Results 8,041-8,060 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Staff Data (22 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: One advisor, Ms Denise Duffy, travelled to Sligo with the Minister for Employment Affairs on Friday the 16thFebruary 2018; as the advisor travelled with the Minister there are no associated additional costs.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Working Family Payment Eligibility (22 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Working Family Payment (WFP) formerly Family Income Supplement is a weekly tax free payment which provides additional income support to employees on low earnings with childrenTo qualify for WFP, a person must be engaged in full time insurable employment which is expected to last for at least 3 months and must be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. It is also...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (22 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an oral hearing of the appeal of the person concerned took place on 30 January 2018. The person concerned indicated at the oral hearing that he wished to submit further evidence in support of his appeal. On receipt of same the Appeals Officer will consider the appeal in the light of all of the evidence submitted, including that adduced...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (22 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an oral hearing of the appeals of the person concerned took place on 7thDecember 2017. At the oral hearing it was agreed that the person concerned would send in further documentation in support of the appeals and this has been reiterated in subsequent communications between the Appeals Officer and the person concerned. To date, the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Payments (21 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a person who has such a disability that they require that level of care. Once claims are in payment, the Department periodically reviews them to ensure that there is continued entitlement. Depending on the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (21 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: According to the records of my Department the person concerned has a social insurance record of 703 full rate insurance contributions and credits covering the period 1965 to the end of December 2014. The person concerned is in receipt of a reduced rate state pension (contributory) based on their assessed yearly average of 15 contributions. In arriving at this yearly average account was...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card Availability (21 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: There are over 100 of the Department’s offices nationally where customers can complete in-person registration to SAFE level 2. Details of the offices are provided in tabular form below. SAFE level 2 is the minimum level for the issue of a Public Services Card as a physical token of authenticated identity. There is at least one SAFE location in every county and it would be the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payment Data (21 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Department may make an urgent needs payment (UNP) to a person who may not normally qualify for SWA but who have an urgent need which they...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (21 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 209 and 210 together. Community Employment (CE) scheme supervisors are employees of private companies in the community and voluntary sector. The State is not responsible for funding pension arrangements for such employees even where the companies in question are reliant on State funding. It is open to individuals to make provision for a pension by way of...

Other Questions: Public Services Card Data (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is a requirement.

Other Questions: Public Services Card Data (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I have defended the PSC, I have said that it is not an identity card and I have listed all the reasons as to why it is not, including that nobody can ask a person for it. One can never be walking down the road and be stopped by someone demanding that one show one's PSC. Nobody has the authority to ask a person for their PSC. The only thing that bodies have the authority to do is to allow...

Other Questions: Fuel Allowance Payments (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: At the risk of repeating myself, I must reiterate that it is an allowance and that it is not supposed to pay for people's entire energy costs. I do not want to be smart but I am only working on the project at the moment. When I am finished working on it and examining the effects of fuel poverty on certain families in Ireland, I will then be better armed to know how I can alleviate that. I...

Other Questions: Public Services Card (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is not mandatory or compulsory for anybody in the State to have a public services card. It is not mandatory or compulsory for one person to have a card. It has, however, always been necessary for people using high-value or personalised public services, which are now considered to be online public services, to be able to prove their identity. In order to ensure that services are...

Other Questions: Public Services Card (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I have a habit of making things more confusing than they were in the first place, so I apologise. There is no requirement to have a public services card. It is only a by-product and people are only given cards to prove that they have undergone the SAFE 2 process and passed. If a person does not want a card, nobody will make that him or her get it. Nobody can ever ask him or her for the...

Other Questions: Public Services Card Data (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The public services card is simply the token that proves that a person, Joan Collins for example, has completed the SAFE 2 level process and that she is Joan Colllins. The card is only a by-product or a token of having gone through that standard. There are 50 public bodies - or their agents - detailed and listed in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, that can ask a person...

Other Questions: Public Services Card Authentication (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: It is not me personally.

Other Questions: Public Services Card Authentication (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: On the basis that we spend billions of euros of taxpayers' money, the Minister and Government decided in 2005 that we needed to have a process to ensure the money went to the people entitled to it. That SAFE 2 process was ratified in 2005 by the then Government and became law in 2011. I hate talking about particular people but the person the Deputy refers to was not refused and their...

Other Questions: Public Services Card Authentication (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The only way we can do that is to make sure people are who they say they are.

Other Questions: Public Services Card Authentication (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The passport was probably produced under SAFE 1, which was a different level of identity authentication. We have moved to SAFE 2 and a product given under SAFE 1 is not suitable for something that is required to produce an identity reassurance under SAFE 2. I did not make the law. It just is the law and it makes perfect sense given the number of people we have uncovered who are using...

Other Questions: Public Services Card Authentication (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: We need to make sure taxpayers' money is going to the people who are entitled to get it.