THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection is no more.

From tomorrow onwards, it will take over some of the work carried out by another department to become the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

The moves comes following a “government decision”, the department said in a statement.

Regina Doherty will then hold the title of Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Her ministry will be taking over functions currently carried out by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in areas concerned with employment policy and labour law.

Here’s is what the new logo looks like (pretty much the same as the last one):

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

At national level, the new department will take over the following roles from the Department of Jobs:

• Lead on employment rights policy and legislation.
• Lead on the low pay commission, established to make recommendations annually to the minister on the appropriate level of the national minimum wage and related areas.
• Lead on legislation in relation to the national minimum wage and related areas.

The new Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection logo and name will appear on Welfare.ie from tomorrow, and be used in all communications from that date.

A number of buildings will require a change to the signage, but it is not proposed that any changes will made to Intreo office signs at this time.

Contacting the department via email will not change, with the format remaining firstname.surname@welfare.ie.

A department spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that no service user or customer will be affected by the changeover.

While not in a position to provide details of how much the rebrand has cost, the department expects it to be “relatively minor”.

Its name in Irish is “An Roinn Gnóthai Fostaíochta agus Coimirce Sóisialaí”.

Read: Data Protection Commissioner calls for transparency over Public Services Card

Read: Hospitals, schools, jobs? Why the government’s ‘end goal’ is for every adult to have a Public Services Card

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