Results 221-240 of 15,366 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit is a payment for people whose first day of unemployment is on or after 31 March 2025 and who have sufficient pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contributions. An individual's rate of payment is directly linked to their previous earnings subject to a maximum or minimum rate. If they have 5 or more years of contributions, their payment will be 60% of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Foster carers play an essential role in our care system, and I am committed to supporting them.A key role for my department is to provide income support to families with children in the State. Where a child is being cared for by someone other than their parents, the person looking after the child may apply for a guardian's payment.Guardian’s payment (contributory) and Guardian's...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is paid in respect of almost 1.3 million children. As a universal payment, Child Benefit assists parents with the cost associated with raising children and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The number of people who have availed of Parent’s Benefit in each of the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 is set out in the table below, along with breakdown by gender: Year Parent's Benefit Claims Awarded Female Male 2022 60,178 39,751 20,427 2023 62,883 40,135 22,748 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 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. The person must have made the required number of contributions under class A, E, H or P to qualify. In general, self-employed...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Means test rules in my Department are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes were made in recent years including: Increase in the Carer's Allowance income disregard to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple from July 2025. The amount disregarded when you sell your home to move into care increased to €337,500 from January 2025 for those...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks, a total of €924 each year, available from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €400 million in 2025. The duration of the scheme is designed to coincide with the coldest periods of the year, and it is for this reason the scheme runs from September to April annually. The coldest period of the year is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: People who are employed in schools may receive income support from my department during unpaid holiday periods, through the social insurance based Jobseeker’s Benefit scheme, or the means tested Jobseeker's Allowance scheme, depending on individual circumstances. There is a general principle of one person, one payment, which applies across the social welfare system. Given the nature...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Domiciliary Care Allowance is a non-means-tested payment of €360 per month to a parent or guardian for a child aged up to 16 who has a severe disability. The child must require care and attention substantially over and above that required by other children their age. Applications for DCA are decided by a Deciding Officer on an individual case by case basis, based on the details...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government sets out a timeline which commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. There have been a number of significant changes made to the Carer’s Allowance means test in recent years. Next month, there will be a further...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Tús is a community work placement initiative which aims to provide short-term work opportunities for those unemployed customers. The focus of Tús is on jobseekers that are unemployed for twelve months or more, and the targeted activation of this cohort aims to provide additional assistance and a renewed impetus to these jobseekers who could otherwise be in danger of falling into...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (19 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 School Meals programme has grown from a small pilot of 30 schools to a nationwide programme...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Educational Sector Workers (ESWs), including School 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disablement Benefit is a compensatory payment for persons who have suffered a loss of faculty due to injury arising out of and in their insurable employment. All qualifying criteria for disablement benefit must be satisfied before entitlement to payment can be established. The person concerned applied for disablement benefit on 26 October 2023 for an accident which was alleged to have...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy with the ambitious aim of reducing consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive member states in the EU. The Roadmap was published in January 2020 and contains seven high level goals, with 81 commitments. Progress towards achieving the aims of the Roadmap are...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Inclusion Forum was established by Government in 2002, as part of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy institutional structures, and has continued to be part of the monitoring and evaluation structure of successive strategies, including the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025. The aim of the Forum is to give people who are directly affected by poverty and social exclusion, and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy with the ambitious aim of reducing consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive member states in the EU. The Roadmap was published in January 2020 and contains seven high level goals, with 81 commitments. Goal four of the Roadmap is "Supporting Families and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy with the ambitious aim of reducing consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive member states in the EU. The Roadmap was published in January 2020 and contains seven high level goals, with 81 commitments. Goal three of the Roadmap is "Supporting Older People."...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy with the ambitious aim of reducing consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive member states in the EU. The Roadmap was published in January 2020 and contains seven high level goals, with 81 commitments. Implementation of Roadmap commitments is well underway...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (19 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Carer's Support Grant (CSG) is an annual payment for carers who look after a person in need of full-time care and attention. My Department received an application for CSG from the person concerned on 14 May 2025. I can confirm that the person has been awarded the CSG payment for the years 2024 and 2025. Payment of €1,850 for the year 2024 and €2,000 for the year 2025...