Results 41-60 of 15,432 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The estimated cost of increasing all headline social protection rates to €300 per week, excluding any increase for Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Partial Capacity Benefit, Disablement Pension and Blind Person's Pension, is €1.68 billion in a full year. It should be noted that this costing includes a proportionate increase for qualified adults and for those on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The estimated full-year cost of increasing Invalidity Pension from €249.50 to €350 per week, an increase of €100.50, is €305.2 million. The estimated full-year cost of increasing Disability Allowance and Blind Pension from €244 to €350, an increase of €106, is €985.4 million. It should be noted that these costings are subject to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: It is important to note that the State Pension age was never 65 years of age. The State Pension (Contributory) and State Pension (Non-Contributory) were never paid at 65 years of age. Reducing the State Pension age to 65 years would increase pension related expenditure significantly. While my Department does not have a detailed actuarial analysis of this option, a high-level estimate of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. Currently, the payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. Child Benefit is currently in payment in respect of approximately 1.2 million children with an estimated expenditure of €2.2 billion for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The cost of increasing the Child Support Payment (formerly the Increase for a Qualified Child) for children under 12 years, from the current rate of €50 by €6 to €56 per week, and of increasing the Child Support Payment for children aged 12 years and over, from the current rate of €62 by €15 to €77 per week is total cost of €145 million in a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection provides a range of income supports to carers, which includes Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance, and the Carer’s Support Grant. The combined spending on these payments is estimated at over €1.9 billion in 2025. Carer’s Allowance is the main income support, with over 100,000 recipients and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (1 Jul 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 claims if...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 525 and 528 together. Parent's Benefit is a payment for employed and self-employed people who are on Parent's Leave from work who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions. It is currently paid for nine weeks at €289 per week. Any decision to extend the period of Parent's Leave for employees is a primarily a matter for my colleague, the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (1 Jul 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 will be extended to all remaining primary...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: In order to qualify for Widows and Surviving Civil Partner's Contributory Pension it must be established that the applicant is the widow, widower, or surviving civil partner of the deceased, and that the civil partnership, or marriage, entered into by the parties is one recognised under Irish law. Following the marriage equality referendum and the subsequent Marriage Act 2015, same sex...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The total estimated cost of increasing the weekly payment rate for Maternity Benefit, Adoptive Benefit, Paternity Benefit and Parent's Benefit, from the current rate of €289 by €61 to €350 per week, is €87 million. The above costing is on a full year basis and is based on the estimated number of recipients in 2025. It should be noted that this costing is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Citizens Information Services (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Citizens Information Board (CIB) is the statutory body under the aegis of my Department, that has an independent mandate to provide information, advice and advocacy on a wide range of public services. CIB itself is governed by an independent Board of Directors. The Citizens Information Service (CIS), in turn, comprises of eight regional companies that are funded by CIB to deliver...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly allowance payable to a parent / guardian 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 the child's disability is such that the child is likely to require this...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The mean time taken for decision reviews of Carer's Allowance claims carried out under the appeals process for 1 January - 31 May 2025 was 6.7 weeks. This is measured from the time the appeal is registered to when the decision is made by the DSP officer. Note that this does not include decision reviews carried outside the appeals process, as statistics for these are not maintained by the DSP....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance payment awarded to those who are caring for people who need full-time care and attention. Like other income supports the payment is intended to provide an income support for people who cannot earn income through...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is a service of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The legislative basis for implementing the new system was enacted last July. 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 savings. I recently...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Medical Cards (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Carer’s Support Grant (CSG) is an annual payment made to full-time carers who satisfy certain conditions. The person claiming the Grant must:Be aged 16 or over and ordinarily resident in this State.Care for the person on a full-time basis.Care for the person for a continuous period of at least six months – this period must include the first Thursday in June.Live with the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: State pension non-contributory is a means-tested payment for people aged 66 and over, legally and 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. For the purposes of the means test, at application stage and through the lifetime of a claim, an applicant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (1 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. These include contributory payments, based on PRSI contributions, such as illness benefit and invalidity pension, and non-contributory payments, based on a means test, such as disability allowance. Entitlement to these supports is contingent on the extent to which a particular...