Results 7,461-7,480 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

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

Regina Doherty: The Department of Justice and Equality have policy and legislative responsibility for paternity leave and parental leave. My Department has responsibility for any associated social welfare payments. The Programme for Partnership Government commits the Government to increase paid parental leave in the first year of a child's life. An inter-departmental working group has been established,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: In line with other EU and OECD jurisdictions where such measures feature in their social welfare systems, reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009. These were further extended in subsequent budgets and now apply to jobseeker’s allowance recipients under 26 years of age. This is a targeted, non-discriminatory, measure aimed at...

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

Regina Doherty: Provision of a prompt service is a major objective for the Department, especially for the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme which is the safety net within the social welfare system. The Deputy will be aware that my Department has re-engineered its business model to support the provision of integrated services across all business streams involved in the delivery of localised services....

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

Regina Doherty: The use of facial recognition technology has been successfully employed by my Department for a number of years. What is proposed, in the context of this competitive tender process, is a continuation and upgrade of this existing technology. My Department uses facial image matching software to strengthen the SAFEregistration process. The normal digital photograph in JPEG format is captured...

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

Regina Doherty: My Department operates a range of means tested social assistance payments. Social welfare legislation provides that the means test for these schemes takes account of the income and assets of the person and a spouse / partner, if applicable. Income and assets include income from employment, self-employment, occupational pensions, maintenance payments as well as property owned (other than the...

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

Regina Doherty: My Department received a communication dated 12th April 2018 from ‘eircom limited’, with a registered address of: 1 Heuston South Quarter, St John’s Road West, Dublin 8. In accordance with its obligations under section 12 of the Protection of Employment Acts 1977-2014 ‘eircom Ltd’ gave details of “a potential collective redundancy situation which may...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Money Advice and Budgeting Service (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The executive of the Citizens Information Board (CIB) is implementing the decision of the Board of CIB to reorganise the governance arrangements of ninety three individual local company boards, comprising 42 Citizens Information Services (CIS) and 51 Money Advice and Budgeting Services (MABS), to a new regionally based sixteen company model, comprising eight CIS and eight MABS companies. As...

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

Regina Doherty: Ireland has negotiated Bilateral Social Security Agreements with a number of counties. The main purpose of these Agreements is to protect the pension rights of people who have worked and paid social security contributions in Ireland and the countries with which Ireland has such agreements. This is achieved by allowing reckonable social security contributions paid in one or more of these...

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

Regina Doherty: The information requested by the Deputy is detailed in the following table. Average times to award carer’s allowance, disability allowance and domiciliary care allowance claims at the end of March 2018 Scheme Average time to award (Weeks) Carer’s Allowance 19 Disability Allowance 14 Domiciliary Care Allowance 9

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

Regina Doherty: The Government’s ‘Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023’, details specific actions that will be taken to reform our pension system and provides a timeline for each of these actions. Reforms in the plan include the introduction of a ‘Total Contributions Approach’ (TCA) to the calculation of the State pension (contributory) from 2020 and the introduction,...

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

Regina Doherty: To qualify for a widow(er)’s or surviving civil partner’s (contributory) pension, the surviving spouse must be deemed, under Irish State Law, to be the legal widow(er) of the deceased. The legislative provisions pertaining to the recognition of foreign divorces outside the State are set out in Section 5 of the Domicile and Recognition of Foreign Divorces Act 1986....

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

Regina Doherty: Biometric information is information about the measurements of human body characteristics, such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements and it is typically used for authentication purposes. The Public Services Card (PSC) does not store biometrics. While the card does store the person’s photograph and it appears on the card, it...

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

Regina Doherty: The farm assist scheme was introduced in 1999 to provide income support for low income farmers. It replaced the former smallholders’ unemployment assistance payment. In line with the then existing arrangements for unemployment assistance (including smallholders) and pre-retirement allowance, the income of farm assist recipients was exempt from class S PRSI for self-employed workers....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Money Advice and Budgeting Service (3 May 2018)

Regina Doherty: The executive of the Citizens Information Board (CIB) is implementing the decision of the Board of CIB to reorganise the governance arrangements of ninety three individual local company boards, comprising 42 Citizens Information Services (CIS) and 51 Money Advice and Budgeting Services (MABS), to a new regionally based sixteen company model, comprising eight CIS and eight MABS companies. As...

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

Regina Doherty: The primary goal of my Department’s activation services is to move people from full-time and part-time unemployment to full-time and sustained employment. A jobseeker that already has an offer of a placement on a Community Employment Scheme (CE) or Tús when they are referred to the JobPath service will be facilitated to take up the offer. I recently announced that customers of my...

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

Regina Doherty: The Roadmap for Pensions Reform, which was recently published by the Government, details specific measures that will modernise our pension system. It sets out under Strand 4, ‘Measures to Support the Operation of Defined Benefit Schemes’, that the Government is committed to advancing the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017.The General Scheme of the Bill...

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

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. All claim decisions taken by the Department’s deciding officers are appealable to the Chief Appeals Officer. In any year about 85% of...

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

Regina Doherty: A pilot initiative to assist self-employed visual artists and writers who apply to my Department for jobseeker’s allowance was launched in June 2017. The initiative, which is a commitment under the Creative Ireland Programme,was a collaboration between my Department and what is now the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with the support and advice of the Arts Council....

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

Regina Doherty: The Roadmap for Pensions Reform, which was published recently by the Government, details a number of specific measures that will modernise our pension system. It sets out under Strand 4, ‘Measures to Support the Operation of Defined Benefit Schemes’, that the Government is committed to advancing the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017 to respond to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Programme (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...