Results 561-580 of 16,601 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department received an application for Illness Benefit from the person concerned on the 24th July 2025.  Unfortunately, they did not qualify for payment of Illness Benefit as they did not satisfy the certification conditions.  In order to qualify for Illness Benefit, one of the requirements is that medical evidence in the form of Incapacity for Work certificate must be supplied...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Fuel Allowance season begins in late September of each year and ends in April.  The 2024/2025 Fuel Allowance season started on Monday, 23 September 2024.  It was paid for 28 weeks (until 4 April 2025). The number of recipients of fuel allowance, by county, as of 31 December 2024 is shown below.  These figures are taken from the Department of Social Protection's Annual...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them.  The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. The programme is designed so that meals are provided by contracted food business operators, with...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Educational Sector Workers, including Early Years Educators, who are not paid outside of school term time and who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the school breaks can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. The person applying must satisfy all the qualifying conditions to receive a payment. This includes completing the relevant claim application forms and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Tax Credits (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Yearly Averaging (YA) method of calculating the rate of pay for the State Pension (Contributory) has been in use since the introduction of a contributory pension in 1961.  It has long been established that the method, which uses time spent since entry into insurable employment as a divisor, can lead to some anomalies. In January 2018, an interim Total Contributions Approach (TCA)...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My department has established an interdepartmental working group, which includes the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the Department of Children, Equality and Disability. It has met on the following dates; however, there is also regular ongoing engagement between the State bodies concerned: 18th December 2024 06th February 2025...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them.  The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. The table below contains details of the number of schools in receipt of Hot School Meals by county...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them.  The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. In Budget 2025, it was announced that the Hot School Meals Scheme would be extended to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The scheme operates from June to September each year. In order to qualify for Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, an applicant must satisfy a number of qualifying...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department does not hold data on persons in receipt of a medical card and is therefore unable to provide a costing for the extension of Fuel Allowance to this cohort. There are approximately 740,218 pensioners in receipt of qualifying payments for Fuel Allowance.  Of these, 220,429 are already in receipt of Fuel Allowance.  This would give an additional 519,789 Fuel Allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Capital Expenditure Programme (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection, or the bodies under its aegis, do not provide direct capital funding or grants to sporting organisations.  

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Capital Expenditure Programme (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection, or the bodies under its aegis, do not provide direct capital funding or grants to sporting organisations.  

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government commits to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. Our Programme for Government commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government, having regard to the overall policy and budgetary context. Last week, the Government published the National Human Rights Strategy for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is fully committed to supporting family carers.  We recognise the vital role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face. In July, the weekly income disregard for Carer's Allowance increased from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or partner.  This change has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a range of employment supports to facilitate access to the workplace for disabled people. My Department's Intreo service is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports in the State.  Disabled people can access information on employment and training options.  These can include mainstream employment schemes such as Community Employment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the social security arrangements between Ireland and the United Kingdom, the respective authorities exchange social insurance record details for long-term and short-term benefit claims. If a UK social insurance record is required, a request is sent via an electronic platform used across EU/EEA/UK, that has been approved for the transfer of social insurance records. Requests...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: This parliamentary question is appropriate to the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment and not the Minister for Social Protection.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: In August 2023, my Department published a review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and Disability Awareness Support Scheme. The report made nine recommendations to merge the two schemes into a single, flexible scheme and to expand and improve the supports offered under the new scheme. In July 2024, the new Work and Access scheme was launched. Work and Access offers seven supports to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Wage Subsidy Scheme is a key disability employment support. It aims to encourage employers to offer substantial and sustainable employment to people with disabilities through a subsidy. As of August 2025, there are 1,542 employers availing of the Wage Subsidy Scheme and 2,544 employees are supported through the scheme. Last year, my Department published a review of the Wage...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Strategies (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is committed to working to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities. Intreo Employment Service (ES) provide a wide range of supports to assist jobseekers, including those with a disability, to find work.  Intreo ES also provides recruitment advice and support for employers including information on recruitment and retention incentives. Intreo ES...