Results 14,121-14,140 of 15,117 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Support Services (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Absolutely. As I said to Deputy O'Connor earlier, we want to ensure that the social protection system is work-friendly and the welfare traps which inhibit people from taking up work are removed. I highlighted earlier that if a person on jobseeker's payment receives an offer of part-time work, he or she can end up worse off financially if his or her hours are spread over the whole working...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy. Since the Government was elected, we have prioritised the Cabinet committee on disability, which is chaired by the Taoiseach and meets monthly. It is addressing a range of issues, including income, but also services and supports. We had a discussion with Deputy John Connolly earlier about the wage subsidy scheme to assist employers and encourage them to employ people...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I endorse the Deputy's comments, particularly regarding rural poverty. I will keep a laser-like focus on it during my time in the Department. I commend the work done by organisations such as Local Link, which is expanding its footprint to address the exact kind of loneliness the Deputy has just referred to. The living alone allowance, or the living alone increase as it is formerly...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I agree with Deputy Burke and we will try to do that. Not just during Covid, but during Storm Éowyn we saw the real value of local groups, hubs and services. With my other hat of rural and community development, I am working within the Department on supporting those local hubs and services. The timing of hospital appointments frustrates me. Even if a person was able to use public...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I agree with the Deputy. In our preparation for responding to his question, I have asked that we do more work in terms of reaching out to people who may qualify but who may not know. Those figures strike me as low. The Department has been doing a lot of work in this space in terms of trying to bring the scheme to people's attention. Maybe with the support of colleagues across the House,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rural Schemes (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank Deputies Cahill and Conway-Walsh for their remarks. Regarding the review, we have fully implemented five recommendations. Actually, I had a meeting yesterday with officials on the remaining ones, including extending eligibility to people not directly engaged in farming or fishing but who have a connection to a rural community and the issue of two people accessing it. I have asked...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I agree with the Deputy entirely. We want this scheme to work. We will do the final roll-out in September so that every primary school pupil in the country will have had the opportunity to have hot school meals within their school. At that time I intend to stand back and examine at the scheme to see where it has been working and where it has not. I will be very focused on DEIS secondary...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I totally agree with the Deputy that a five-year-old should not receive the same portion as a 13-year-old and we get that feedback a lot. I suspect there are Members who have seen food come home with schoolbags and probably found it a few days later. Every school has the flexibility, within procurement rules, to choose the provider of the food. There is not some massive corporate...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The review will absolutely capture all of that. It is very important. There are a lot of local companies involved in this that otherwise would not be providing quality employment and service without this programme.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for her question and correspondence on this issue. On the nutritional value of school meals, I am very aware of the concerns that have been expressed. It is important to note that each week, parents are provided with a menu of food options and it is the parents who select the food to be served to their children in that week. It is important, in my view, that parents...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Children in Care (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The staff in my Department are acutely aware of the challenges faced by young people who leave care and are available to them to assist with the provision of social protection income and employment supports. The Department's staff engage with a range of stakeholders and advocacy groups working with vulnerable people. For instance in Dublin, staff engage with the Dublin Regional Homeless...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for her question and for raising this issue. As she will be aware, the Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 provided for changes to the social welfare means test to exclude child maintenance payments from assessment in all means-tested payments that my Department provides. This was one of the recommendations of the report of the child...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government recognises the additional costs associated with having a disability and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people. In the programme for Government, we are committed to introducing a permanent annual cost of disability support payment. These commitments will build on progress made in recent years where we have taken steps to recognise the additional costs...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Care Services (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I had this question down on behalf of Deputy O'Gorman but I thank Deputy Murphy for the question. The carer's allowance is the main scheme by which my Department provides income support to carers. There are currently 99,256 people in receipt of carer's allowance. Expenditure in 2025 is estimated at more than €1.24 billion. In common with other social welfare payments, the primary...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for his question. The programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce a new working-age payment to simplify and address those inconsistencies in payment arrangements, which face people who return to work from a jobseeker's payment. An outline of the proposed approach was published as part of the consultation process on the introduction of a new pay-related...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for his question. I take it that it concerns people in receipt of the one-parent family allowance, domiciliary care allowance and the half-rate carer's allowance in respect of a child who is turning 16 this year. Of the approximately 10,200 people currently in receipt of both the one-parent family payment and half-rate carer's allowance, approximately 390 will cease being...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist a chur. Táimid ag iarraidh obair i dteannta cúramóirí chun iad a sheoladh. Tá brón orm nach bhfuil freagra agam as Gaeilge.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Employment Support Services (1 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank Deputy McCormack. Our national employment strategy, Pathways to Work, sets out the Government’s approach to supporting jobseekers to prepare for, access and take up employment opportunities. In line with this strategy, my Department’s Intreo employment services throughout the country engage with jobseekers to support them to find work. The Government has provided in...