Results 14,941-14,960 of 15,157 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: Illness benefit is the primary short term income support provided by my Department to those who are unable to work due to illness of any type and who are covered by social insurance. Eligibility for illness benefit depends on the person’s PRSI record and class. People must have made the required number of contributions under PRSI classes A, E, H or P to qualify. ...

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

Dara Calleary: The person referred to by the Deputy has been awarded Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit, which is not affected by the income of the person's spouse. Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit is a new social insurance income support which has replaced the Jobseeker's Benefit scheme for people who are fully unemployed. A person must meet the required PRSI contribution conditions in order to qualify...

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

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment to support families with children under 18. Recipients of Child Benefit statistics are not available by electoral divisions geography. Quarterly statistics on recipients of Child Benefit, including a breakdown by county, is published in open data format as part of the Department's Quarterly Statistics report which is available at...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Question Heading for question(s) 937 (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: In November 2022 the European Commission made a non-binding recommendation on the recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease. The Commission did not make a recommendation in relation to Long COVID. Recognition as an occupational disease confers different entitlements in different Member States, with employers paying the compensation in some countries and social insurance systems...

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

Dara Calleary: As part of the “Make Work Pay” iniative persons who moves directly from certain long term Social Protection schemes to employment are entitled to retain their Free Travel entitlement for a further period of 5 years, where they previously had the entitlement to Free Travel on the scheme. Any decision to expand this iniative and allow people with intellectual disabilities and...

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

Dara Calleary: Disability Allowance is my Department's primary disability related social assistance scheme. Disability Allowance is a means-tested payment for people with a disability who are aged between 16 and 66. In order to be eligible, the disability must be expected to last for at least one year. The allowance is also subject to a means test, a medical assessment and a habitual residency requirement....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Assisted Decision-Making (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Employability service is open to all people with disabilities including those recovering from injury or illness, who are eager to enter or return to the workplace and need the support of a Job Coach. It is not restricted to persons in receipt of Social Welfare payments. The service is available to people between the ages of 18 years and 65 years who are recovering from injury or...

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

Dara Calleary: Sectoral interventions for the film and television industry are matters for my colleague, the Minister for Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. The Professional Artist Scheme under Jobseeker’s Allowance provides support for unemployed artists whereby they are exempt from labour market activation for up to 12 months to focus on their profession. The other conditions...

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

Dara Calleary: This government is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people and recognise that they can face significant additional costs in their daily lives. As a result, Budget 2025 brought forward an extensive range of cost of living measures to support people with disabilities. These included cost of living lump sum payments, bonus double payments, increases to the maximum personal rate of...

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

Dara Calleary: The estimated full year cost of increasing all weekly social protection rates by €20 per week is €1,530 million. Please note this costing is subject to change over the coming months in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2025. It should also be noted that this costing includes proportionate increases for...

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

Dara Calleary: Carer’s Benefit is a payment made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person(s) in need of full-time care. The scheme is payable for a period of 2 years (104 weeks) for each care recipient and may be claimed over separate periods up to a total of 2 years (104 weeks). To qualify, the carer must satisfy PRSI...

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

Dara Calleary: Matters relating to Parental Leave and employment rights are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Matters relating to SUSI Grants are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Therefore, queries relating to those issues should be directed to the relevant Ministers. My Department...

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. The ethos of the Hot School Meals Programme is that every child should have access to at least one hot...

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

Dara Calleary: Carer’s Allowance is a statutory, means-tested payment which provides an income support for carers who look after certain people in need of full-time care and attention. The carer must also satisfy a means test and be habitually resident in the State. Processing times vary due to a number of factors. Schemes that require a high level of evidence from the customer, particularly in...

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. In Budget 2025, it was announced that the Hot School Meals will be extended to all remaining primary...

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

Dara Calleary: Farm Assist is a statutory means-tested income support specifically for farmers on low-incomes. A person can qualify for Farm Assist if they are aged 18 to 66, engaged in farming and meet the other statutory scheme conditions. There are specific disregards for children under Farm Assist: €254 is disregarded annually for each of the first two children and €381 for the third and...

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

Dara Calleary: The Fuel Allowance is a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. The payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) is paid from late September to April. One of the conditions for receipt of fuel allowance is that a person must satisfy a means test. Following a means assessment, it was determined on 22 April 2025 that the household means...

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

Dara Calleary: Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. In particular, a number of changes were introduced to means testing which provide for higher income disregards. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, a certain level of income from that work is...