Results 11,421-11,440 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payment (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The ENP scheme is demand led and payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The main income supports for carers provided by my Department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on all these payments to carers in 2021 is expected to exceed €1.4 billion. Carer's Allowance is a means tested payment made to people whose income falls below certain limits, and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (17 Feb 2021)

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 8 January 2021. The claim was refused on the grounds that the medical conditions for the scheme were...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Enterprise Support Services (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 499 and 500 together. The Enterprise Support Grant (ESG) is available to eligible self-employed recipients who close their Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and re-start their business. A once-off grant of up to €1,000, to assist with the costs associated with reopening, is available under this measure. The information requested by the Deputy in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Fuel Allowance (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: In order to be eligible for fuel allowance, a person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment, satisfy a household means test and live alone or only with certain other qualified people. Under the means test, an applicant and members of his/her household may have a combined assessable income of up to €10 a week above the appropriate rate of State Pension Contributory, currently...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that two appeals (for supplementary welfare allowance and for disability allowance) were registered in that office on 29 September 2020 and 26 November 2020 respectively. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 503 and 504 together. The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €28.00 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €784 each year) from October to April, to an average of 372,000 low income households, at an estimated cost of €300 million in 2021. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. The allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds is a payment for people aged 65 who have ceased employment or self-employment and who satisfy the pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions. To qualify, a customer must have paid at least 104 PRSI insurable employment contributions at Class A , H or P OR have paid at least 156 PRSI self-employment contributions at Class S AND have paid at...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: State Pension (non-contributory) is a means-tested payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a State Pension (contributory), or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record. For the purposes of the means-test, at the outset and at any review intervals during the lifetime of the claim, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Recipients who wish to close their pandemic unemployment payment claim have the option of stating the reasons for closing their account. Based on the information provided by claimants closing their PUP claim in January 2021, a total of 23,127 people stated that they were returning to work. Weekly breakdowns of those in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment, along with age, county and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I recently announced the introduction of the new Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds. This fulfils a key commitment in the Programme for Government to provide a benefit payment for people who are aged 65 and who are required to or who chose to retire early, without a requirement to sign on, partake in any activation measures or be available for and genuinely seeking work. This new payment is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes Data (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: To date, just under 894,000 people have applied for the Covid Pandemic Unemployment Payment. This week, my Department issued payments valued at €144.6 million to over 477,000 people who are currently being paid under the scheme. Since the onset of the pandemic almost €6 billion has been spent on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment. In line with all other social welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Staff (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The well-being of the Department's staff has been to the forefront in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. The huge impact on the organisation necessitated a new Well-being policy and associated delivery plan which was approved and supported by the Management Board in July 2020. The strategic plan was developed centrally by the Department's Human Resources (HR) area with a dedicated...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Payments (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Departmental records reflect that the person concerned submitted an online application for a Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment in July 2020. Unfortunately, due to an error in the online platform, the application was not picked up and remained unprocessed. As a result of your representation, the person concerned was contacted on 16/02/2021 and asked to submit certain documentation...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Social Protection does not have any contracts with public relations agencies or PR consultants. I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Ministerial Correspondence (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Strengthening bilateral relations with the US is a priority for Ireland as set out in our Programme for Government, as well in our Strategy for the US and Canada (2019-2025). While I have not been in contact with my US counterpart directly I look forward to engaging with the US Administration on issues as they arise and in particular on our bilateral social security agreement. Officials from...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,557 schools and organisations benefitting 227,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children who are unable, due to lack of good quality food, to take full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Personal Public Service Numbers (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I can confirm that officials of my Department have been in contact with the Deputy's office and with the individual referred to by the Deputy regarding her Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) and the matter has been satisfactorily resolved. I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Local Improvement Scheme (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The Local Improvement Scheme, or LIS, is a programme for improvement works on small private or non-public roads in rural areas which are not under the normal maintenance of the Local Authorities. It is funded by my Department and administered through the relevant Local Authorities. Since the LIS was re-launched in 2017, over €58 million has been allocated for improvement works on over...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Animal Welfare (17 Feb 2021)

Heather Humphreys: My Department has overall policy responsibility for the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010. The Act provides a robust regulatory framework for, inter alia, the licensing, monitoring and inspection of dog breeding establishments by local authorities and, where a serious and immediate threat exists to public health or animal health and welfare, for the closure of such establishments. As...