Results 241-260 of 16,830 for are speaker:Heather Humphreys

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: You are misrepresenting me.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: To be very clear here, and I have already said this, there are loads of provisions in the Bill to take account of the ESG. The State's obligations with regard to relevant international agreements would include the sustainable finance disclosure regulation, the UN Global Compact and the Paris Agreement, which guide the international community on matters such as carbon emissions and investment...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: All ESG matters are fully and comprehensively addressed in the Bill.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...property of the individual. I need to emphasise that NAERSA will not be administering a new State fund but, rather, will be administering hundreds of thousands of individual savings accounts that are and will remain the personal property of the automatic enrolment participant.The automatic enrolment project, in that sense, is a State-incentivised personal retirement saving scheme for...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: .... The investment strategy is set out in the Bill in quite some detail and NAERSA, in negotiating contracts with investment managers, will apply those statutory requirements. ESG arrangements are further provided for in section 74, which sets out the investment rules that will be applicable to contracted service providers. This section ensures ESG considerations will be taken into...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...scheme. The objective is that it will be self-financing, but to set it up in the initial years, we need to give it powers to borrow because it takes a while for this to ramp up. That is why we are allowing it those powers.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: People can join the auto-enrolment scheme at any age but not after the age of 66. If someone is late coming into the scheme there are arrangements so he or she can access the scheme. If someone was joining the auto-enrolment scheme at the age of 60 it would be to his or her benefit because he or she would have a savings pot by the time of retirement because when the employer contributions...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: .... The Pensions Authority will be involved and is happy to work with us. This work will be completed by the end of year six, at the very latest. As most contribution rates in employment-based schemes are around 5% for employers and employees, the issue is not particularly relevant until contribution rates in automatic enrolment are up at comparable levels. Excuse me, I will have to go...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: They are not grouped but they are similar, so I will answer the issues the Senator raised. That is okay. Amendments Nos. 37 and 38 relate to the power to amend the age limits and the earnings threshold.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: That is all right. There are a number of relevant issues. The standards that need to be set will not only be about the contribution levels into an alternative pension scheme, as compared with the contribution levels into the AE scheme. This is about setting standards, which is the amendment. The Bill sets out clear instructions when it comes to contribution levels. They are always to be...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ....If they decide to opt out, they will only ever get their own contributions back. The rest stays in the pot. It is their pot and it stays there. When they start working or for whatever reason are back working, then we will opt them in and they will always have the option to come back out again. We will keep getting people to opt in because if I had been asked at 21 or 22 if I wanted to...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Senator. The risk levels are set out in the legislation under section 69. The higher risk rating is 5, 6 and 7. The medium risk rating level is 3 or 4, and the lower risk level is "consisting of AE provider schemes with a risk rating of 1 or 2." The risks are set out with reference to European standards. It is in the legislation and we refer to the European standards.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 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. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that a Supplementary Welfare Allowance appeal by the person concerned was...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 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. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that a decision on this case was issued to the person concerned on 14 June...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Free Travel scheme is available to people over 66 years and to people in receipt of certain social welfare payments who are under 66 years. From 29th July 2024, Free Travel is also available to persons who are medically certified as unfit to drive for a period of at least 12 months. Free Travel recipients must be permanently resident in the State. The scheme permits travel for free...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...can include up to 20 years HomeCaring periods or PRSI credits. Following on from the Pensions Commission's recommendations, a number of State pension reforms were enacted in the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023 on the 14th December 2023, which represent the biggest ever structural reform of the Irish State pension system. One of the reforms in the 2023 Act was the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The marriage bar was a legal requirement for women in the Irish civil service and some areas of the public service to retire from employment after marriage. While the legislation applied only to the civil and public sector, a similar policy was adopted by other sectors, such as the banking sector. The marriage bar for civil servants was removed from legislation in 1973. Civil and public...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Bereavement Grant has been discontinued for some time but 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (19 Jun 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 Benefits (19 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Telephone Support Allowance is a weekly payment of €2.50 for people on certain social welfare payments who are also getting both the Living Alone Increase and the Fuel Allowance. The primary objective of the Telephone Support Allowance is to allow the most vulnerable people at risk of isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, access to personal alarms or phones...