Results 18,281-18,300 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Grant Payments (15 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I can confirm that an application in respect of the school referred to by the Deputy has been received by my Department under the CLÁR programme. CLÁR provides funding for small scale projects in rural areas that have experienced significant levels of de-population. The Measures being funded under the 2020 programme are: Measure 1: Schools/Community Safety Measures Measure 2:...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Expenditure (15 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: LEADER is a multi-annual programme with a budget of €250 million over the period 2014-2020. €225 million of this budget was allocated at the outset of the programme to Local Action Groups (LAGs) who deliver the programme and approve projects at local level. The balance of €25 million is provided for thematic projects and is allocated at national level once the projects...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: National Broadband Plan (15 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce was launched in July 2016 to be a driving force for improving access to telecommunications services throughout Ireland. Since its inception, the Taskforce has addressed more than 70 targeted actions to alleviate connectivity barriers and resolve issues that negatively impacted on the rollout of essential telecommunications infrastructure in rural...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Projects (15 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Rural and Community Development is not responsible for any projects of this scale.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Flood Relief Schemes (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies and the Office of Public Works (OPW) has responsibility for capital flood relief activities. However, my Department has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events such as flooding under the humanitarian assistance scheme. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme replaced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme from 1 September 2020. Subject to satisfying the relevant eligibility criteria, employees may claim casual (i.e part-time) jobseeker payments or Short-Time Work Support payments for days of unemployment, even where their employer is claiming the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme for days of employment. The normal...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Invalidity Pension (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Invalidity pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and for no other reason and who satisfy the pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions. The department received a claim for IP for the person concerned on 25 May 2020. She was refused IP on the grounds that the medical conditions for the scheme were not...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned applied for State pension (contributory) on 22 July 2019, in advance of reaching pension age in September 2019. According to the records of my Department, they have a total of 260 paid full-rate Irish social insurance contributions. They had not provided details of employment in any other country. Since their contributions fell short of the requisite 520 paid full-rate...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Maintenance Payments (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Child Maintenance Review Group established by my Department is set to examine certain issues in relation to child maintenance in Ireland. The judge-led group is composed of eminent legal, policy, and academic professionals, and officials from my Department and the Department of Justice & Equality. The Group will focus on the current treatment of Child Maintenance payments, the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget Process (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: As part of the budgetary process, my Department organises a pre-Budget forum annually for community, voluntary, employee and employer representative organisations to discuss and debate policy issues and present their thoughts and proposals on the upcoming Budget to each other, to senior officials of the Department and to me. This Forum offers a unique opportunity for the representatives...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pensions Reform (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The General Scheme of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2017 ( which subsequently became the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017) contained a number of defined benefit pension related measures. The proposed defined benefit pension provisions were of a very technical nature and involved complex policy and legal issues. In an effort to achieve a resilient solution,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Reports (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The report on the impact assessment of the current and projected future increases in carbon tax on low-income families by my Department was required by Section 25 of Social Welfare no. 2 Act 2019 (Number 48 of 2019). The development and operation of emergency social welfare measures and the diversion of staffing resources required to deal with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic have, of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The SAFE registration process, which my Department uses to authenticate a person's identity, is a face to face process which results in the issuing of a Public Services Card (PSC). At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, my Department temporarily postponed the SAFE registration process to comply with public health guidelines in respect of social distancing. My Department has currently...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I am happy to confirm for the Deputy that activation services in my Department and referrals to external contractors began to recommence on 8th June last in line with the move to Phase 2 of the easing of the Covid-19 restrictions. I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis There have been no recent changes to the eligibility rules for CE participants. However, a number of changes were introduced...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Work Placement Programmes (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department's employment support programme for people with disabilities is delivered nationally through its EmployAbility service. The Department has contracts for the provision of the EmployAbility service with 24 companies. This is a specialist employment service designed to improve employment outcomes for jobseekers with a disability and is available to people with disabilities who are...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department's employment support programme for people with disabilities is delivered nationally through its EmployAbility service. The Department has contracts for the provision of the Employability service with 24 companies. This is a specialist employment service designed to improve employment outcomes for jobseekers with a disability and is available to people with disabilities who are...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Springboard Programme (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: In advance of commencing a course of education, a person in receipt of Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) will be required to establish an entitlement to a qualifying social welfare weekly payment, generally a Jobseeker’s payment, to access Back to Education Allowance (BTEA). A person will then be required to transfer from their PUP to the relevant qualifying social welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: As was announced as part of the July Jobs Stimulus package, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been extended until the end of March 2021 to support the employees and businesses who continue to be impacted by the COVID- 19 pandemic. The scheme is due to close for new applications on 17th September. Changes have also been announced to the rate of the pandemic unemployment payment to make...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: CLÁR Programme (10 Sep 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The CLÁR programme provides funding for small scale projects in rural areas that have experienced significant levels of de-population. The Measures being funded this year's programme are: Measure 1: Schools/Community Safety Measures Measure 2: Community Recreation Areas (new in 2020) Measure 3: Community Wellbeing Supports, comprising: - (a) Meals on Wheels and Linked Services (new...