Results 141-160 of 14,473 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office 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. As of the 31st of March 2025, the current processing time for Disability Allowance appeals is 22.9 weeks. The Chief Appeals...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (1 May 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 scheme recipients, including those in receipt of disability or pension payments. The objective is to ensure that customers continue to receive their correct rate of payment over the lifetime of their claim. Reviews can arise from customer...

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

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office 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. The Social Welfare Appeals Regulations 2024 (S.I. No. 744 of 2024) were signed into law in December 2024 and will come into...

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

Dara Calleary: The Department is committed to providing a quality service to its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing eligibility criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of...

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

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is paid in respect of almost 1.3 million children. Expenditure on the scheme is estimated at over €2.2 billion in 2025. It is important to note...

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

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office 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 appeal for the above motioned was received and registered in that...

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

Dara Calleary: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make an Additional Needs Payment (ANP) to help meet expenses that an eligible person cannot pay from their weekly income. The ANP scheme is demand led and administered by Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) in the Community Welfare Service (CWS), taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: There is a nutritional standard in place for the School Meals Programme since it’s inception. A specific standard was set for School Meals under the Nutritional Standards for School Meals and Nutritional Standards for Hot School Meals. A technical Nutrition Sub Group comprised of Dietitians from the following organisations was involved in developing these standards: The Irish...

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

Dara Calleary: As the Deputy is aware, the Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025 is currently before the Oireachtas. When enacted, the Bill proposes to expand eligibility to the Widows, Widower's and Surviving Civil Partner's Contributory Pension to qualified cohabitants. The Bill is aligned with the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, which...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Artificial Intelligence (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The term A.I can have a number of meanings. For some it is limited to systems that are self-learning and/or can generate content autonomously (Gen A.I.). Others include systems that use programmed business or decision rules to automate some elements of decision making.The Department is examining the potential future use of Gen A.I. technologies. This involves active participation in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (1 May 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. Following my announcement on the 11 April 2025, there are 2,850 primary schools now participating in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Poverty (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020–2025 is the national strategy for poverty reduction and improved social inclusion. It includes a goal of reducing child poverty in Ireland and ensuring that all families have the opportunity to participate fully in society. The Roadmap commits to setting a new national child poverty target and this was reiterrated. The Mid-Term Review of the...

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

Dara Calleary: The new 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. The new...

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

Dara Calleary: Age-related reduced rates apply to jobseekers aged 18 to 24 years in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance to prevent long-term welfare dependency. If a young jobseeker participates in education or training, they receive up to the maximum personal rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance of €244. If they participate on the Work Placement Experience Programme the weekly rate increases up to...

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

Dara Calleary: Casual Jobseekers are people whose days of work have been reduced or they can only find part-time or casual work. They must be unemployed for at least 4 days out of 7 consecutive days. The statistics requested by the Deputy are provided in the table below. Figures relate to 31st of December each year unless otherwise stated. Year Casual Jobseekers Allowance ...

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

Dara Calleary: Under the Programme for Government, we will introduce a new Working Age Payment which will ensure that individuals always see an increase in income when they work or take on additional hours. The Working Age Payment will remove inconsistencies and anomalies in the current Jobseekers Allowance Scheme which discourage people from taking up employment. We will publish draft proposals for...

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

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a range of financial supports for people transitioning to employment and I will outline some of the key supports. A person can work up to three days and continue to receive a partial jobseeker’s payment. Under Jobseeker's Allowance, the first €20 of earnings per day is disregarded up to a maximum of €60 for three days worked, with the balance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government includes a commitment to expand and build on successful programmes like WorkAbility, Employability and the new Work and Access programme to support people with disabilities into employment. In July 2024,the new Work and Access scheme was launched, replacing the former Reasonable Accommodation Fund and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme. Work and Access...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Domestic Violence (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Tackling the epidemic of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a major priority for the Government. The Programme for Government includes a number of commitments in this regard. Establishing a zero-tolerance approach to domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence is vital for safeguarding individuals and promoting a safer society. We will ensure the implementation of the actions in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the Pathways to Work Strategy, my Department committed to host two national Intreo Work and Skills campaigns annually, each of which comprises a series of recruitment and information events nationwide. The objective of Intreo Work and Skills is to provide opportunities for employment for jobseekers, coupled with education and training options to enhance employability. The most...