Results 201-220 of 16,601 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: As the Deputy may be aware, the previous Government established the Commission on Pensions to review the State pension system and make recommendations for its future. The commission strongly supported the retention of the qualifying criterion of 520 paid contributions. In part, this is because the actuarial value of the contributory State pension is currently estimated at approximately just...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: One of the major reform measures was the enhanced State pension provision for those who have been caring for incapacitated dependents of 20 years or more. It is being done by attributing the equivalent of pay contributions to such long-term carers to cover gaps in their contribution records for the period in which they were caring for an incapacitated dependant. The measure is available...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Programme for Government (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: That is a programme for Government commitment. As I said, we are looking at the best way to implement it and we will be working with people with disabilities and their advocates to assess it. I have looked at the ESRI report. As the Deputy said, it estimates that the average cost of a disability ranges from €25,376 to €28,860 depending on the severity. That is much higher...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Programme for Government (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I have given the Deputy a sense of the timeline and of the work that is under way. This is priority work in our Department. I hope to bring a firm proposal to the Government in the first half of 2026. As I said, I am engaging strongly with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, about budget 2026 provisions in the meantime. I do not intend to do nothing in this budget. We are working with the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The contributory State pension is funded by contributions paid into the Social Insurance Fund. In general, people will qualify for the contributory State pension if they are aged 66 or over and have between 520 and 2080, or more, reckonable contributions, of which 520 must be full-rate pay related social insurance, PRSI, contributions. There are no issues relating to An Post employees who...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I cannot comment on a court case, as the Deputy will understand. An Post operational matters are a matter for An Post and the relevant Minister. I have gone through the reasons we do not keep this information in the Department and how difficult it is to categorise or record applications for State pensions by prior employer name. However, if the Deputy wants to contact me later with a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy. As she knows, the hot school meals programme was established to ensure that children across Ireland have access to safe, nutritious meals during the school day. It is a core Government commitment to support children’s health, well-being, and educational outcomes. The programme is being made available to all primary schools before the end of this year. This will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: We are agreed that access to a hot school meal is vital, and that is what we are trying to secure. My Department officials have worked incredibly hard since we were informed by the school communities that the companies were withdrawing. We have set up a new process. My officials are regularly in touch with the school communities involved. Many of them have secured a replacement supplier,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I do not want to give the Deputy inaccurate information. I will provide her with the timeline. I can assure her that there was no delay. We were not informed by the supplier; we were informed by school communities. As soon as we became aware of it, we put the processes in place. The members of the team in the Department of Social Protection are continuing to work incredibly hard, for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Programme for Government (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy. The programme for Government includes a range of commitments in relation to support for people with disabilities. This includes a commitment to introduce a permanent annual cost of disability support payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. As we know, addressing the cost of disability is not a question of income support alone. The delivery of and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: No, it is the new roadmap for inclusion.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I will revert to the Deputy on the dashboard. There is huge work under way to make it as inclusive and measurable as possible. The unit is open to suggestions on what should be part of the dashboard. It is crucial it be used as a cross-governmental measure. We are looking at the whole area of housing costs. Depending on tenure and on whether a person owns or is renting, it can have a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy. Oral hearings on social welfare appeals can be held virtually, in person or by phone. In 2024, there were 432 oral hearings, comprising 120 in person, 53 by phone and 259 virtually. The figure has fallen considerably in recent years but that has to be set against the backdrop of a number of things. When a case is assigned to an appeals officer, the officer examines the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I can absolutely assure the Deputy that oral appeals will continue. The regulations are now there for people to request them. However, things have changed and the functionality available on MyWelfare.ie gives much more information earlier in the process, which leads to a situation where the oral hearing is not as important as it may once have been. I assure the Deputy oral appeals will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I do not disagree. We have all done oral hearings and they are very important. As the Deputy said, it is about seeing the white of a person's eye and having that interaction. There is a mix of the traditional oral hearing and the other options available to get a decision quicker and get through the process quicker. I assure the Deputy I do not intend to discourage the use of oral...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as a ceist. Reducing child poverty is a key priority for the Government. I agree with the Deputy that it is important to use data that is complete, accurate and can be tracked over time. The data on poverty used by my Department is the official data the Central Statistics Office, CSO, publishes in its annual survey on income and living conditions,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Poverty Data (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I absolutely agree with the Deputy that we need accurate figures. We have long used the consistent poverty measure as the national poverty benchmark. The recently agreed child poverty target of 3% or less is based on the consistent poverty measure, which is the critical measure of child poverty because it captures income-related and deprivation-related aspects. In addition, we use CSO...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Artificial Intelligence (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers, ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. Over 3.5 million scheme applications were processed in 2024, with performance metrics meeting or exceeding the published targets in the majority of areas. This was achieved despite an ongoing increase in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Wage-setting Mechanisms (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is currently examining a new Working Age Payment and hopes to issue a public consultation on the issue later this year or early in 2026. An outline of a possible approach was already published in the consultation paper on the Pay Related Benefit model. Noting the work already done, the Programme for Government commits that any new Working Age Payment will ensure that...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government includes the commitment to explore a targeted child benefit payment and examine the interaction this would have with existing targeted supports like the Working Family and Child Support Payments. Officials in my Department are working on this commitment. This work is complex and will take time to get right. We need to ensure that any potential second tier...