Results 10,521-10,540 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Pensions Commission’s Report was published in October 2021 and it contained almost 250 pages of analysis, consideration and recommendations. The Commission's Report established that the current State Pensions system is not sustainable into the future and it has set out a recommended approach for Government. In the interests both of older people and future generations of older...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the important role that carers play and is fully committed to supporting them in that role. Accordingly, the current State Pension (Contributory) system already includes a comprehensive range of measures including PRSI Credits, Homemaker's Disregards and HomeCaring Periods to recognise caring periods outside of paid employment in the calculation of a pension...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is the safety net within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Supports provided under the scheme can consist of a basic weekly payment, a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of certain expenses, as well as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Indecon report highlighted that the ‘Cost of Disability’ is significantly wider than the income support system and found that there is not a single typical ‘cost of disability’; rather there is a spectrum from low additional costs to extremely high extra costs of disability, depending on the individual circumstances of the person concerned. Additional costs of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Ukraine War (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is responsible for meeting the immediate and short-term accommodation needs of persons availing of protection in Ireland under the EU Temporary Protection Directive. Rent supplement is a short-term income support which is means-tested and plays a key role in supporting families and individuals in private rented...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is currently reviewing the Reasonable Accommodation Fund grants, as part of its commitments under the Comprehensive Employment Strategy. The review is to see how to improve the effectiveness of the grants and to identify gaps in provision. It also aims to improve the application and payment processes. As part of this review, I launched a public consultation on the Friday the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Live Register (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Prior to the impacts of COVID-19 being felt in Ireland, in mid-March 2020, the Live Register stood at just over 183,000. In response to the emergence of the virus in Ireland, the Government introduced the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which subsequently became to the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS). As a result of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Job Creation (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The labour market situation sharply deteriorated in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the Government introduced emergency income and employment support measures, namely the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which was later replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS). Reflecting the Government’s decision to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Rent supplement plays a key role in supporting families and individuals in private rented accommodation. The scheme was providing support to 11,771 recipients at the end of April 2022. The rent supplement scheme provides short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Maintenance (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Under existing Family Law legislation, parents, certain categories of guardian or those acting in the place of parents are obliged to maintain their children. In cases where the family unit has broken down these obligations continue to apply. Child maintenance arrangements can be agreed directly between the parties themselves, or with the assistance of their solicitors, private mediators or...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My department is committed to doing everything we can to assist people with disabilities to further their education. In March 2021, I signed new regulations which will allow those in receipt of Disability Allowance (DA) to accept stipends associated with PhD scholarships. The new disregard applies to Disability Allowance recipients and their spouse/partner who have been granted a stipend...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Housing Policy (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Housing is a key priority for this Government. This is demonstrated by the unprecedented commitment to build 300,000 new homes by 2030 under Housing for All and a target of retrofitting 500,000 homes which is more important than ever in this time of rising energy costs. To achieve this, we need to attract thousands of new workers into the sector. At the recent launch of the Future Building...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As the Deputy is aware, the COVID-19 Pandemic presented a range of significant economic challenges, not least to the labour market. The Government responded quickly by introducing the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) to support incomes for those who were unable to work, and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which was superseded by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Following publication of the Roadmap for Pensions Reform in 2018, which included a recommendation to benchmark and index State Pension rates, my Department undertook a consultation process in 2019 with interested stakeholders to hear views on possible approaches to the indexation of pensions, and social welfare rates more generally. This process also included discussion with representatives...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Matters related to foster caring are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Tusla. More widely, this Government acknowledges the important role that carers play and is fully committed to supporting them in that role. Accordingly, the current State Pension (Contributory) system includes a range of measures including...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Ukraine War (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is working alongside other relevant departments in supporting access to the labour market and employment for those arriving from Ukraine, under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive. Intreo employment services are assisting those arriving from Ukraine as they seek employment in Intreo Offices and through jobsireland.ie. A dedicated section on www.jobsireland.ie has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Housing Policy (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Housing is a key priority for this Government. This is demonstrated by the unprecedented commitment to build 300,000 new homes by 2030 under Housing for All and a target of retrofitting 500,000 homes which is more important than ever in this time of rising energy costs. To achieve this, we need to attract thousands of new workers into the sector. At the recent launch of the Future Building...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The organisation referred to the Deputy was funded by my Department under the former Ability Programme. The Ability Programme, introduced in June 2018, was a three-year pre-activation programme for young people with disabilities. The funding for the programme amounted to approximately €16 million and was provided jointly under the European Union’s ESF 2014-2020 Programme for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As a result of measures in Budget 2022, the rates of Maternity Benefit, Paternity Benefit, Adoptive Benefit and Parent's Benefit were increased by €5 to €250 a week, effective from January 2022. Maternity benefit is paid for 26 weeks. In 2022, it is estimated that my Department will spend in excess of €267 million on maternity benefit in respect of an average of 20,290...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (17 May 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The pilot basic income scheme for artists which the Government launched in April is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. It is expected that there will be 2,000 participants on the pilot scheme which will run for three years. My Department published a new web page on Gov.ie which details the ‘Interaction of the Basic Income...