Results 17,021-17,040 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Sector Staff (12 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Employment Services Managers are Assistant Principals (APs) responsible for the delivery of the Public Employment Services (including Activation services) within their respective Areas. Their Employment Services Areas span a number of Intreo Offices. Their teams of Higher Executive Officers (HEOs) and Executive Officers (EOs) deliver Activation services. There are a total of 394 officials...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (12 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. It is important to note that entitlement to these supports is generally not contingent on the nature of the illness or disability but on the extent to which a particular illness or disability impairs or restricts a person’s capacity to work. Budgetary provision is not...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Artists' Remuneration (12 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 277 to 281, inclusive, together. Disability Allowance and Blind Pension are means tested social assistance schemes, which are also subject to a medical assessment and habitual residency requirement. Both schemes are structured to support recipients to avail of opportunities to pursue their own employment ambitions, be that self-employment or insurable...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (12 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's benefit (CARB) is a payment made to insured people who leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a child or an adult in need of full-time care and attention. An increased payment can be made where full-time care is being provided to two people. To qualify, the carer must satisfy PRSI conditions, employment conditions, show that they are providing full-time care...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Family Support Services (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Under family law, parents and certain categories of guardians or those acting in the place of parents are obliged to maintain their children. In cases where the family unit has broken down, these obligations continue to apply. Child maintenance arrangements can be agreed directly between the parties themselves, with the assistance of their...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Family Support Services (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: In fairness, I am aware that the Deputy has a strong interest in this matter and she has raised it with me a number of times in the House. I have the report now. It runs to a couple of hundred pages. The group and the chair, Judge Catherine Murphy, took approximately 18 months to examine this. They asked for a time extension and we gave it to them. It is clear from the report that they...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Family Support Services (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I intend to bring a memorandum to the Government with the full report and our proposed response. I can assure the Deputy that this report is not going to sit on a shelf anywhere in the Department of Social Protection. I am coming to this with an open mind, as I have said previously. My priority in all this is the mothers and the children. The Deputy and I have discussed this on a number...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this. My Department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. Entitlement to these supports is contingent on the extent to which a particular illness or disability impairs or restricts a person's capacity to work. It is not dependent on the nature of the illness or disability. As a result, I do...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I appreciate the point the Deputy is making. I recognise that Covid-19 impacted people differently. Some people who had it felt it was just like a bad cold and there were others, particularly those with underlying conditions and older people, on whom it impacted very seriously. All the measures the Government took over the last two years, including the various restrictions and so forth,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I do not have a specific scheme that depends on one's medical condition. The scheme we have covers all medical conditions. They Deputy said that if somebody is looking for invalidity pension, he or she may have to reach certain criteria. I am open to looking at issues but, as it stands, I cannot say that somebody who has long Covid should get a different payment from somebody who has...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Code (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I will look at it.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The pensions commission's report was published on 7 October 2021. It contained almost 250 pages of analysis, consideration and recommendations. The report established that the current State pension system is not sustainable into the future, and it set out a recommended approach for the Government. In the interests both of older people and future generations of older people - the young...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: In fairness, it has been a busy few months and the Department has been dealing with the situation in Ukraine. We issued 32,000 PPS numbers in recent weeks, put income supports in place for the Ukrainians coming here, and we have worked with them to help them get into employment. Some 2,500 are already working. Today, the Department will administer the new €400 recognition payment....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Pensions Reform (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: There is a recommendation in the pensions commission's report on family carers and we will take that into consideration in totality with the other recommendations in the report. I am confident that the Government will agree a response to the commission's report. We will do so in order that people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s can retire in the knowledge that there will be a State pension...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The pilot basic income scheme for artists, which the Government launched in April, is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport, Gaeltacht, and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin. Her Department is leading this project, including the associated stakeholder engagement, and any requests for meetings to discuss the pilot should be directed accordingly. Officials from...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I appreciate the point the Deputy is making. I will give him a few sums on this. As a result of the income disregards we have put in place, a person in receipt of a disability allowance payment of €208 who qualifies for the €325 basic income for the arts payment will end up with a combined income of €443. That is a 113% increase, which is more than double the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We need to look at this more widely to improve the situation for all people with disabilities. Of course I want to do more. As part of the cost of disability report, my Department is looking at the whole area of disability payments and at how we can make the system fairer. One of the recommendations in that report is to move away from the flat rate of €208 towards a tiered payment...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this. I welcome the recent publication of the 2021 survey on income and living conditions, which shows improvements across all key national poverty indicators. The data once again show that our social protection system performs strongly in protecting our most vulnerable citizens. Social transfers have reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate from 38.6% to 11.6%....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We try to target the resources where they have the most impact. However, if we increased the rates to meet the MESL, it would cost €2.4 billion more in one year for working-age payments. That would be lot of money. It would be a considerable increase. We have taken measures to address the cost of living. For example, €100 is being paid out this week for the fuel allowance...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We have to acknowledge there are a number of different measures in the survey. Two of them have increased but everything else has reduced, whether it is consistent poverty, at risk of poverty, deprivation rates or social transfers. As I mentioned, Covid-19 income supports reduced the risk of poverty from 19.9% to 11.6%. Consistent poverty for children reduced from 7.2% to 5.2%, while...