Results 8,581-8,600 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (16 Jan 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. I confirm that my department received an application for CA from the person concerned on the 22 November 2017. Additional information was...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Operation (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Community Employment participants, similar to other workers, are subject to the rules of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. It is the responsibility of the employers (CE Sponsors) to ensure that if a participant passes away while on a CE Scheme, any entitlement due in lieu of untaken annual leave is paid to the personal representative of the deceased in line with the Working Time...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Proposed Legislation (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Employees in Ireland enjoy a robust suite of employment rights including one of the highest national minimum wages in the EU. Employees who believe an unlawful deduction has been made from their wages by their employer may pursue a case under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 to the Workplace Relations Commission. The matter can be dealt with by way of mediation or adjudication leading to a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Properties (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: My Department currently has approximately 300 premises under its remit. One of these premises, in Damastown Industrial Estate Mulhuddart Dublin 15, is unoccupied since March 2016. The building is leased and is 532 square meters in size. Part of it is in use as a file storage facility for Departmental files. It is expected that this premises will be occupied in the future. The statutory...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Applications (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: According to our records the person concerned submitted a claim for jobseekers allowance in September 2017 but did not provide the required information and the claim was closed. On 22/12/17 the person concerned re-opened the jobseekers allowance claim and relevant documentation was requested in order to complete a means test. To-date the required information has not been received by this...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: My Department published a report in April 2017 – An Analysis of the Community Employment Programme.This report highlighted research undertaken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world and provide a forum in which governments can work together to share...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 18 December 2017. The application was awarded to the person concerned on 12 January 2018 with effect from 18 January 2018. First payment will issue to her nominated bank account on 18 January 2018. The person concerned was notified on 12 January 2018 of this decision, the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment, made to persons who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who has such a disability that they require that level of care. Under social welfare legislation, CA for the care of a care recipient who is aged less than 16 years can only be successful where domiciliary care allowance (DCA) is awarded. An...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Data (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The following table provides details of the spending by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection on Fuel Allowance in the years 2015 to 2017, inclusive, and the number of households in receipt of Fuel Allowance in these years. Fuel Allowance 2015 Outturn 2016 Outturn 2017 Provisional Outturn* Number of Households 405,098 385,978 358,744 Expenditure (€000) 216,223...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1612 and 1650 together. The person concerned has been requested by her local Intreo Centre to engage with them to discuss her current payment but, as of yet, she has failed to do so. If the person concerned wishes to, she is welcome to contact her local Intreo Centre to discuss the payment options that are available to her. I trust that this clarifies the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance Payments (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1616, 1617, 1619, 1620, 1625, 1628, 1632 and 1637 together. The costings sought by Deputy O’Dea are detailed in the following series of tables. Table 1: Full year cost of varying amounts in all weekly social insurance payments Schemes €5  increase  €10 increase  €15 increase  €20 increase ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1618, 1648 and 1667 together. The changes made to State Pension (contributory) rate bands in Budget 2012, affected those pensioners who had a yearly average of 39 or less weekly social insurance contributions over the course of their working life. The current rate bands were introduced from September 2012, replacing previous rates introduced in 2000....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. End of year records show that under the 2017 BSCFA scheme, payments were made to 151,000 families in respect of over 275,000 children at a cost of €49 million. The rate of payment in 2017 was increased...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The full year cost of reversing changes made to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) in 2012 would be very difficult to estimate with any accuracy. There are three significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise. Firstly, a reversal of the amendments made to the OFP scheme could result in a cohort of lone parents that are currently not in receipt of a social welfare payment becoming...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Payments (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The jobseeker’s schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. The 2018 Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseeker’s schemes of €2.17 billion. The issue of extending additional social insurance benefits to the self-employed paying Class S PRSI was considered in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Working Family Payment (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: In the context of Budget 2018 it was decided to re-designate the Family Income Supplement (FIS) scheme as the Working Family Payment (WFP). The Working Family Payment is an in-work support, which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children and offers a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are currently over 57,000 families with nearly 129,939 children...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 provided that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition) which was available to people aged 65 who satisfied the qualifying conditions. This measure standardised the State pension age for all at 66 years. This will increase to 67 in 2021 and to 68 in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Bereavement Grant (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: During the economic downturn, my Department protected primary social welfare rates and in recent years, as the economy recovered, the Government has concentrated resources in improving the core rates of payments, particularly for pensioners. Abolishing the bereavement grant provided a significant annual saving and allowed my Department to protect other core social welfare payments such as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Expenditure (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to around 627,432 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Expenditure (16 Jan 2018)

Regina Doherty: Maternity Benefit is paid by my Department and is based on payment of PRSI contributions while working. The current entitlement to paid maternity leave is 26 weeks. The following table estimates the cost of increasing the duration for which maternity benefit is paid by one to six weeks. These estimates are based on the cost for a full year and assume that any increase in duration is...