Results 2,141-2,160 of 5,587 for speaker:Kevin Humphreys

Topical Issue Debate: Exceptional Needs Payments (23 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: Deputy Durkan knows me well. Of course I will look into the issue. In the case of the first person concerned, a payment totalling €2,500 has now been made towards the funeral bill of €5,505. In the case of the second person concerned, a payment totalling €3,000 towards the funeral bill of €6,845 has now been made by the Department. Considering the pressure...

Topical Issue Debate: Exceptional Needs Payments (23 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: A bereavement at any stage is always very difficult for families. I sympathise with the two cases Deputy Durkan has brought to my attention. It would be worthwhile to outline the policy position. The administration of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme was transferred to the Department of Social Protection on 1 October 2011. The Department of Social Protection's assistant...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: I understand the position from which the Senator is approaching this issue. However, there appears to be a misconception that this section will shift the burden of proof from the Department to the claimant.It has always been the case that the onus is on the claimant, whether it be an application for the carer's allowance or any other social welfare payment, to provide any necessary...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: I thank the Senator for his co-operation. If incidents arise and he brings them to my attention, I will deal with them and work with him in this regard.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: In response to the first contribution and the reference on the forcing of women to work, the Senator quoted from the article by the journalist in the Irish Examinerabout being passive. I represent an inner city community and the first point I want to make is that not all lone parents are women. I have seen lone parents in their 40s who have received no training, support, education or...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: Her name is Victoria White.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The worst possible outcome for members of jobless households is to have no role model to which to aspire. I have seen this in numerous families where there is an intergenerational history of unemployment. I do not accept that we are doing our best for children if we facilitate a situation where they grow up in a jobless household. We need children to see their parents actively involved in...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The Senator knows very well that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs subsidises approximately 40,000 child care places, 25,000 of them specifically targeted at low-income parents. These include the 500 places under the after-school child care scheme operating at primary school level. The jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement was introduced in 2013 to take into account the...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: I am aware that the issue is under review and I will revert to the Senator as soon as that review is completed. On the question of the CE schemes under the remit of the Department of Social Protection, one of their great successes has been to train people to FETAC levels 5 and 6 who then go on to full time employment. Recently we have lowered the age of eligibility to allow younger people...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Work Placement Programmes (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: Tús, the community work placement initiative introduced during 2011, was set up to provide short-term, work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. This initiative is being delivered through the network of local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta. Tús is designed to break the cycle of unemployment and maintain work readiness thereby...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobsPlus Scheme (21 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The JobsPlus scheme is currently available to JobBridge participants who meet the JobsPlus criteria. Eligibility criteria and general information relating to both schemes are available on www.welfare.ie.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The rent supplement scheme provides support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are currently approximately 70,000 rent supplement recipients, for which Government has provided over €298 million for 2015. The Department...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobsPlus Scheme (16 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: JobsPlus provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who recruit employees primarily from the Live Register. Employers may also be eligible for the incentive if they recruit former recipients of the one parent family payment whose youngest child is 14 years of age or over who are currently in receipt of a jobseekers' payment and those transitioning into employment. The...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Social Insurance (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: I thank Senator Craughwell for raising this issue of which I am very much aware, having served on Dublin City Council for many years. I have also had extensive engagement on this issue with Senator Denis Landy and Dublin City Councillors Mary Freehill and Dermot Lacey, who is in the Gallery. It is not a popular subject to raise and I compliment the Senator on raising it. He certainly will...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Social Insurance (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: I will conclude the debate by paying tribute to the work county councillors and city councillors do. They do an extremely tough and thankless job and are often blamed for decisions that are made in these Houses rather than in the local chamber. A councillor is the face of democracy, and people often vent at them in the wrong manner when they bump into them on the street. The position of...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Second Stage (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The main purpose of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015 is to provide for the introduction of the new back-to-work family dividend to help jobseekers with families and lone parents to return to work or to increase the number of hours worked. This measure will complete the implementation of the budget 2015 package of social protection improvements, which also included...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2015: Second Stage (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: I thank the Senators for their contributions to the debate on Second Stage and the spirit in which the contributions were made, which was constructive in the majority of cases. In this Bill, we are providing further help for welfare dependent families through the introduction of the back to work family dividend to help jobseekers with families and lone parents return to work or increase...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The Community Employment (CE) Procedures Manual sets out the policies and procedures for the compliance of CE Schemes. This Procedures Manual is updated regularly to ensure that schemes are run in accordance with sound corporate governance procedures and financial best practice. Schemes are monitored at least one a year to ensure compliance with the policies and procedures. Where schemes...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Funding (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,600 schools and organisations which benefits over 205,000 children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (15 Apr 2015)

Kevin Humphreys: A range of supports are available to jobseekers from the Department. A jobseeker who is available for and genuinely seeking work can apply for the contribution-based jobseeker’s benefit or the means-tested jobseeker’s allowance, depending on their previous employment history. While the Department does not provide any specific supports for those wishing to join or return to...