Results 381-400 of 16,830 for are speaker:Heather Humphreys

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: ...applications in each of the past three years. The requested information detailing the number of claims awarded, the number of claims disallowed, and the number of claims awarded following an appeal are also set out in the tables. Please note reference to claims allowed after Appeal refers to decisions made by the Appeals Office only. Working Family Payment New Claims Processing...

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: 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: Agriculture Supports (11 Jun 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...history or to show that such injury or damage was attributable to neglect on the part of the owner. As the legislation provides for recourse for those impacted by any attacks on livestock there are no plans by my Department to implement a compensation fund at this time. I believe it is important for dog owners to be aware of their responsibilities - not just to the general public but also...

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...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...years. I will quote Sinn Féin's leader. She said, "Our proposal is, over the course of a number of budgets, to bring employer PRSI up by about 4pc." Deputy McDonald also said, "That still means that we are well below the European average and in or about the global average." That is what Sinn Féin's party leader said and now we are hearing the opposite. I would have to call...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: In response to Deputy Naughten, the vast majority of carers are women. I provided a pension to carers. Female participation in the workforce has never been higher and I absolutely want more women back working. I launched the updated pathways to work just this Tuesday. There is a significant focus on helping to get people back to work. Regarding the poverty and gender impact analysis,...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: No, they are not my bosses.

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: .... It is an historic piece of work that will benefit 800,000 workers who currently have no occupational pension. Today, I am bringing forward legislation for another landmark reform of our social welfare system in the form of pay-related benefit. At the moment, if people who have worked hard for 20 years suddenly lose their job, they will receive the same rate of unemployment payment as...

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

Heather Humphreys: ...pension. The Supreme Court judgment overruled a previous High Court decision and found in favour of the claimant and his children. In simple terms, the Court found that section 124 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (as amended) is inconsistent with the Constitution insofar as it excluded the claimant from the category of persons entitled to benefit from it. The Court...

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

Heather Humphreys: The Free Travel Scheme allows people who are aged 66 years or over, and who are legally and permanently residing in the State, to travel free of charge on most CIE public transport services, LUAS, Local Link, as well as on the public transport services of a large number of private operators in various parts of the country. Certain people under age 66 may also be entitled to free travel if...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (30 May 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Following the expansion of the programme in recent years, some 2,600 schools and organisations, covering 443,000 children are now eligible for funding. The Hot School Meal option of the programme was introduced in 2019 and is currently solely available to primary schools. Since my appointment as Minister for...

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

Heather Humphreys: The table below sets out all the schemes operated by my Department that are funded by the Social Insurance Fund. I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy. Schemes funded by the Social Insurance Fund: State Pension (Contributory) Widows', Widowers' / Surviving Civil Partners' Pension (Contributory) Widows', Widowers' /...

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

Heather Humphreys: ...benefits and State pension (contributory), as well as statutory redundancy/insolvency payments. The administrative costs associated with both PRSI collection and the payment of PRSI entitlements are recoverable from the SIF. The National Treasury Management Agency manages any surplus on behalf of the Social Insurance Fund, which may provide additional income to the fund through...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 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. The Department received a claim for IP from the person referred to on 1 November 2023. The claim was refused on the grounds that the medical conditions for the scheme...