Results 81-100 of 15,792 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (15 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: State Pensions (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 7 December 2024. An application for State pension (contributory) was received on 1 November 2024. To be eligible for the State pension (contributory), an individual must have at least 520 paid contributions. The records of my Department show the person concerned has 434 paid contributions which falls short of the minimum requirement. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I signed a reply to this representation on 9th July 2025 and a hard copy was hand delivered to Leinster House the following day.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are over one million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on the Free Travel scheme in 2025 is €107.6 million. The Programme for Government 2025 has committed to examining extending the Free Travel scheme to include...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 631 and 632 together. As of the week of 6th July 2025, of the 85,240 recipients of full-time unemployed Jobseeker's Allowance on the Live Register. Of these, 13,309 have been in receipt of jobseeker's Allowance for 5 years or more. Claims may not have been in payment continuously for the entire period.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The number of people in receipt of Carer's Allowance at the end of each year from 2020 - 2024, and at the end of June 2025, is set out in the table below. 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 June 2025 88,906 90,889 92,175 95,787 97,985 100,798

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Fuel Allowance is a payment to help with the cost of heating a home during the winter months. A person can get Fuel Allowance if are they are aged 66 years or over, or getting long-term social welfare payments. The number of recipients of Fuel Allowance in December for each year from 2020-2024, and for March 2025, are shown in the table below. YEAR RECIPIENTS ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing social welfare schemes by €1. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and the associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. It should also be noted that these costings include proportionate increases for qualified adults and for those on reduced...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing the weekly rate of Jobseeker's payments by €1, €10 and €12. For the purposes of answering this parliament question, "Jobseekers' payments" is assumed to include not only the direct Jobseeker's payment schemes which have a weekly maximum personal rate (i.e. Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB) is a payment you can get if you become fully unemployed and have paid enough pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contributions. You cannot work and get Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit at the same time. The amount you get is directly linked to your earnings from work before you became unemployed. As of the week ending 6th July 2025, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (15 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: Early Childhood Care and Education (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Privately employed playschool workers who are not paid outside of school term time and who apply for a social welfare payment are included as Educational Sector Workers (ESWs). ESWs who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the school breaks can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. A jobseeker’s payment is paid for days of unemployment that the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Isolation (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less, and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. The Roadmap, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Isolation (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less, and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. The Roadmap, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in place...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Isolation (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less, and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. The Roadmap, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in place...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Guardian’s payment (contributory) and Guardian’s payment (non-contributory) are respectively social insurance and social assistance (means tested) payments made to a person caring for a child who satisfies the definition of an “orphan” under social welfare legislation. The purpose of the guardian's payment scheme is to provide income support in respect of those...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Civil Registration Service (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Persons wishing to marry in the State must serve three months notification of intention to marry to a registrar who is an employee of the Civil Registration Service which operates under the aegis of the HSE. The serving of notice of intention to marry is an operational matter for the HSE. Provision is made in the Civil Registration Act 2004 for such unfortunate scenarios whereby persons...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 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. The allowance is payable in respect of eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of whom a Child Support Payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department has a commitment to an annual level of control reviews and operates an ongoing continuous schedule of control and review activity for those in receipt of a pension.The objective is to ensure that customers on a pension, regardless of age, continue to receive their correct rate of payment over the lifetime of their claim. Reviews can arise from customer requests for a review...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible receive welfare and other payments. Our overriding objective is to ensure that we pay the right people, the right amount, through the right scheme/programme, at the right time. All schemes, including Disability Allowance (DA), are subject to periodic control reviews and continuing eligibility checks to ensure...