Results 141-160 of 16,601 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Means tests are a central part of any social welfare system in ensuring that limited resources are targeted at those who are most in need. Ireland's system of social transfers consistently ranks among the top performers in the European Union for poverty reduction. A key factor in this achievement is Ireland's use of means testing in targeting resources for the most vulnerable in our...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance payment, a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria. This ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment is targeted at those who are more vulnerable to fuel poverty, including those reliant on social protection...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's Allowance (CA) is a means tested payment for persons who are providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult. The applicant must also satisfy the habitual residency conditions. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 11 December 2023. The claim was disallowed as the means of the person exceeded the statutory limit. The person concerned was...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: To qualify for the Fuel Allowance payment a person must satisfy all relevant qualifying criteria including satisfying a means test. The means test ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment goes to those who are more vulnerable to fuel poverty, including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 638 to 643, inclusive, together. The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme provides support for the setting up of a new enterprise based in Ireland which is to be established as either a sole trader, a partnership or a limited company. The proposed enterprise must be recommended, in advance, by both the Enterprise Officer in the Local Development...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Reviews (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from the impact of energy costs through a combination of financial supports, energy efficiency awareness initiatives and investment in programmes to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock. The Programme for Government includes a commitment to examine key ancillary benefits such as the Fuel Allowance, Household...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Parent’s Benefit is available in respect of any child born or placed with their adoptive parents from 1 November 2019. Parent’s Benefit provides nine weeks payment to each parent of a child aged under two years, or in the two years following an adoption, who is on Parent’s Leave from work to care for their child and covered by social insurance (PRSI). In Q2 2025, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 646 and 657 together. Responsibility for the policy around the period of Maternity, Paternity, Parent’s or Parental Leave for employees is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. An extension of these leaves would require careful consideration and consultation with relevant stakeholders. My Department has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB) is a payment you can get if you become fully unemployed and who 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 of JPRB you get is directly linked to your earnings from work before you became unemployed. To the end of August 2025, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Widow's Pension (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: As at end August 2025, there were 28,651 people aged under 66 years in receipt of Bereaved Partner’s Pension (Contributory). As at end August 2025, there are a further 983 people in receipt of Bereaved Partner’s Pension (Non-Contributory). Illness Benefit is the primary short-term income support provided by my Department to those who are unable to work due to illness of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government 2025 has committed to examining extending the Free Travel scheme to include children benefitting from the Domiciliary Care Allowance. Domiciliary Care Allowance is a non means tested payment payable at €360 a month per child. In addition, all recipients of Domiciliary Care Allowance qualify for the Carer's Support Grant in June of each year. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Matters relating to foster carers, previously foster parents, are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. The State Pension (Contributory) system already provides a range of measures to recognise caring...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The table below gives the average weeks to award for all main schemes as of July 2025. My Department understands the many pressures faced by customers and always seeks to ensure that claims are handled quickly and efficiently. The Deputy will appreciate how processing times can vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I understand the Deputy has clarified that his question is in relation to providing entitlement to illness benefit to self-employed contributors. 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (30 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 Payments (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: In establishing a person’s entitlement to a social welfare payment, including a working age social welfare payment, each claim is examined in line with the statutory qualifying conditions for the scheme and the information provided by the person in support of their claim. Claim decisions made by the Department’s Deciding Officers and Designated Persons are appealable to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of sixteen years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to over 680,000 families in respect of over 1.3 million children. The estimated cost for 2025 is in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Correspondence (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disablement Benefit is a compensatory payment for persons who have suffered a loss of faculty due to injury arising out of and in their insurable employment. All qualifying criteria for disablement benefit must be satisfied before entitlement to payment can be established. The person concerned applied for Disablement Benefit on 10 July 2025 for an accident which was alleged to have...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on these payments in 2025 is estimated at over €1.9 billion. The annual Carer's Support Grant is paid automatically to those in receipt of Carer’s...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Carer's Benefit payment is made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person in need of full-time care. A person may be eligible providing they meet the qualifying conditions, including whether they have sufficient PRSI contributions. The payment is complemented by the Carers’ Leave Act 2001, which allows...