Results 12,501-12,520 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 May 2021)

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. 996,000...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: In the July Jobs Stimulus the Government committed to a €200m investment in training, education, skill development, work placement schemes, recruitment subsidies and jobs search and assistance measures aimed to help those who have lost their jobs find a new one, retrain or develop new skills, in particular for emerging growth sectors. Included in this is provision for a funded work...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 387 to 396, inclusive, together. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefitting 230,000 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 397 to 406, inclusive, together. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefitting 230,000 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has proven to be a vital income support to workers, thousands of whom lost their jobs virtually overnight. Since the introduction of the scheme over 23.7 million payments have been made to over 850,000 people providing income support of some 7.6 billion to date. Within 3 weeks of inception (on 7 April 2020) the scheme made payments to 507,000 people....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Staff (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 408 and 409 together. In accordance with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) rules, civil servants on secondment maintain their terms and conditions of employment including salary during their period of secondment. Any additional payments made during that period are non-pensionable. With regard to the individual in question, prior to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Impact Assessment (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: My Department has completed a Poverty Impact Assessment on the reduced rates of jobseekers for young people, which I am currently considering. Given the impact of the pandemic on employment, one of my priorities is to assist people, including young people, in getting back to work as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Under the July Jobs Stimulus, my Department, along with the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Eligibility for disability allowance (DA) is conditional on satisfying the medical criteria, a means test and being habitually resident in the state. Where a person is married, in a civil partnership or co-habiting, the Department will assess the means of the person applying for a social assistance payment and the means of their partner when carrying out a means test. In order to qualify for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: There is a wide range of benefits available to people who make Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions. Entitlement to such benefits is dependent on the individual's social insurance contribution record, the class of social insurance paid as well as satisfying other qualification criteria relevant to the scheme being applied for. In general, self-employed people make PRSI...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Welfare Services (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make an 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. ENPs for goods and services should be based on the most reasonable price at which the article or service can be obtained by the customer. In order to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefitting 230,000 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: Pension Provisions (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Incapacity Supplement (I.S.) is an increase to Disablement Pension where a person is considered to be permanently incapable of work as a result of an occupational accident/disease and does not qualify for another Social Welfare benefit. It is a qualifying condition for I.S. that a Person must not be in receipt of any other Social Welfare Benefit or Assistance. The person concerned...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: According to the records of my Department, the person concerned has a social insurance record of 835 full-rate paid contributions, 186 credited contributions and 604 HomeCaring Periods from their date of entry into insurable employment until pension age. The person's pension entitlement has been assessed under both the yearly average and aggregated contributions methods. Based on their yearly...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is a significant user of information technology for the day to day operation of its services. Our technical staff implement service management practices that are aligned with ITIL industry best practice. There are comprehensive system and data backup policies, procedures and testing arrangements in place in the Department and its agencies. Secure backups are taken at frequent...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Overpayments of social welfare assistance and benefit payments arise as a consequence of decisions made under the relevant sections of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005 (as amended). Customers who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled. Where an overpayment is raised,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Legal Services (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The table below shows the expenditure by the Department of Social Protection on professional legal services for the years 2014, 2019 and 2020. Legal Fees incurred by Department of Social Protection 2014, 2019 and 2020 2014 2019 2020* €000 €000 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: As of May 24th 2021, there were 131,371 persons receiving jobseeker's allowance. Of these, 13,376 were in receipt of a reduced rate.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) is an assessment, developed by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, of the minimum income needed to live and partake in the social and economic norms of everyday life for various household types. My Department has partly funded the excellent, detailed work of the Vincentian Partnership for a number of years, and I find it extremely...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I am advised that my Department does not gather the data requested by the Deputy as a matter of course. It is possible, however, to report on the weekly entitlement from these income support schemes; this data is set out in the table below, and is inclusive of additional increases, such as the increase for a Qualified Adult/Child. Short-Time Work Support ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Cybersecurity Policy (25 May 2021)

Heather Humphreys: For reasons of operational and national security it would not be appropriate to disclose details, including costs, of my Department’s Cyber Security arrangements, or those of State Agencies under my remit. Any information in relation to cyber security tools and services could assist criminals in identifying potential vulnerabilities in cybersecurity arrangements. Therefore it is not...