Results 17,901-17,920 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I have advised that jobseekers can apply for payment for up to two weeks while on holiday outside the State in line with the General Covid-19 Travel Advisory in operation.  These arrangements apply to travel to one of the countries on the "Green List" where the ‘normal precautions’ security status rating applies as published by the Department of Foreign Affairs.  For...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) provides income support for jobseekers and others in receipt of certain social welfare payments that pursue courses of education at second or third level.  Government has provided almost €57 million for the Back to Education Allowance in 2020.  This represents a considerable investment in supporting participants to acquire the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Firstly, I wish to acknowledge the difficult time that many businesses are currently facing. Many sectors and industries have been badly affected during the emergency period and my sincere thoughts are with all employers and employees in these situations at this time.  In situations where an employer has to make an employee redundant, the employer is obliged to comply with the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Carer's Allowance (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. An application for CA was received from the person concerned in respect of both his parents on 15 June 2020. It is a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Pension (Contributory) (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned will reach pension age on 23 October 2020 and has not yet applied for State pension.  On receipt of a completed application, the person’s pension entitlement can be examined by a Deciding Officer and the person notified of the outcome. I have arranged for a copy of the person’s social insurance contribution record to issue to them, together with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Back to Education Allowance (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare (Covid-19) (Amendment) Act 2020 put the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) on a statutory basis since 5th August.  As announced under the July Stimulus, the pandemic unemployment payment has been extended until the end of March 2021.  I have also secured agreement to keep the payment open to new applications until the end of 2020. Under normal...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Expenditure (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department has engaged Rue Point Media (via a tender process) to provide daily print and broadcast media monitoring services since May 2019. The costs to date in 2020 relating to the Rue Point media monitoring service are outlined below - 2020 (to 31 August) Company name and service provided Cost € Rue Point...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned applied for a Diet Supplement on 29/11/2019 and his application was refused on the grounds that Diet Supplement is closed to new applicants since 2014. He can apply for a payment under the Exceptional Needs Payments Scheme if he has  once off exceptional needs which are not of an unexpected or recurring nature.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Back to Work Enterprise Allowance Scheme (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 168 to 170, inclusive, together. The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme offers weekly financial support for people who are long-term unemployed and who are interested in self-employment as a route to entering the labour market. The scheme plays a useful role in supporting the development of new enterprises allowing participants to retain...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Pension (Contributory) (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Farm Assist scheme was introduced in 1999 to provide income support for low income farmers.  It replaced the former Smallholders’ Unemployment Assistance payment.  In line with the then existing arrangements for Unemployment Assistance (including Smallholders' Unemployment Assistance) and Pre-retirement Allowance, the non-welfare income of Farm Assist recipients was...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Expenditure (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The information requested is provided in the table below. Costs from May 2020 to date re. newspaper delivery - hardcopies (service provided by Officedrop Ltd) Newspapers delivered in April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 Invoice paid in May 2020 June 2020 ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Contracts (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The details of the companies engaged by my Department to provide media monitoring services, and the costs associated with each company, in the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and to date in 2020, follow. 2017 Company name and service provided Cost € NewsAccess Ltd: Print & Broadcast monitoring 20,295 ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 175 and 176 together. This week my Department issued payments valued at €61.9 million to over 217,140 people on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). Of these, some 6,340 (or 2.9%) are members of the arts, entertainment and recreation sector.In total we have spent over €3.5bn on PUP payments. The Government has decided that from 17...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Expenditure (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 288 and 290 together. My Department was established on July 19th 2017 and did not use a third-party contractor for media monitoring until 2018, when a service provider was sourced through an Office of Government Procurement framework arrangement. Information regarding the ongoing costs of the service are set out in the table below. Year ...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Expenditure (30 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: From May 2020 to date, my Department has spent €791.62 for access to various online and hardcopy media publications, as detailed below. Online subscriptions Irish Farmer's Journal Irish Independent Irish Times Hard copy subscriptions Farmer’s Journal ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Zero-hour Contracts (29 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The provisions relating to holiday entitlements are contained in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.  Section 19 of the Act provides for annual leave to be a proportion of hours worked, while Section 20(2) of the Act provides that the pay in respect of an employee's annual leave shall be at the normal weekly rate or, as the case may be, at a rate which is proportionate to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (29 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: As part of the July Jobs Stimulus package the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) was extended by 7 months to the end of March 2021.  This extension continues the support for people who have lost employment due to the pandemic. The rates were changed to reflect that the payment had been extended and to take into account the earnings of the applicants before they had lost...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (29 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 527, 552 and 585 together. The Government has extended the pandemic unemployment payment until 31 March 2021 to support people whose employment and businesses remain closed. I have secured Government approval to extend the closing date for new applications for the pandemic unemployment scheme to the end of this year. This provides security to anyone who...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Citizens Information Services (29 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Citizens Information Board (CIB) is the statutory body responsible for supporting the provision of information, advice (including money and budgeting advice) and advocacy services on a wide range of public and social services. CIB delivers on this remit through its provision of some services directly to the public and through a network of service delivery companies. In February...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Birth Certificates (29 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: This matter involves an application for a birth certificate which was submitted on www.certificates.ie on 4th September 2020. I wish to advise the Deputy that the HSE is responsible for this website and that the Eastern Registration Office issues certificates once the application has been processed.  Due to restrictions due to Covid-19, the demand for certificates from this...