Results 1,481-1,500 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are over one million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2024 is €104 million. The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the valuable role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy. The main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make an Additional Needs Payment (ANP) to help meet essential expenditure which an eligible person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income. An ANP application can be made for assistance with funeral and burial expenses where there is an inability to pay these costs, in part or in full, by the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: State pension non-contributory is a means-tested payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a state pension contributory, or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record. In order to satisfy the habitual residence condition, as a first step, it must be established that the person has an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make an Additional Needs Payment (ANP) to help meet essential expenditure which an eligible person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income. ANPs are awarded by the Designated Persons (DPs) administering the scheme considering the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and habitual residency conditions. I can confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Rent Supplement (RS) scheme administered by my Department, 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 accommodation available to them from any other source. The responsibility for the provision of rent support to those with a long-term housing need has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and habitual residency conditions. I can confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns, villages and rural areas across Ireland. The RRDF supports the Our Rural Future vision of a thriving rural Ireland that is integral to our national economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing and development. It is also aligned with the Town...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The 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 over €177 million has been allocated to almost 1,800 projects across Ireland. Over €3.4 million in funding has been approved for 36 projects in Wicklow since 2020. In line...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Control of Dogs (4 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department has policy and legislative responsibility for the Control of Dogs Acts and the Dog Breeding Establishments Act. In March 2024 I announced the establishment of a high level stakeholder group to consider and make recommendations to strengthen policy in relation these issues. The group is independently chaired by retired Deputy Garda Commissioner Mr John Twomey and is...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: This group of amendments concerns Part 6, which relates to the provision of communications and services by the new authority to the AE participants. A number of the amendments relate to the processes applicable to how a communication is made to a participant, while the remainder relate to the provision of participants' annual statements. These amendments were proposed by the drafters to...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: -----lesson.

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: If I might make a closing remark, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating the Bill in being reported back from the Seanad. I also thank Deputies for their contribution to the debate during its passage through the House. My thanks is also extended to my colleagues in government and, in particular, to the Minister, Deputy Pascal Donohoe, the former Minster, Deputy Michael McGrath, and...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: This group of amendments concerns the definition of "employer" and the amendments were proposed to address what was feared to be a potential gap in the definition where the contractual employer will not be the person paying emoluments. They also update the wording in a number of sections to ensure consistency of language across the Bill. Once again, these amendments were identified by the...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: This group of amendments relate to the part of the Bill concerning any unclaimed balances of participants' funds and the transfer of these funds to the Dormant Accounts Fund. These amendments were proposed by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. None of them relates to substantive policy matters and are purely of a technical nature.

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I am happy to be back in the House for the final debate on this landmark legislation that represents the single biggest reform of the Irish pension system in the history of the State. I respectfully request the Ceann Comhairle to direct the clerk to make a correction of a typographical nature to the Bill, in this case the word "or" should be inserted after "to" and before "such".

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Bill 2024: From the Seanad (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The first group of amendments are of a technical nature and were proposed in the Seanad for the purpose of drafting clarity and cohesion. The drafters in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel who having had some time since the publication of the Bill to review it and to conduct another thorough quality-assurance process on it, found a few things they thought could be improved. A number of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Following the expansion of the programme in recent years, some 2,600 schools and organisations, covering...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (3 Jul 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Treatment Benefit Scheme provides dental, optical, aural and hair replacement products and services to insured workers, the self-employed, retired people and their dependent spouse/partner who have the required number of social insurance (PRSI) contributions. In order to qualify a person needs to have at least 260 PRSI contributions paid at either Class A, E, H, P or S, since first...