Results 1,501-1,520 of 16,601 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 563, 564 and 565 together. Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur where a person provides false or misleading information in their application or through error on the part of either the claimant or the Department. Persons who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public transport services and and on private transport services operating the Free Travel scheme. There are over 1.1 million customers with direct eligibility for Free Travel. As part of Budget 2024, Free Travel was extended to people who are medically certified as unfit to drive. From 29th July 2024, the measure extended access...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Since the 6th of January 2023, the criteria for eligibility for Fuel Allowance was lowered specifically for people aged 70 and over compared to the standard cohort aged 66 and over. To increase the number of people aged 70 qualifying, the income limit was increased to €500 per week for singles and €1,000 per week for couples, savings of €50,000 were excluded and no...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 568 and 569 together. Under the law as currently enacted, entitlement to a Widows, Widowers or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory pension is only available to a surviving partner who was party to a marriage or civil partnership. On 22nd January 2024, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the entitlement of an unmarried cohabitant to a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Separate figures for Cork North Central are not available. Therefore the following figures provided are national figures for the whole country. As of the end of April 2025, there were 50,372 pending applications for social welfare payments and 19,296 appeal decisions pending. In 2024, there were approximately 3,580,000 applications registered by the department. There are currently a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Websites (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department uses Google Analytics tools that track website traffic to its online platforms. UTM parameters are enabled for MyGovID and MyWelfare. The monthly number of visits, using this parameter, for each of the past 12 months is set out below. Month MyGovId MyWelfare June 2024 0 0 July 2024 0 0 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Men's Sheds (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: In July 2024, my Department launched a new scheme called Work and Access. This scheme offers seven supports to improve access in the workplace for people with a disability. Funding is available for supports including communication supports, work equipment, and training. Workplace Adaptation is one of the supports offered under the Work and Access scheme. This grant is designed for people...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jun 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Contracts (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department did not award any contracts to Communications and PR Firms in 2024. Details relating to the bodies under the aegis of the Department are listed below CIB Contractor Name Contract Purpose Contract Award Date Total Expenditure 2024 Murray Consultants Public Relations and Communications Services 04 January...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides income supports for people who are unemployed. As I outlined in my previous response, the Professional Artist Scheme under Jobseeker’s Allowance provides support for unemployed artists whereby they are exempt from labour market activation for up to 12 months to focus on their profession. The other conditions associated with Jobseeker’s Allowance,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Capital (savings and investments) and the value of property owned, but not personally used or enjoyed, are assessed as means in means assessments. Where capital or property is assessed on this basis, any income received from its use (for example interest on savings, dividends from shares, rent from property let) is not assessed as cash income. In general, the formula used to assess the weekly...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned is in receipt of Jobseekers Pay Related Benefit (JPRB) from the 28/04/2025 at a rate of €136.90 per week. JPRB is payable in this case at €136.90 for the first 13 weeks of their claim , €125.50 for the next 13 weeks and €125.00 for the remaining 13 weeks. A decision letter was sent to the person concerned on 28/05/2025.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. There have been a number of significant improvements made to the means test for CA in recent years. As part of Budget...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Judicial Reviews (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Below is a table of the number of judicial review cases taken against the Department or Minister for Social Protection: Year Number of judicial review cases Year Number of judicial review cases taken against the Department or Minister for Social Protection 2025 (to date) 10 2024 54 ...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Inquiries (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: A key focus of Our Rural Future - the Government's Rural Development Policy 2021 to 2025 - is to optimise digital connectivity to support vibrant, sustainable rural communities, ensuring equality of access to digital services. Our Rural Future committed to the establishment of a network of 400 remote working hubs across the country over the lifetime of the policy. Connectedhubs.ie was...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Data (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) has provided in excess of €109 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres. Over €45.8 million was approved for some 861 community centres nationwide under CCIF 2022. In early 2024, funding of over €30 million was approved for the construction of 12...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Rural Regeneration (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) is a major capital investment programme which seeks to support large-scale, ambitious projects which can achieve sustainable economic and social development in rural areas. Calls for applications under are sought under two categories, Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 relates to larger scale ambitious capital projects with all necessary...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Websites (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht's website is hosted by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) as part of the gov.ie central website for government services and information, and analytics are provided to the Department as part of that service. I have set out in the following table details in relation to the 1,222 visits, generated by...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Contracts (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: In general my Department’s communications work is delivered in-house and with external communications and/or PR inputs only utilised where external specialist expertise is required. With that in mind, there were only two contracts awarded by my Department for communications/PR work with costs in 2024. Both of these related to capacity and awareness raising for the community and...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Community Development Projects (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) has provided in excess of €109 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres. Over €45.8 million was approved for some 861 community centres nationwide under CCIF 2022. In early 2024, funding of over €30 million was approved for the construction of...