Results 1,901-1,920 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: There are a number of payments and pensions paid by my Department to people over State Pension age. One of these is the State Pension (Contributory) or "SPC", qualification for which is based on a number of criteria, including a minimum of 520 qualifying social insurance contributions having been paid. For those who have paid the required contributions, these will be used in the calculation...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (11 Jun 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, it first must be established that the person has an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming and streamlining the appeal process in recent years. A...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is the safety net within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department understands the many pressures faced by customers and always seeks to ensure that claims are handled quickly and efficiently. The Deputy will appreciate how processing times can vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness-related schemes,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is payable in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and where the level of that disability is such that the child is likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 2024)

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. In order to qualify, applicants must show that they are habitually resident in the State, that their means are less than...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 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. During 2023, the Department received over 28,700 new applications for DA and awarded over...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (11 Jun 2024)

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. A person may be disallowed IP for not satisfying the contribution qualifying conditions as well as not satisfying the medical criteria for IP. Where an applicant's IP...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Working Family Payment (WFP) is a weekly tax-free payment for employees with children which supports people in low paid employment. The WFP is designed to prevent in-work poverty for workers with child dependents, and to offer a financial incentive to take up employment. Once awarded, WFP is payable for 52 weeks. At the end of the 52-week period, a customer must reapply (renew) to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Primary weekly social welfare payments are intended to enable recipients to meet their basic day-to-day income needs. In addition to these primary payments, my Department also provides a range of other payments on a weekly, monthly, or less frequent basis. These payments are considered secondary in nature and cannot be made available to those who are not in receipt of a primary payment. The...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Data (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is committed to human rights, equality and anti-discrimination in accordance with the Public Sector Duty obligation of the Human Rights and Equality Commission Act, 2014 and has a working group in place to progress actions under this obligation. In respect of training, the Department's Disability Liaison Officers recently delivered a comprehensive presentation to staff, raising...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Animal Breeding (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Rural and Community Development has overall policy responsibility for the Control of Dogs Acts 1986 to 2014. Local Authorities have responsibility for all operational matters under the Control of Dogs Acts including licensing and enforcement. My Department publishes annual statistics in respect of a range of the dog control responsibilities of local authorities. Information...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Local Area Plans (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Community centres are a vital resource for any community. With this in mind, I have prioritised the development and enhancement of community centres across the country under the range of schemes implemented by my Department. Under the 2022 Community Centre Investment Fund in particular, over €45.8 million was committed for improvement and refurbishment works on over 860 existing...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The LEADER Programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development which aims to deliver a range of actions to rural communities over the lifetime of the policy. It is delivered through Local Action Groups (LAGs) across rural Ireland. The process to select the Local Development Strategies (LDS) for the 2023-2027 LEADER was a two stage...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Agriculture Supports (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Rural and Community Development has overall policy responsibility for the Control of Dogs Acts 1986 to 2014. Under section 21 of the Control of Dogs Act, 1986, the owner of a dog shall be liable in damages for damage caused in an attack on any person by the dog and for injury done by it to any livestock; and it is not necessary for the person seeking such damages to show any...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Animal Breeding (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department publishes annual statistics in respect of a range of the dog control responsibilities of local authorities. Information from 2010 up to and including 2022, including the number of prosecutions, fines and the number of closure notices, by county and in tabular form, is available on the dog control statistics page on gov.ie:...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department's CLÁR scheme is a targeted investment programme that provides funding for small scale infrastructural projects in rural areas that experience disadvantage and significant levels of de-population. The 2024 CLÁR programme was launched on the 12th April last with a total budget of €8.7 million, an increase of €900,000 on the 2023 allocation. The measures...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Contracts (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I can confirm that my Department has not had any contracts with the company referred to by Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Animal Welfare (11 Jun 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 to these issues. The group is independently chaired by retired Deputy Garda Commissioner Mr John Twomey and is comprised...