Results 14,661-14,680 of 15,157 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Town and Village Renewal Scheme (TVRS) was introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. TVRS is administered through local authorities, who work closely with local communities and businesses to develop proposals that will bring long-lasting, positive impacts to rural towns and villages. The 2025 Town and...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS) provides funding for the development and enhancement of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways, water-based recreation sites and mountain trails. The table at the link below provides detail on the amount of funding granted through local authorities under ORIS in each year from 2020 to 2024. This information...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (20 May 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 (LAGs) across rural Ireland, facilitating a community-led, bottom-up approach to rural development. The...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The CLÁR Programme provides funding under a number of different measures for small-scale infrastructural projects in designated rural areas that have experienced significant levels of depopulation over a defined period. Between 2020 and 2024, almost €42 million was awarded through local authorities for over 1000 projects nationwide under the CLÁR programme. Applications...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 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. The Programme for Government recognises the importance of investing in our rural towns and villages through schemes such as the RRDF and contains a commitment to...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) supports improving rural roads and laneways not usually maintained by local authorities. In the period from 2020 to 2025, the government has provided almost €121 million to local authorities for LIS. The Programme for Government commits to the support of rural communities including a commitment to increase funding under this scheme and I will be...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 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 by the end of 2025. To this end, Connectedhubs.ie was...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention. SICAP is a national programme that is delivered in both rural and urban areas by Local Development Companies to help those in the greatest need. SICAP is overseen by Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) who are the contracting authority for SICAP. There...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports 428 community-based organisations, with a budget of €55.4m in 2025, to provide local services through a social enterprise model. The CSP Programme provides an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 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 Rural and Community Development: Departmental Programmes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Since 2018, the Community Enhancement Programme (CEP) and its iterations has provided almost €59 million in funding to over 26,000 community and voluntary projects throughout the country. In 2023, the CEP was replaced by the Local Enhancement Programme (LEP). The LEP 2025 was launched last November with €7 million available to assist thousands of community groups across the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Recognition Fund (CRF) was first introduced in 2023 to recognise the huge efforts made by communities in welcoming and supporting people coming to Ireland. Under the Community Recognition Fund 2023 and 2024 a total of €100 million in funding has been made allocated to local authorities to be made available to communities across Ireland. Last August, €16.4...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Schemes (20 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the Community Recognition Fund (CRF) 2023 and 2024 a total of €100 million in funding has been made available to communities across Ireland. The fund supports the development of facilities which will be used in the future by all members of the community. Last August, €16.4 million was approved to deliver 185 community projects across the country under the first...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (21 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to medical assessment, a means test, and habitual residency conditions. The Department periodically conducts reviews to ensure continuing eligibility and to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (21 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 program is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Following my announcement in April, there are currently over 2,850 Primary Schools across the country now...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (21 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government commits to ‘Introduce Pay-Related Parents Benefit and explore other payments where a similar model could be applied.’ Work is ongoing within my Department to examine potential models for a Pay-Related Parent’s Benefit. At this stage, an estimate of costings is not available. While payment rates are an important consideration, they...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (21 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public transport services and on private transport services operating the Free Travel scheme. As part of Budget 2025, the government announced that from September 2025, all those aged 70 years or over in receipt of Free Travel will have an entitlement to receive a Free Travel Companion Public Services Card (PSC). This means those...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (21 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The 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. I recently...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (21 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: In August 2023, my Department published a review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and Disability Awareness Support Scheme. The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provided financial support for people with disabilities and for employers to help make their workplaces more accessible. The Disability Awareness Support Scheme provided funding for disability awareness training for employees. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (21 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 Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...