Results 10,441-10,460 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (18 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Department operates a range of means-tested social assistance payments. Social welfare legislation provides that the means test takes account of the income and assets of the person (and spouse / partner, if applicable) applying for the relevant scheme. Income and assets include income from employment, self-employment, occupational pensions, maintenance payments as well as property owned...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (18 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Fuel Allowance scheme is a means tested payment to assist pensioners and other long-term social welfare dependent householders with their winter heating costs. The payment is a contribution towards heating costs, it is not intended to meet these costs in full. The payment is made at the weekly rate of €33.00; or if preferred, by way of two lump sum payments; and is paid over the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (18 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Household Benefits package comprises of the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to some people under the age of 66, who are in receipt of certain social welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (18 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The CLÁR programme provides funding under a number of different measures for small-scale infrastructural projects in designated rural areas that have experienced significant levels of de-population over a defined period. The 2022 programme was launched in February last with a total budget of €7 million, an increase of €1.5 million on the previous year. The measures being...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (18 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities and represent a vital piece of infrastructure for rural communities. As part of 'Our Rural Future',the Government is committed to ensuring that the Local Improvement Scheme is funded into the future. The determination of eligibility and subsequent...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Currently, approximately 4,800 farmers are in receipt of farm assist, compared with 5,500 in 2020, 6,000 in 2019 and 6,500 in 2018. This is a demand-led scheme and the numbers in receipt of a payment are falling, mainly due to the age profile of the customers. More than 70% of customers are aged 50 and over, more than half of the claimants are aged 55 and over, while 30% are aged 60 and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The other measures I mentioned, including the disregard for off-farm income, the capital disregard, depreciation and so forth, will be considered as part of the budget but obviously, there are constraints there. We definitely need to look at the means test. I never saw anything as complicated in my life, to be honest. I remember the late Seymour Crawford was an expert and a whizzer on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We paid out €13.5 million in supplementary welfare payments between 1 January and the end of April this year. If the Deputies are aware of a case where somebody did not get support, I ask them to bring the details to me and I will raise the matter with my officials. I have raised this matter on a number of occasions and have been reassured that a community welfare officer is only one...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Government has committed to the continued support of working parents to achieve a better work-life balance. Parent’s leave and benefit falls into this category and encourages the sharing of parental responsibilities equally between couples. The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 introduced two weeks of paid parent’s...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As I said, we are going to increase parent's leave and benefit to seven weeks this year. I think parent's benefit, to which the question related, is very important. It is important for parents to be with their children in their most formative years. They need that quality time. It is not easy when parents are out working and both parents have to work these days. It is good that this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: From July 2022, parent's leave and benefit will increase from five weeks to seven weeks. I and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, who has responsibility for policy in this area, will undertake to do a communications campaign at that time to make sure people are aware of it. This is an important support for parents and it is something we want people to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 80 and 85 together. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Farm assist is a statutory income support specifically for farmers on low incomes. There are approximately 4,800 claims in payment at present. The Government has provided €53.9 million for the scheme for 2022. The means assessment under farm assist is generous when compared with the means...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As I said in reply to Deputy Kerrane earlier, I will not leave this sitting on a shelf. This report will be acted on. I will bring a memorandum to Government with the full report and our proposed response. I want to move it along. I would like to get it to Cabinet before the summer recess. We will publish the report and the Government's response at that stage. We want to provide ample...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment to help meet essential, once-off expenditure that a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income. The scheme is demand-led and payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The exceptional needs payment and the urgent needs payment are available. They are their demand-led schemes, and if people run into difficulties, they are encouraged to apply for that payment. I have been trying to highlight it. We have introduced a number of measures to help alleviate some of the rising costs, as the Deputy has acknowledged. Nobody is excluded from applying for this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I do not have the figures for the four areas in phase 1 to hand but there had been engagement and in some of the instances the staff involved took up employment with the new contract providers. We are in phase 2 and the procurement phase is ongoing, as the Deputy knows. I am not the employer, nor is my Department. I cannot come in and promise enhanced redundancy terms for anybody because...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We cannot jump the gun because there are no redundancies yet. We need to await the outcome of the procurement process. Some have said that the community and voluntary sector will be wiped out due to the procurement process but we should wait and see who wins it and, as I said, it is ongoing. All contracts are extended until the end of August, unless the companies have decided not to extend...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We will take Deputy Gannon's question in the meantime.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: In line with the programme for Government commitment, the Government established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues in relation to child maintenance in Ireland. The group's terms of reference were to consider and make recommendations on the following: the current treatment of child maintenance payments in my Department; the current provisions regarding liable...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As I said, the report runs to a few hundred pages and the chairperson of the group was Judge Catherine Murphy. A huge amount of work was put in, they asked for extra time so that it could be given the attention it deserved and I want to thank the group for the work they put in. There are a lot of issues here; it is not just social protection but there are other issues as well that cross...