Results 15,341-15,360 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I know there are some concerns that there might not be enough time to discuss a number of issues relating to the Bill today. I am sure Senators will appreciate the pressure my Department has been under in terms of the pandemic and getting the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, up and running again. I want to make it very clear to Senators that the PUP is open to anybody who loses his or...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I am familiar with the Bill to regularise some of the undocumented. It is welcome. I can look at the issues around it. I am not familiar with the court case and the rulings arising from it so cannot comment until I see what it is. I will certainly look at it.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Senators Higgins and Boylan. As we all know, it is not good practice to put the carrying out of reports into primary legislation We all give out about clunky legislation. I thank the Senators for withdrawing the amendment because we can carry out reports without putting them in primary legislation where they will sit forever. When I give the Senators my word that I will carry out...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Yes, they do.

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Senators for raising this. It was raised in the Dáil too, by Deputies Kerrane and Smith. While I did not accept it in the Dáil, I gave a commitment that my Department will carry out a report on this issue. We will feed it into the Oireachtas committee. I give that commitment to Senators too. I will ask my officials to carry out a report on the issue. I will refer a...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am not proposing to accept the amendment because it would replicate the work already undertaken by the Commission on Pensions. That commission has completed its work and its report was published on 7 October. I do not know if the Senator has had the chance to read the report but it is hundreds of pages long. To be quite honest, at this stage...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Senator Higgins for raising this matter.As she knows, the Indecon report has been published. To be fair, we do not always need reports to do good work. I will tell the House about the relevant matters that are in the current budget. In particular, we targeted carers and people with disabilities. The capital and savings disregard for the carer's allowance will increase from...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The public services card predates my time in the Department. I welcome the fact this case has been settled. It is a good outcome for everybody. In fairness, that has been acknowledged by both the Department and the Data Protection Commissioner in recent days. My priority and, ultimately, the priority of the Government is to ensure that people can access services in an efficient way. The...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the committee for the invitation to meet with it today to present the 2021 Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Social Protection. I am seeking a Supplementary Estimate of €473.5 million for 2021. The purpose of this is to address a shortfall in funding for my Department that is partially needed to fund the Christmas bonus for Vote 37 social assistance recipients....

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. The performance of the PRSI has been good. That shows that people are getting back to work. With regard to the extra spending on the non-contributory State pension, domiciliary care allowance and back-to-work family dividend he mentioned, the impact of the Christmas bonus is built into those increases. For example, spending on the non-contributory State pension for...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy Carey. In terms of the CE supervisors' pensions, the starting point for this issue is, as the Deputy will be aware, the 2008 Labour Court recommendations. We have had a number of discussions. We have put forward a recommendation to the CE supervisors and my Department has been tick-tacking with them. An offer has been made to them. I hope that can be finalised soon and...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I hope it will happen relatively quickly. I have to bring a proposal to Government and get it agreed there. As I said, it has to be looked at carefully. We always make sure when we are changing things that there are no unintended consequences. As I said, I hope to bring it to Government shortly and I would hope that in the new year we will be able to make an announcement.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for her questions and will try to answer as many of them as I can. Regarding exceptional and urgent needs payments, there was €3.7 million of an underspend due to a lower number of one-off payments than was provided for in the Revised Estimate and this resulted in a saving of €19.8 million. We estimate allocations when putting the budget together but there...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I am sorry; I forgot. I have the details of that. As the Deputy will be aware, in 2020, we established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues with child maintenance. I know that she has an interest in this, as do I. The group is chaired by the former Circuit Court judge, Catherine Murphy. The terms of reference are to consider and make recommendations on the current...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I will answer the question about the over-65s first. I take the point the Deputy makes. As she will know, the over-65s payment is a new payment and was introduced to deal with a specific problem. As we know, people found that their contracts terminated at age 65 and they were going onto jobseekers' payments. We changed that such that they can now apply for the benefit payment for...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: On the CE schemes, in exceptional circumstances we allow participants to stay on. However, there is a balance. We do not want people to be permanently on CE schemes, starting off at a young age and spending all their time on it when we would want them to try and get back into the workforce. For older people on the CE schemes, we are looking at reducing the age from 62 to 60. That would be...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Supplementary) (1 Dec 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Yes.