Results 121-140 of 4,756 for more speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...a carer cannot satisfy the PRSI conditions attached to the Carer's Benefit payment, application for the non-means tested payment of Carer's Allowance is available. Self-employed workers whose income is €5,000 or more in a contribution year, are liable to pay social insurance contributions at the class S rate of 4%, subject to a minimum annual payment of €500. Where all...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...and budgetary context, including its actual effectiveness in helping people with funeral costs. It is worth noting that there are a range of supports available for people following bereavement which provide more significant support than the former grant. These include weekly-paid Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner’s (Contributory and Non-Contributory) pensions,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...was recognised by the Pension Commission in its report which recommended that long-term carers should be given access to the State Pension (Contributory) and defined long-term caring as caring for more than 20 years. It was also recognised that long-term carers may, for example, have difficulty establishing the minimum number of 10 years of paid contributions. In September 2022, I...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness-related schemes, can take longer to process. Similarly, means-tested payments can also require more detailed investigations and interaction with the customer, thereby lengthening the decision-making process. My Department has introduced a wide range of initiatives aimed at streamlining...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Tidy Towns (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme over €156 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland. In line with the commitment in Our Rural Future, TVRS priorities are reviewed at the end of each scheme year to ensure that funding is targeted...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (24 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...Town and Village Renewal Scheme (TVRS) was introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme, more than €156 million has been allocated to in excess of 1,700 projects throughout Ireland. In line with the commitment in Our Rural Future, TVRS priorities are reviewed at the end of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...options Completed - An increase in funding rates for all School Meal types was increased effective from 1st January 2023. 2: Consider how the programme funding allocated to schools could more accurately reflect current pupil populations Ongoing 3: Extend the provision of the Hot Meals Option to all DEIS primary schools for the academic year...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (23 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...Fund and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme. The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provides financial support for people with disabilities and for employers to help make their workplaces more accessible. The Disability Awareness Support Scheme provides funding for disability awareness training for employees. Last autumn, I published a review of these schemes. The review recommends...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Registration of Births (23 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...did so in the knowledge that the record created would not be publicly available. Currently, the birth of a stillborn child may be registered where the child has a gestational age of 24 weeks or more or weighs 500 grammes or more. I have recently published the Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Bill 2024 which , based on clinical advice from the Department of Health, seeks to...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (23 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...Scheme (TVRS) was introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme over €156 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland. I expect to be in a position to announce the successful projects under the 2023 scheme shortly. The detail in relation to the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (18 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme over €156 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland. As committed to under Our Rural Future and in line with the Town Centre First Policy, scheme priorities are reviewed at the end of each scheme year...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (18 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways and blue ways throughout rural Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme in 2016, funding of over €113 million has supported more than 1,700 projects across the country. Last year, I launched the 2023 ORIS scheme with applications invited under the following four Measures: Measure 1: small scale projects...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...commitment. The contributory State pension is not a means-tested payment. The State pension is about ensuring that retired people stay above the poverty line but I want to ensure that we do more for the hard-working people. The necessary and ongoing reforms of the State pension are completely separate to the forward planning that we are doing by introducing automatic enrolment. The...

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...been pleased to work with Epilepsy Ireland in recent months to extend my Department's free travel scheme to any person who is medically certified as not fit to drive, for 12 months or longer, from July onwards. More than 32,000 people are expected to benefit from this measure this year. For those who sometimes think governments do not listen, we do. That major change to the free travel...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...planned. For employers, this approach gives very clear certainty as to the rates that will be applicable so as to facilitate the gradual absorption of these labour costs, thereby easing the burden on employers in implementing this reform. Moreover, most employers will be spared any real administrative burden because the Government has decided to set up a national automatic enrolment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (16 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...provisions for the relevant scheme. Depending on the circumstances in each case and to make best use of resources, a review may concentrate on a specific condition of entitlement. Furthermore, a person can at any stage request their own review of their entitlement. Normally, such a review request is only in relation to the person’s means. The time taken to conduct a review...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Funding (16 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...Fund and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme. The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provides financial support for people with disabilities and for employers to help make their workplaces more accessible. The Disability Awareness Support Scheme provides funding for disability awareness training for employees. In Autumn 2023 I published a review of these schemes. The review...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (16 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...was recognised by the Pension Commission in its report which recommended that long-term carer's should be given access to the State Pension (Contributory) and defined long-term caring as caring for more than 20 years. As the Deputy is aware, I introduced long-term carer's contributions from the 1st January 2024 as one of a number of key State pension reforms. In keeping with the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (16 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...held jointly, the qualified adult's means are assessed as half of the total amount. Where a qualified adult has weekly means of less than €100, the maximum rate of IQA is payable. Where their weekly means are over €100 and not more than €310, a tapering reduced rate of IQA is payable. If the qualified adult has means of more than €310 per week, this exceeds...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Sport and Recreational Development (11 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways and blue ways throughout rural Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme in 2016, funding of over €113 million has supported more than 1,700 projects across the country. Under Measure 3 of the 2020 scheme, funding of €500,000 was approved for the Connemara Trails & Eurovelo Route project. The...