Results 14,341-14,360 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Support Services (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I reassure Deputies that the request for tender will take account of local knowledge and community engagement. There is a strong emphasis on that in the request for tender. I have spoken to a number of the providers. I understand the Deputies' concerns, but we have taken them on board. There has been significant engagement with the particular group for whom we are expanding the service....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Poverty Impact Assessment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: It would be fair to say that my Department has had a fairly busy year. I know the Deputy appreciates that. Some 24 million individual payments have been issued to almost 900,000 people. Our priority has been to get these payments to people. If we had not done that, we would rightly be criticised here. I assure the Deputy that I will consider the poverty impact assessment and publish it...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Poverty Impact Assessment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I will launch the Pathways to Work scheme on 12 July. The best way that we can help young people is by helping them to get back into employment so that has to be the priority. I will outline the different schemes at that stage. There will be intensive work to assist people to get back into employment because it has been a difficult time. I was keen to support young people during the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Support Services (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for raising this matter. It is wrong to look at the tender published on 26 May as profit-focused. It is absolutely client-focused with a strong focus on local services, community linkages and client service levels and outcomes. It is expanding service provision into seven counties that currently do not have a local employment service. About 90% of the fees to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Support Services (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: They will not need reserves because they will get the payment upfront whenever a client is referred to the local employment service. I reiterate we are expanding these services under the first phrase of the request for tender. We are putting it into areas that do not currently have this employment service. When a customer or client is referred to the local employment services from the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Proposed Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I share the concern that employees should be correctly classified for social insurance, taxation and employment rights purposes and that they should be entitled to protection against victimisation if they challenge how an employer classifies them. While this latter question is primarily one for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Proposed Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. I intend to publish a code of practice on employment status. The purpose of the code of practice on determining employment status is to explain, in as clear and as user-friendly a way as possible, what the courts have decided constitutes an employment relationship. It is an explanatory guide and it sets out and explains the legal obligations that already exist. Workers...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Proposed Legislation (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. False self-employment is a problem that the Department of Social Protection takes very seriously. We want to make sure that employees receive their proper PRSI contributions so they get their entitlements, and that is our focused role. Revenue looks at it from a tax perspective and the Workplace Relations Commission looks at it in terms of workers’ rights. ...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Poverty Impact Assessment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The current rates of welfare payments for young people were constructed to incentivise young jobseekers aged 18 to 24 years to access further education and training, with the aim of improving employment outcomes. A young person who takes up a place on a training, education or employment programme qualifies for the full adult rate of payment. In...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: A wide range of supports are available to help people with disabilities to get back to work. We have the EmployAbility Service and the ability programmes. I was delighted that we were able to provide funding so that the ability programme, which was co-funded by the EU and was due to finish in June this year, could continue. I worked very closely with the group and with the Minister of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is very much aware that many people from the music or arts sectors are not yet in a position to return to employment. For these people, many of whom are self-employed, the PUP continues to be an important income support. Rather than seeking to move people off this payment, I was pleased to work with the sector and to make changes to the scheme so that self-employed artists and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: We all know that the sector has had a really difficult time as it has been shut down since March 2020. What we have done is tried to support the people involved in every way we can. When I engaged with them, they were very pleased that they can earn up to €960 and still keep the pandemic unemployment payment. That meant they could do the occasional gig and it did not affect their...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: All my Department is doing is making people on the PUP aware of the various supports that are available. There are a lot of supports and there is no point in the Government putting them in place if we do not tell people about them. It is all voluntary. If a person is confident that his or her job is coming back, that is fine, but if someone needs help, we are here to help. That is the one...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: Partial capacity benefit is a scheme which allows a person with a reduced capacity to work to return to employment or self-employment and continue to receive a social welfare payment from my Department for a period of up to three years.  It is intended to act as a stepping stone payment to help a person with restricted capacity re-enter the labour market and establish...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: The 13-week period was an administrative practice that resulted in the overpayment and this practice has now discontinued. However, the Department now contacts customers 13 weeks in advance of the end date of the payment duration period and the correspondence issued outlines the options for the customer to consider prior to the payment ceasing. Where a person completes the allowed period on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I wish to make it clear in the House again, because sometimes there is misinformation relating to artists and musicians, that I do not expect artists or musicians to retrain or to reskill. I wish to make that clear because I have been misquoted here before, not by the Deputy but by others. All my Department is doing is making people on the PUP aware of the various supports available to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: We also have to be fair about these schemes and look at all the people who have been on the standard jobseeker's payment since before the pandemic. As I said, I cannot have sector-specific social welfare payments. That has always been the case. To be fair, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, has worked very closely with this sector and a good deal of supports have been made available...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Approximately 227,980 people received a pandemic unemployment payment this week, representing a drop of 254,000, or almost 53%, since February when approximately 482,000 people were in receipt of the payment. We expect many more people to close their PUP over the coming period. The Government has throughout the pandemic done its best to support...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: It is important to say that we keep everything under review. Throughout the pandemic we have had to adapt our approach in line with the public health advice. We have kept the PUP open for applications for an extra week until 8 July. That means that any staff who may have gone back to work in the expectation of indoor hospitality reopening next week will have the opportunity to reapply for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (1 Jul 2021)

Heather Humphreys: I agree with the Deputy. There have been many anecdotal reports in the media about people staying on PUP and not returning to work, which we have all heard. The fact is that the numbers on the PUP fell by a quarter of a million since February. This clearly tells me that people want to get back to work as their sectors reopen and do not want to be sitting at home. I am strongly of this...