Results 8,921-8,940 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 74 and 75 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 PRSA...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Delays (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years. As a result, appeal processing times improved between 2011 and 2016 from 52.5 weeks for an oral hearing in 2011 to 24.1 weeks in 2016 and from 25.1 weeks for a summary decision in 2011 to 17.6 weeks in 2016. I understand from the Chief Appeals Officer that there has been a slight increase in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Services Programme (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 478 and 479 together. The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides financial support to community companies that provide revenue generating services of a socially inclusive nature. The CSP works on a social-enterprise model which means that it does not fully fund contract holders but requires that they generate revenue by charging fees or raising...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobs Initiative (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Job Initiative (JI) scheme was launched by FÁS in 1996 and transferred to my Department with effect from 1 January 2012. A Memorandum of Agreement for the contract period is completed annually by both my Department and the sponsoring organisations (called Managing Agents) and my Department provides financial funding to schemes towards administration costs, participant and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Data (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 484 to 486, inclusive, and 490 together. As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is a service that supports people who are long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment. The service commenced operations in mid-2015, and reached full State-wide delivery of the service in July 2016. Some 65,000 Clients commenced their engagement with the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: My Department is a major user of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and invests on an ongoing basis in securing the ICT technical infrastructure and the services and data used in support of our business. This includes traditional, defence-in-depth deployments of preventative controls like firewalls and endpoint protection and advanced threat detection tools. My Department also...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who has decided to convene an oral hearing in this case. Every effort will be made to hear the case as quickly as possible and the person concerned will be informed when arrangements for the oral hearing have been made. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Entitlement to state pension (contributory) is assessed on the basis of an applicant’s full social insurance record and the eligibility conditions applicable on the date the applicant reaches pension age. It is therefore not possible to predict an individual’s state pension (contributory) entitlement. Eligibility is examined by a Deciding Officer following receipt of a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payment Data (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. There is no automatic entitlement to a payment. The ENP scheme is demand led and payments are made at the discretion of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Operation (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: As the Deputy is aware, Community Employment (CE) schemes offer opportunities for the long-term unemployed to gain valuable work experience and participate in training while they are paid an equivalent to their social welfare entitlement in addition to a top up payment. Participants on CE work for 19½ hours per week. Work opportunities are within communities and, in the main, support...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Maternity Leave (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The Department of Justice and Equality have responsibility for maternity and adoptive leave which are provided for in the 1994 and 2004 Maternity Acts and the 1995 and 2005 Adoptive Leave Acts. Maternity leave is only available to the mother and adoptive leave is only available to an adopting mother or sole male adopter. My Department has responsibility for the associated social welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The person concerned is currently in receipt of a maximum rate of state pension (non - contributory) with effect from 7 July 2017, the Friday following their 66thbirthday. Prior to their 66thbirthday, they were a social welfare beneficiary, as a qualified adult on their spouse’s state pension (contributory) and received the maximum rate payable. The person concerned has not applied...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 500 and 522 together. Self-employed workers who earn €5,000 or more in a contribution year, are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 4%, subject to a minimum annual payment of €500. This provides them with access to the following benefits: State pension (contributory) and widow’s, widower’s or surviving civil partner’s...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 501, 515, 516, 518, 519, 523, 524, 527 and 528 together. The costings sought by Deputy Rabbitte and Deputy O’Dea are detailed in the following series of tables. Table 1: Cost of increasing the Child Benefit by varying amounts Monthly Increase Cost €m Monthly Increase Cost €m €1.00 14.60 €11.00 160.65 €2.00...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Data (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The farm assist scheme supplements mostly small farms on bad agricultural land, mainly in the west of Ireland. Recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2017 Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of almost €83 million on the farm assist scheme....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Data (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: The information requested by the Deputy is detailed in the table. Carer’s Allowance claims awarded or refused at initial application in 2012 to 2016 and at end October 2017 Year Awarded Refused October 2017 15,002 7,555 December 2016 19,308 11,144 December 2015 14,378 7,920 December 2014 12,560 7,078 December 2013 16,011 9,881 December 2012 9,880 6,827

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Data (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: As at 31 October 2017, child benefit was in payment to a total of 627,318 families. The number of families in receipt of child benefit in the period 2012 to 2016 is set out in the table: Year end No. of Families 2016 623,141 2015 619,308 2014 615,335 2013 611,366 2012 608,733

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: My Department operates a number of means-tested schemes and, as well as evidence of means, applicants are also required to provide evidence that they satisfy other relevant qualifying conditions for the scheme in question, for example; that they are genuinely seeking work, or that they satisfy the medical and/or the habitual residence conditions. Long-term schemes with medical or...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 506 and 507 together. The National Pensions Framework proposed that a total contribution approach should replace the yearly average approach to the calculation of the State Pension (contributory). Under this approach, the rate of pension paid would more closely reflect the total number of Social Insurance contributions made by a person throughout her or...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Expenditure (29 Nov 2017)

Regina Doherty: Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting approximately 36,200 recipients for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017. Statistics are not maintained in relation to rent supplement payments made to families on local authority housing lists. Details of rent supplement recipients under the scheme in respect of...