Results 241-260 of 16,691 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government 2025 has committed to examining extending the Free Travel scheme to include children benefitting from the Domiciliary Care Allowance. Domiciliary Care Allowance is a non means tested payment payable at €360 a month per child. In addition, all recipients of Domiciliary Care Allowance qualify for the Carer's Support Grant in June of each year. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Matters relating to foster carers, previously foster parents, are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. The State Pension (Contributory) system already provides a range of measures to recognise caring...

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

Dara Calleary: The table below gives the average weeks to award for all main schemes as of July 2025. My Department understands the many pressures faced by customers and always seeks to ensure that claims are handled quickly and efficiently. The Deputy will appreciate how processing times can vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of...

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

Dara Calleary: I understand the Deputy has clarified that his question is in relation to providing entitlement to illness benefit to self-employed contributors. 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The State Pension (Non-Contributory) is a means-tested social assistance payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a State Pension (Contributory), or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record. My Department has over 90 schemes of which a significant number are means-tested schemes,...

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

Dara Calleary: In establishing a person’s entitlement to a social welfare payment, including a working age social welfare payment, each claim is examined in line with the statutory qualifying conditions for the scheme and the information provided by the person in support of their claim. Claim decisions made by the Department’s Deciding Officers and Designated Persons are appealable to the...

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

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of sixteen years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to over 680,000 families in respect of over 1.3 million children. The estimated cost for 2025 is in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Correspondence (30 Sep 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 10 July 2025 for an accident which was alleged to have...

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

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on these payments in 2025 is estimated at over €1.9 billion. The annual Carer's Support Grant is paid automatically to those in receipt of Carer’s...

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

Dara Calleary: The Carer's Benefit payment is made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person in need of full-time care. A person may be eligible providing they meet the qualifying conditions, including whether they have sufficient PRSI contributions. The payment is complemented by the Carers’ Leave Act 2001, which allows...

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

Dara Calleary: The Carer’s Support Grant is an annual payment made to carers who get Carer's Allowance, Carer's Benefit or Domiciliary Care Allowance. It can also be paid to certain other carers providing full-time care. It is paid once each year, usually on the first Thursday in June. Eligible scheme Carer's Support Grant Recipients (June 2025) Carer's...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 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. There are over 1.1 million customers with direct eligibility for Free Travel. As part of Budget 2024, Free Travel was extended to people who are medically certified as unfit to drive. From 29th July 2024, the measure extended access to...

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

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16. You can also receive Child Benefit for children aged 16, 17 and 18 if they are in full-time education or full-time training, or have a disability and cannot support themselves. The scheme was expanded in May 2024 to include children up to the month of their 19th birthday who are in full-time education....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Over 80 allowance is an increase of €10 per week on the basic pension rate, which is automatically awarded to qualified pensioners on attaining 80 years of age. Those aged 80 or over in receipt of the Carer's Allowance will also receive the Over 80 allowance. Only one such allowance is payable in respect of each primary payment. At the end of August 2025, 203,469 people were in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (30 Sep 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 status of the schools for the 2025/26 year stated by the deputy above are as follows: ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Domestic Violence (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The accommodation needs of victims of domestic violence are met through a joined-up service delivery model provided by Tusla with the close involvement of the various housing authorities nationwide. The Rent Supplement scheme is administered by my Department. Access to Rent Supplement can be provided on referral by Tusla or by prescribed Tusla-funded service providers. This provides...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 666 to 668, inclusive, together. The introduction of a pensions auto-enrolment (AE) system is a Programme for Government commitment, and one of my key priorities as Minister for Social Protection. The aim of introducing an AE system is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland, and to help provide for better retirement incomes for workers....

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Social Enterprise Sector (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Trading for Impact, the National Social Enterprise Policy 2024-2027, represents an ambitious step forward in the Government’s ongoing commitment to social enterprise. Building upon the foundation laid by its predecessor, it puts forward a vision designed to help cultivate and sustain strong, impactful social enterprises in Ireland. Minister Buttimer was in attendance for the...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Information and Communications Technology (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department's Information and Communications Technology Managed Desktop and Managed Hosting Service is provided by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation through the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO). My Department's internet service and access to the Government Cloud is provided through Government...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Rural Schemes (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (or the 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. To date, the RRDF has allocated €593 million for 243 projects across Ireland. A 4th Call for Category 2 applications was launched in October 2024....