Results 14,141-14,160 of 15,117 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: Absolutely. We had a discussion on a previous question, asked by Deputy James O'Connor, about the introduction of the commitment in the programme for Government to introducing a working age payment. That is important to ensure that people who transition from a welfare support payment to work are not worse off. I will be focused on that. As I said, we will publish a number of potential...

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

Dara Calleary: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an cheist. The Indecon report on the cost of disability, commissioned and funded by my Department, found that the extra costs of disability are due to a number of factors, including higher costs of healthcare, transport, education, housing and other services that arise because of a higher level of dependence on these services by people with...

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

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for his question. As he knows and referred to, the programme for Government has committed to protect core welfare rates while ensuring that available resources are targeted at vulnerable groups. The programme for Government includes a commitment to examine key ancillary benefits such as the fuel allowance, household benefits package and living alone allowance to support...

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

Dara Calleary: We have had this discussion a few times today and the Government acknowledges the important role that carers are playing and we will continue to support them in that role. The enhanced State pension provision for people who have been caring for an incapacitated dependant for 20 years or more was introduced on 1 January 2024. If a person had more than 20 years of caring for an incapacitated...

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

Dara Calleary: I thank Deputy Cahill for his question. As he said, the rural social scheme plays an important role in the life of rural communities. I wish to highlight and thank every participant, supervisor and sponsoring company for their work in this space. The RSS provides an income support and part-time employment opportunities for farmers and fishers who are in receipt of certain social welfare...

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

Dara Calleary: As I said in reply to Deputy O'Reilly, the hot school meals review was announced when we expanded programme just ahead of the Easter school holidays. With regard to nutrition, the specific standard was set under the nutritional standards for school meals and nutritional standards for hot school meals. A technical nutrition subgroup comprised of dietitians from the Irish Nutrition and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 Apr 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 Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

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

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection receives EU Funding under the following EU programmes. The current programme is the European Social Fund Plus Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training Programme (ESF+EIST 2021-2027) which is a cross-Government programme managed by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science. The Department has four schemes within...

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

Dara Calleary: Overpayments of social welfare assistance and benefit payments arise because of decisions made under the relevant sections of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005 (as amended). Customers who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled. The Department has a central debt unit...

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

Dara Calleary: The delivery of vital locally based Community Welfare Services (CWS) to meet the challenges and the needs of citizens across the country is a priority for me and for my Department. The Community Welfare Service provides a flexible service to meet the different needs of people, who may find themselves in a financially difficult or vulnerable situation. It is a priority that this service is...

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

Dara Calleary: A national Youth Homelessness Strategy was published in November 2022 and aims to help young people aged 18 - 24 years who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. My department is represented on the Youth Homelessness Strategy Steering Group and is responsible for delivering on Action 25 of the Youth Homelessness Strategy. This action is to “Review work experience, placements,...

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

Dara Calleary: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income or other personal and household resources. This is an overarching term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements. The scheme is demand led and payments are made at the...

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government commits to examining the introduction of a Pay Related Carer’s Benefit for individuals who have to give up work suddenly in order to provide full-time care. In terms of roll-out of Pay-Related Benefits, the Programme for Government also contains a commitment to introduce a Pay-Related Parent’s Benefit. The new Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit...

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

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 15 January 2025. To be eligible for the standard state pension (contributory) an individual must have at least 520 full-rate contributions. To qualify for a mixed insurance pension, 520 employment contributions are required, of which at least 260 must be full-rate contributions with the remainder made up of modified contributions. The...

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

Dara Calleary: The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (HAS), administered by my department through the Community Welfare Service (CWS), was activated on 23 January 2025 to assist householders affected across the country by Storm Éowyn. According to the records of the Department, the person concerned applied for a HAS stage 1 payment to assist with the additional costs incurred as a result of Storm...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (30 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The CLÁR programme is a targeted investment programme that provides funding for small scale infrastructural projects in designated rural areas. Since 2017, almost €1.6 million has been awarded in County Meath for some 43 CLÁR projects . The attached table outlines the projects approved and the amount of CLÁR funding awarded to those projects in Co Meath from 2023 to...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (30 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 276 and 278 together. The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) supports improving rural roads and laneways not usually maintained by local authorities. Since its establishment in 2017, almost €170 million has been provided by the Government to local authorities for LIS. While the Department provides funding for LIS, the scheme is administered by local...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (30 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) with the amounts paid to each local authority in each year, for inclusion in their Report on the Accounts of the Public Services. As my Department was established in 2017, I have provided the information for 2017 to 2024 inclusive. I would note that the 2024 figures remain provisional until the OCAG report...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (30 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The current LEADER Programme runs to 2027 and is now up and running across the country. It supports a broad range of enterprises and community groups to develop projects which improve the quality of life and economic activity in rural areas. It is delivered through Local Action Groups across rural Ireland. A feature of the LEADER programme is that it is based on a community-led, bottom-up...

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

Dara Calleary: The introduction of the Public Services Card since 2012 has proven to be an important innovation both in enabling access to public services across a wide range of Government bodies and protecting against the use of fraudulent identities to access those services. For example, everyday hundreds of thousands of people use the PSC to access free travel or to collect their social welfare...