Results 14,901-14,920 of 15,157 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Carer's Allowance is the main scheme by which my department provides income support to carers in the community. There are currently 101,426 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance. Expenditure in 2025 is estimated to be over €1.24 billion. Carer’s Allowance aims to provide income support to those whose earning ability is greatly impacted by their caring responsibilities,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department does not have a scheme to fund the purchase of bottled water due to consistent boil water notices for homes as this is a matter for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Uisce Éireann. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides funding to maintain and improve our water supply infrastructure, such as pipes, filtration and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: It is my understanding that the Department of Education, under an arrangement with the Revenue Commissioners in 2015, placed home tutors on a payroll system to facilitate the payment of PAYE/PRSI/USC in a convenient manner, even though they continued to be regarded as self-employed. Scope Section has examined the status of individual home tutors on a number of occasions previously and has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: PRSI is a compulsory contributions based system where an employed or a self-employed contributor pays contributions into the Social Insurance Fund and gains entitlement to benefits based on those contributions. PRSI is charged on an individual basis where each person builds up their insurance record and, hence, their entitlement to benefits over time. However, there are certain schemes,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The legislative provisions for the Half-rate Carer's Allowance payment came into effect on and from Thursday 27 September 2007. The scheme was provided for in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 which was signed by the President on 30 March 2007. At the time of the passage of the Bill through the Oireachtas, the late Seamus Brennan TD was Minister for Social and Family Affairs. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (10 Jun 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. There is a nutritional standard in place for the School Meals Programme since it’s inception....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My department has established an interdepartmental working group, which includes the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the Department of Children, Equality and Disability, to oversee and make recommendations on the operation of the scheme, including nutrition inspection and evaluation. This is a standing group which will make...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (10 Jun 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: Humanitarian Aid (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 898, 899, 900 and 901 together. The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme, administered by my Department through the local Community Welfare Services (CWS), was activated on Thursday 23 January 2025 to assist householders affected across the country by Storm Éowyn. The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (HAS) is operated in 3 stages. The majority of payments...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Invalidity Pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and for no other reason and who satisfy the pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions. The Department received an application for IP from the person concerned on 24 February 2025. The person referred to has the required PRSI contributions for IP and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned will reach pension age on 10 June 2025. A letter issued to the person concerned on 28 May 2025 to advise that the State Pension (contributory) was awarded with effect from 10 June 2025 at a rate of €271.90 which is equivalent to 94% of the maximum rate of payment. According to the records of my Department, the last contributions recorded for the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's Allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that, as a result, they require that level of care. For May 2025, there were 113,080 beneficiary recipients of Carer's Allowance. Of these, 36,816, (32.6%) are under the age...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: As the Deputy is aware, Job Initiative (JI) is an employment support scheme which was designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities. The Department provides wage grant funding for JI team leaders and JI participants along with a grant contribution towards the running costs of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is a service 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: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Educational Sector Workers (ESWs), including Bus Escorts, who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the school breaks can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. They must satisfy all the qualifying conditions to receive a payment. This includes completing the relevant claim application forms and providing supporting documentation in a timely manner while also...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: There is a general principle of one person-one payment that applies across our social welfare system. Given the contingency-based nature of this system, it can happen that a person may experience more than one contingency at the same time, but generally they can receive only one payment. This principle is common to social security systems across the world. As a result, people on the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: As part of Budget 2025, a Free Travel Companion Pass will be assigned to all those aged over 70 from September 2025. Therefore, a Free Travel companion pass will also be assigned to those who are single and aged over 70. The Free Travel Companion Pass scheme enables a person 16 years of age or over to accompany the pass holder free of charge. There is no requirement that the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals is a service 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 Chief Appeals Officer has put in place measures to deal with the increase in appeals received during 2024. 20 additional staff...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is a service 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Freedom of Information (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Citizens Information Board (CIB) is the statutory body, under my Department’s aegis, that funds and supports eight regional Citizen Information Service (CIS) companies, which in turn operate a national network of Citizens Information Centres. Funding is provided based on a Service Level Agreement between CIB and the CIS companies. As the CIS companies are independent...