Results 7,441-7,460 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: JobPath Programme (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. As the Deputies may be aware, I recently announced that clients of my Department who were engaged with the JobPath service would from 1 June have the option of applying for community employment scheme and Tús placements while continuing on with their JobPath programme. This will ensure jobseekers can benefit from the job seeking...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Programme (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The role of the Department is not just to provide a jobseeker payment to people who are unfortunate enough to be unemployed, but also to provide assistance and support to unemployed jobseekers to help them secure employment. Central to this approach is the concept of ‘claim and commitment’. Jobseekers have a right to claim an income support from the State but also have a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Company Closures (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am mindful of the plight of the employees involved and, indeed, I have met with the Unite trade union on the matter. The Department has also engaged with the Revenue Commissioners and this engagement is continuing. More generally under the provisions of the Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act 1984, a company is regarded as being insolvent if: the company is placed...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Food Poverty (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: At the outset, I would like to express my admiration for the work of the St Vincent de Paul in assisting vulnerable people in our society. My department works very closely with Vincent de Paul in addressing many issues in relation to vulnerable people, including food poverty. The Department administers the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), which provides food and basic...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Government recognises the need for the social protection system to provide flexible and effective supports for persons who encounter mental health difficulties. Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is a model of supported employment that facilitates people with mental health difficulties to move into mainstream, open labour market employment. Under the IPS model, a person is viewed as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Unemployment Levels (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: Unemployment blackspots are small areas identified in the Census of Population in 2016 as having particularly high levels of joblessness. In general, they are small residential areas within larger urban areas, with a significant number within the city of Limerick. The approach adopted by my Department is that the services delivered by Intreo are focused on unemployed individuals rather than...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Offices (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: My Department currently has 58 Branch Offices at various locations throughout the country. Services are provided through this Branch Office network in areas which are not directly served by a Department operated Intreo Centre. Each Branch Office is privately operated and managed by a Branch Manager under a contract for service with the Department. My Department is anxious to ensure that the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Rights (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The issues which I understand the Deputy to be referring to would appear to relate to the application of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to the Horse Racing sector. In response to representations made to me by the industry and by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I wrote to the Attorney General seeking his advice as to what options, if any, might be available to me...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Legislative Process (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: A number of amendments for inclusion at Committee Stage of the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017 are currently being drafted. My Department is currently engaging with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government (OPC) in this regard. These amendments include important measures relating in particular to pensions and data protection. Subject to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Qualified Child Increase Payments (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: Most weekly social welfare payments include an additional payment in respect of each qualified child up to age 18, which is extended to encompass older school/college going children to age 22 under certain circumstances. These are referred to as qualified child increases (IQCs). IQC payments do not of themselves constitute a specific social welfare scheme and entitlement to the appropriate...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: Almost all defined benefit (DB) schemes have a rule that allows the employer to cease contributions, usually after a notice period. Currently there is no legislative obligation on the employer to make contributions and no further liability on the employer where contributions cease. However, over the last number of years the Government has amended pension legislation to protect the pension...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Unemployment Levels (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The first publication of the Labour Force Survey which replaces the Quarterly National Household Survey (QHNS) was released on 16, January 2018 and is the official measure of unemployment. The most recent data shows that, nationally, unemployment has fallen from a peak of 15% in 2012 to 6.1% by March 2018. Within the South East region, which includes Wexford, unemployment has fallen from a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions Reform (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 29 together. A policy to introduce the Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to pensions calculation was adopted by the then Government in the National Pensions Framework in 2010, as was the decision to base the entitlements of all new pensioners on this approach from 2020. On the 23rd January, the Government agreed to a proposal that will allow...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is accepted that periods of unemployment are a normal feature of the acting and artistic professions. The main social welfare schemes available from my Department for unemployed persons are the jobseeker’s allowance and benefit schemes which provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. Both schemes provide...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Applications (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The current 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: PRSI contributions can be credited to people in a number of contexts, for example when in receipt of a Jobseekers or Illness benefit payments. Where applicable, these may be used towards PRSI-based social protection payments, including the State pension contributory (SPC). Not all classes of paid or credited contributions are reckonable for a State pension contributory, e.g., those of a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: Penalty rates are a legal provision within the Jobseeker schemes to ensure that the Department can achieve compliance with Government Activation Policy as stated in Pathways to Work. Legislation provides that sanctions / penalties in the form of reduced payments may be imposed by the Department’s Deciding Officers where recipients of jobseeker payments fail, without good cause, to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: Penalty rates are a legal provision within the Jobseeker schemes to ensure that the Department can achieve compliance with Government Activation Policy as stated in Pathways to Work. Legislation provides that sanctions / penalties in the form of reduced payments may be imposed by the Department’s Deciding Officers where recipients of jobseeker payments fail, without good cause, to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: JobPath is one of a range of activation supports, including employment schemes such as Community Employment (CE) and Tús, catering for unemployed jobseekers. Long term unemployed jobseekers who are not engaged with any other activation scheme or service are referred by my Department to the JobPath service to receive intensive individual support, including relevant training and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pensions Reform (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: A policy to introduce the Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to pensions calculation was adopted by the then Government in the National Pensions Framework in 2010, as was the decision to base the entitlements of all new pensioners on this approach from 2020.On the 23rd January, the Government agreed to a proposal that will allow pensioners affected by the 2012 changes in rate bands to have...