Results 1,941-1,960 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Fuel Allowance is an administrative scheme and is payable to people who satisfy the conditions of the scheme and who either live alone or only with certain qualified people. Following a request received on the 17 April 2024, a review was undertaken on the person concerned entitlement for Fuel Allowance Based on the information provided to the Department, this person does not qualify for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies. My Department provides assistance to eligible households in the immediate aftermath of emergency weather events under the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme. The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme, administered by my Department through the local Community Welfare Service, was activated...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers and understands the many pressures faced by people. The Department always seeks to ensure that claims and reviews are processed quickly and efficiently. I wish to reassure the Deputy that claim processing is kept under active review, with all possible steps taken to improve processing times.? This includes...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS) is funded by my Department under Our Rural Future. The scheme provides funding for the development and enhancement of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways and blue ways throughout rural Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme in 2016, funding of over €113 million has supported more than 1,700 projects...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Paternity Leave (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Paternity Benefit is a payment for employed people who are on Paternity Leave from work and who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions and for self-employed people who satisfy the contribution conditions. It is paid for two weeks at €274 per week, the same rate as Maternity Benefit, Adoptive Benefit and Parent’s Benefit. Paternity benefit was paid to 27,111 recipients in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Parental Leave (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Parental Leave allows parents to take 26 weeks unpaid leave for each eligible child before their twelfth birthday. My colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth holds responsibility for Parental Leave. There is no associated benefit payable with Parental Leave. There is a separate scheme called Parent's Leave which is also the responsibility of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The estimated full-year cost of a €1 increase in each of the social insurance schemes, social assistance schemes, other schemes is set out in the table below. The costs are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2024. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €382 million in 2024. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Only one allowance is paid per household. At the end of December 2023, 411,395 household were in receipt of the Fuel...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Bereavement Grant, which was a once-off payment of €850 for funeral costs, was discontinued in January 2014. The number of bereavement grant claims in 2013 was 23,716 at a cost of €20.3 million. It is estimated that the cost of reintroducing the grant would be close to €31 million per annum and would increase annually. Accordingly, any decision to reinstate such a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Legislative Measures (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Social Welfare legislation provides for the payment of PRSI by way of employment contributions in respect of employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship. Self-employed persons who are employed under a contract for service pay PRSI by way of self-employment contributions. The Courts have long held that in determining whether a contract of employment is a contract of service...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: International Protection (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department administers the Daily Expenses Allowance (DEA) which is paid to International Protection applicants who reside in accommodation provided by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth or who are on a waiting list to move into this accommodation. The DEA is paid to these applicants to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 May 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 confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person concerned...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (29 May 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. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 14...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Prior to 1 January 2014, a person with solely unearned income under self-assessment, such as rental income, who was in insurable employment during the same year, was categorised as an excepted self-employed contributor. This meant that such persons were not liable for PRSI under self-assessment in respect of the unearned income and would not have been awarded PRSI class S contributions. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 May 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. Applicants must have been incapable of work for at least 12 months and be likely to be incapable of work for at least another 12 months (you may have been getting...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. These include contributory payments based on PRSI contributions, such as Illness Benefit and Invalidity Pension, and non-contributory payments based on a means test, such as Disability Allowance and Blind Pension. Invalidity Pension is a social insurance scheme paid from...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 May 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 confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person concerned...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (29 May 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. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that there is no record of any appeal by the person concerned having been...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (29 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: In 2023, I introduced legislation for a series of landmark reforms to the State Pension system in response to the recommendations from the Pensions Commission. This set of measures represented the biggest ever structural reform of the Irish State Pension system. One of the key measures under these reforms, which came into operation from the 1st January 2024, is the introduction of a...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I am glad to announce I have approval from Cabinet for the pay-related jobseeker's payment. I think that is a step in the right direction. It is to protect people so they will not have a cliff edge drop in their income if they are unfortunate enough to lose their job. I will start to bring that legislation through the Dáil this evening. I take the Deputy's point about the particular...