 5th August and I have announced that the scheme will remain open to new applicants until the end of the year. This means that anyone who loses their employment as a result of the pandemic will continue to be able to avail of the payment. It also means that anyone laid off for a second time will be able to avail of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 54 and 527 together. As announced under the July Stimulus, the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment payment has been extended until the end of March 2021. I have recently secured agreement of Government to keep the payment open to new applications until the end of 2020. To be eligible for the pandemic unemployment payment a person must have become fully...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The rate of the pandemic unemployment payment is determined by a person’s prior earnings as notified to my Department by the Revenue Commissioners. My Department does not engage with the Revenue Commissioners in determining a person's individual eligibility but makes this determination on the basis of analysing the information available, except in isolated cases where a record...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 56 and 528 together. The Community Employment (CE) scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis. In general, the period of participation on CE is for one year....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Staff (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department, like all Government departments and agencies, is required to operate within a staff ceiling figure and a commensurate administrative staffing budget. My Department are currently in discussion with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with regard to staffing needs for 2021 for all business areas within the Department, taking into account the increasing demand on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Benefit (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's benefit is a payment made to insured people who leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person in need of full-time care and attention. Carer's leave legislation is administered by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and provides for temporary unpaid leave from employment for employees who satisfy certain conditions. The duration of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Community Employment (CE) scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis There have been no recent changes to the eligibility rules for CE participants. The last occasion a number of changes were...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Of the approximately 206,000 people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) some 5,900 (or 2.8%) are members of the arts, entertainment and recreation sector. This represents a 58% reduction from 14,200 claimants in that sector at the peak in May. This reduction in the numbers of people in receipt of PUP is in line with reductions seen in other sectors and indicates that many...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Rights (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 494, 495 and 501 together. The Duffy Cahill report, which was commissioned by the Government in the aftermath of the Clery's closure, highlighted how the issues raised by the event and the subsequent legal cases are highly complex. The Duffy-Cahill Report was sent to the Company Law Review Group (CLRG) in 2016 for its consideration as part of the work...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The estimated additional revenue that would be raised by adjusting the rate of the social insurance Class S contribution for self-employed workers from 4% to 5.75% and to 7.50% respectively would be €230m and €465m respectively. This estimate does not take into account any possible changes in self-employed worker behaviour arising from increasing the rate of the Class S PRSI...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 497 and 570 together. The enterprise support grant was extended to assist eligible self-employed individuals who exit the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment or jobseekers schemes after 18th May 2020 to re-start their business which was closed due to the impact of the pandemic. As of Friday 18th September, there have been 1,940 grants approved by my...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 498, 546 and 563 together. The Back to Education Allowance has recently been extended as part of the July Stimulus in response to Covid-19. Ordinarily a person must be in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for a minimum period of time before pursuing training or education. This condition is now being waived for recipients of the pandemic...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Fortnightly payments were introduced by my Department to assist with social distancing measures in accordance with public health guidelines. While some welfare schemes have reverted to a weekly payment pattern, fortnightly payments have been retained for a number of schemes, including Disability, Pensions and Carers’ payments. These schemes mainly involve payments to people who...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The matter raised by the Deputy concerns the notice period with respect to marriages and the implications arising from the need to reschedule proposed marriage dates due to the impact of Covid-19 public health restrictions. The General Register Office has contacted the parties to explain the opportunities available to them within the legal framework of the Civil Registration Act 2004 to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Benefit (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's benefit (CARB) is a payment made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person(s) in need of full-time care and attention. One of the conditions that must be satisfied to qualify for CARB is that a person must not work more than 18.5 hours with earnings of no more than €332.50 less statutory deductions per week....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (22 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a range of supports and programmes catering for the unemployed and those most distant from the labour market. These supports include programmes such as Community Employment (CE) and Tús. CE is designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons, countrywide, with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their...