Results 2,941-2,960 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Waiting Times (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 26 together. My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers, ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Social welfare schemes such Carer’s Allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Department provides income supports through contributory payments (which are based on a person's social insurance record) and means-tested social assistance payments. Social welfare legislation provides that the means test takes account of the income and assets of the person (and spouse or partner, if applicable) applying for the relevant scheme. Income and assets include income from...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Payments (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: This Government has committed to making the needs of families a priority, especially lone parents, children and those on lower incomes. Over the last three Budgets, the maximum rates of all weekly payments have increased by €15. We have also increase the payments to qualified children for the first time since 2010 and provided for higher payments to children aged 12 years and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Payments (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The payment of a Christmas bonus is a discretionary decision made by the Government in the context of the annual Budget process and available resources. As is the case every year, a decision to pay the bonus at Budget time each year takes into account the current fiscal position and the achievement of our overall fiscal targets.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 and 42 together. It is my intention that the new scheme of jobseeker's benefit for the self-employed, which I announced as part of the Budget 2019, will be introduced from November this year. This scheme will provide a social insurance contribution based benefit to the self-employed who lose their self-employment and consequently are not engaged in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Programme (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 37 together. JobPath is a service which supports people who are long-term unemployed to secure and sustain full time paid employment. Two companies, Seetec and Turas Nua, have been contracted by my Department to deliver the service. The JobPath employment service commenced in 2015 and, under the terms of the contracts signed with the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Maintenance Payments (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Family Law Acts place a legal obligation on parents to maintain their children. In cases where the family unit has broken down these obligations continue to apply. Relevant maintenance payments can be arranged either directly between the parties themselves, or with the assistance of supports from the Department of Justice and Equality, such as the Family Mediation Service and the Legal...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Data (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 28, 32, 33, 44 and 49 together. Since late September 2018, my Department has been examining the social insurance records of over 90,000 pensioners, born on or after 1 September 1946, who have a reduced rate State pension contributory entitlement based on post Budget 2012 rate-bands. These payments are being reviewed under a new Total Contributions...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Proposed Legislation (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the Bill to amend the Payment of Wages Act 1991 dealing with tipping practices, last week received Government approval to be added as a priority to the Government’s Legislation Programme for the Autumn / Winter parliamentary session. The Scheme of the Bill is already crafted to an advanced stage and has been submitted to the Office of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Gender Equality (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 30 and 34 together. The Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a report “Gender, Pensions and Income in Retirement” on 12th September 2019. This report was sponsored by the Pensions Council, which is a statutory body which has been set up to provide advice to me in relation to pensions matters. At the outset it is very...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The primary social welfare schemes available to individuals who have been laid off as a result of current layoffs inn the meat processing industry are Jobseekers Benefit and Jobseekers Allowance. Both schemes are administered through my Department's network of Intreo Centres and Social Welfare Branch Offices throughout the country. Payment of Jobseekers Benefit and Assistance is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Strategies (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 35 and 40 together. The new social inclusion strategy "Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2019-2025", is being finalised and I expect that the new strategy will be published shortly.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Unemployment Benefits Data (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The total number of persons who declared their employment category as childcare and related occupations who have claimed jobseeker's payments in June, July and August 2016-2019 are detailed in the following tabular statements. Claims between June and August 2016 June July August Jobseeker's Allowance 3,590 3,780 3,759 Jobseeker's Benefit 810 1,140 1,139 Total 4,400 4,920...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The PSC was provided for in legislation in 1998 when it was introduced alongside the PPSN to replace the previous Revenue and Social Insurance number (RSI) and the Social Service Card (SSC). The clear and stated objective as articulated in Oireachtas at that time was that the Public Services Card was not to be confined to welfare services but to act as an identifier for access to a broad...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: JobPath is a service which supports people who are long-term unemployed to secure and sustain full time paid employment. Seetec is one of the companies contracted by my Department to deliver the Job Path service. Seetec have strong customer service policies in place, one of which is a safeguarding policy. The Seetec policy covers a range of areas where concern may emerge regarding the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: As the Deputy will be aware, I am currently engaging with representatives of CE supervisors to discuss issues arising following the 2008 Labour Court Recommendation (LCR 19293). All parties to the engagement process have agreed that the detail of the discussions should remain confidential while the engagement is ongoing and I would ask Deputies to respect these wishes and allow the talks to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: Following a public procurement process, the tender for the supply of the production, personalisation and distribution of the Public Services Card (PSC) and the provision of associated services was awarded to Security Card Concepts in July 2018 for a period of three years. The supplier is based in Bray. This is simply a new supply contract, it is not a new generation card. The Public...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Treatment Benefit Scheme Applications (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: Applications for Treatment Benefit are now routinely submitted on-line via the department's WelfarePartners portal, with 97% of cases received via this channel to date in 2019. Applications received in this manner are processed immediately, in real time, and as a result there is no delay in processing applications. The small and reducing number of dental and optical benefit applications...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance Data (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: Work is ongoing in my Department to tackle false self-employment across the economy. In that regard I am currently reallocating resources to this issue to understand, measure and quantify better the prevalence of false self-employment and obtain a sectoral analysis of its level of incidence. My Department is already focussed on increasing the number of employer inspections it conducts...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Rights (25 Sep 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Code of Practice is currently being reviewed by an Interdepartmental Group comprising the WRC, Department of Finance, Revenue and this Department. A substantial revision is nearing completion, at which time it will be shared with ICTU and IBEC through the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) structure for observations. This revised Code draws heavily on case law that has emerged since...