Results 241-260 of 16,601 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: Self-employed contributors pay class S PRSI at a rate of 4.1%. This is 11.15 percentage points lower than the combined employer and employee contribution of 15.25% made in respect of employed contributors. However, self-employed contributors do have access to over 90% of benefits available to employed contributors. The cost of extending illness benefit to the self-employed was considered...

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

Dara Calleary: Tús is a community work placement programme which aims to provide short-term work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. Tús is focused on jobseekers that are unemployed for twelve months or more with the targeted activation of this cohort aiming to provide additional assistance and a renewed impetus to these jobseekers who could otherwise be in danger of...

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

Dara Calleary: The State Pension (Non-Contributory) is a means-tested social assistance payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a State Pension (Contributory), or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record. My Department has over 90 schemes of which a significant number are means-tested schemes,...

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

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 contains a commitment to "Consider and prepare a report for Government on the potential application of the benchmarking approach to other welfare payments". The roadmap also includes a commitment to develop a benchmarking approach for use in adjusting the value of State pension payments. It is worth noting that indexing weekly social protection...

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

Dara Calleary: Means testing payments ensures that the State’s limited resources are directed towards those who are in the most need of financial support. The means test examines cash income (including income from work) and capital (savings and investments), as well as property that someone does not personally use. The house in which a customer resides – their principal residence or home -...

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

Dara Calleary: The increases in consistent poverty rates, as reported in March 2025 by the Central Statistics Office in its Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2025, are disappointing and reinforce the need for targeted supports to those most in need. It is also important to recognise that the CSO data is based on data collected in 2023 and therefore does not reflect the Government’s full...

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

Dara Calleary: Reducing child poverty is a key commitment of this Government. Based on this commitment, on 10th September last, the Government agreed a new Child Poverty Target of 3% or less, based on consistent poverty, to be achieved by the end of 2030. This new Target will guide our cross-Government focus to reduce child poverty and ensure investment is targeted at children who need it the most....

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

Dara Calleary: The Household Benefits Package (HBP) comprises of the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to some people under the age of 66, who are in receipt of certain welfare type...

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

Dara Calleary: Illness benefit is the primary short term income support provided by my Department to those who are unable to work due to illness of any type and who are covered by social insurance. Eligibility for illness benefit depends on the person’s PRSI record and class. The person must have made the required number of contributions under class A, E, H or P to qualify. In general,...

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

Dara Calleary: The poverty data used by my Department is the official poverty data published annually by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). It is important to note that until the release of the SILC in March 2025, consistent poverty in children had been on a downward trend, peaking in 2013 at 12.7% and falling to its lowest level in 2023 at 4.8%,...

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government includes a commitment to examine key ancillary benefits such as the Fuel Allowance, Household Benefits and the Living Alone Increase to support vulnerable groups. This is an ongoing activity as part of the Department's budget planning each year and I will continue, as part of the budget planning process, to consider if improvements can be made to ensure that...

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

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel Scheme is available to all persons aged over 66 and those under the age of 66 on certain qualified payments, who are living legally and permanently in the State. The scheme permits those who are eligible to travel for free on most CIE public transport services, Local Link, LUAS and a range of transport services offered by private transport operators countrywide. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget 2026 (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. The ESRI has proposed a model for a Second-Tier Child Benefit which would abolish the existing Child...

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

Dara Calleary: As the Deputy is aware, the Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2025 was enacted on 21 July 2025. The provisions of the Act which introduced the Bereaved Partner's (Contributory) Pension were as a result of the Supreme Court decision on the entitlement of an unmarried cohabitant to a Widower's Contributory Pension. In simple terms, the Court...

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The aim of introducing AE is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland and to provide workers with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement income. The new system - to be known as My Future Fund - will commence from 1 January 2026. ...

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

Dara Calleary: The Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which my Department provides income support to carers in the community. The primary objective of the Carer’s Allowance payment is to provide an income support to people whose earning capacity is substantially reduced because they cannot work full-time due to their caring responsibilities. The principal conditions for receipt...

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

Dara Calleary: Under the Irish Sign Language Act 2017, the State recognises the right of Irish Sign Language users to use Irish Sign Language as their native language and the corresponding duty on all public bodies to provide Irish Sign Language users with free interpretation when availing of, or seeking to access, statutory entitlements and services. The Act assigns responsibilities to the Minister for...

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

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The position is being examined by my Department to resolve the matter. This anomaly, which will impact a small number of individuals, has arisen as a result of the PRSI contributions required for the various jobseeker's schemes. The new Jobseeker's Pay-related Benefit scheme requires applicants to have a recent PRSI PAYE contribution record...

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

Dara Calleary: The objective of Community Employment (CE) scheme is to enhance the employability of disadvantaged and long-term unemployed persons by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their local communities on a temporary fixed term basis. In addition to providing eligible people with valuable occupational experience and training as a stepping-stone to employment in the...

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

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection operates a number of employment support schemes for people on social welfare payments to assist them attain relevant skills and experience to secure sustainable employment and which also assist communities across the country in the provision of vital services. Community Employment (CE) and Tús are employment activation measures designed to provide...