Results 261-280 of 16,691 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Community Development Projects (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) has provided approximately €110 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres. I am committed to delivering further iterations of the scheme in the coming years in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government for this to become a permanent rolling...

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

Dara Calleary: The deputy will be aware that the Údarás na Gaeltachta (Amendment) Bill, 2024 passed Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann before the summer recess. The main purpose of this Bill is to reintroduce elections to the board of Údarás na Gaeltachta. However, in order to support the provision of housing in Gaeltacht areas, the Bill contains a provision to allow an...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Údarás na Gaeltachta (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The deputy will be aware that the Údarás na Gaeltachta (Amendment) Bill, 2024 passed Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann before the summer recess. The main purpose of this Bill is to reintroduce elections to the board of Údarás na Gaeltachta. However, in order to support the provision of housing in Gaeltacht areas, the Bill contains a provision to allow an...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Community Development Projects (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department supports playgrounds and other community facilities that are not privately owned and are widely available for free for community use. This includes support through the CLÁR Programme, LEADER, the Local Enhancement Programme and the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. Measure 1 of the CLÁR programme provides funding for community recreation facilities and amenities,...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Budget 2026 (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Deputy should be aware that baseline funding from my Department for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht has more than doubled over the past five years. 2026 financial allocations for each Government department, including my own, will be agreed as part of the Estimates Process, negotiations in respect of which are currently underway. I can assure the Deputy that I will be doing my...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Community Development Projects (30 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) has provided approximately €110 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres. I am committed to delivering further iterations of the scheme in the coming years in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government for this to become a permanent rolling...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: As I said in my main response, farm assist is a flexible payment as compared to, for instance, jobseeker's allowance, and there are better supports available to those on farm assist. That flexibility is built-in, as I said. Self-employed income, under jobseeker's allowance, is assessed at 100%. Under farm assist, that is 70%. Child disregards apply under farm assist which do not apply to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Code (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for the question. As we discussed offline yesterday, it would be good to start a conversation in this space and it might be something that the social protection committee could look at. Child benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Code (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Absolutely. It is definitely worth an engagement and an analysis. My Department would be more than happy to engage in a conversation around the international experience and the international data, but also engage with the organisations in this space for their expertise on that. Certainly, the Department officials will engage. I look forward to seeing that engagement and I will work with...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Absolutely, it is. Under the national human rights strategy for disabled people, one of our jobs is to lead a strategic focus network from within the Department. The network will include people with disabilities and their advocates. I have asked the officials to expedite the establishment of that group, and one of the areas we will be looking at is the cost of disability payment. I intend...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The wage subsidy scheme is a key disability employment support provided by my Department. It aims to encourage employers to offer substantial and sustainable employment to disabled people through a subsidy. As the Deputy knows, the employee must work at least 15 hours per week for the employer to qualify for the scheme. The subsidy is payable for a maximum of 39 hours per week. The base...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: We are working through all the recommendations and the review with a view to implementing them. One of the key recommendations was to ensure we can keep the minimum required hours and the subsidy under more regular review than was done previously. This is something we are absolutely going to make sure happens. We are also working with our colleagues in Intreo to ensure services and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Aontaím leis an Teachta go gcaithfimid an obair ag chur dínn agus an focal a chur amach. We did that this year through the summer after we relaunched the wage subsidy. We promoted it considerably and used targeted promotion to employers to encourage them to take on persons with disabilities and look at the opportunities that would bring to their businesses. In relation to the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a number of supports for small-scale farmers in the circumstances outlined by Deputy Roche. Farm assist is the statutory income support specifically for farmers on low incomes. A person can qualify for farm assist if he or she is aged from 18 to 66, engaged in farming and meets the other statutory scheme conditions of the scheme. The farm assist scheme is similar to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Staff (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Not for the first time, the Deputy has inaccurately represented what I have said. I did not say that we are outsourcing this to the High Court or we are leaving it to the High Court to sort this out. I said it is not my role to get involved in a case that is before the High Court. Let me be very clear on that. I did not outsource it to anybody. Were I to get involved in a case before the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Staff (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: We discussed this earlier. The Deputy's concern is with An Post. We do not have any information, and I have gone through the reasons why we in the Department do not possess the information the Deputy is seeking. On Scope, I will engage with it on its decision-making in this space and provide the Deputy with further information on that. It is not just a question of an easy change in the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Staff (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: As I said, I do not want anybody to lose out or not get the pension to which he or she is entitled. The details provided in the Deputy's question today are not as detailed as those provided previously. I will ask my officials to engage with Deputy's office later today in order to give him the information we have and can share with him. I again make the point that we do not have very...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Supporting disabled people is a key priority for me and for the Government. That is why the programme for Government contains a range of measures to support disabled people. One of these commitments was the publication of a new disability strategy. I am very pleased that we recently published the national human rights strategy for disabled people. This strategy sets out a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: As the Deputy said, we are examining the whole area of means testing. It is important that our supports are targeted and go to those who need them most in terms addressing people in poverty. The work is ongoing on that, in particular as regards the disability allowance. We have been tasked within the human rights strategy on disability to look at this issue. We have set up a network to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Deputy O'Reilly is spot-on regarding waste. I get that feedback all the time. A five-year-old should not be getting the same portion as a 14-year-old. That is something I am going to engage with the dietitian on. The procurement of school meals is done through the Department of education. We have a school meals working group and I have asked it to look at the whole area of waste. The...