Results 281-300 of 15,374 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. These include contributory payments, based on PRSI contributions, such as Illness Benefit and Invalidity Pension, and non-contributory payments, based on a means test, such as Disability Allowance. Entitlement to these supports is contingent on the extent to which a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Contracts (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department did not award any contracts to Communications and PR Firms in 2024. Details relating to the bodies under the aegis of the Department are listed below CIB Contractor Name Contract Purpose Contract Award Date Total Expenditure 2024 Murray Consultants Public Relations and Communications Services 04 January...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides income supports for people who are unemployed. As I outlined in my previous response, 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 associated with Jobseeker’s Allowance,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Capital (savings and investments) and the value of property owned, but not personally used or enjoyed, are assessed as means in means assessments. Where capital or property is assessed on this basis, any income received from its use (for example interest on savings, dividends from shares, rent from property let) is not assessed as cash income. In general, the formula used to assess the weekly...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned is in receipt of Jobseekers Pay Related Benefit (JPRB) from the 28/04/2025 at a rate of €136.90 per week. JPRB is payable in this case at €136.90 for the first 13 weeks of their claim , €125.50 for the next 13 weeks and €125.00 for the remaining 13 weeks. A decision letter was sent to the person concerned on 28/05/2025.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's allowance (CA) 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. There have been a number of significant improvements made to the means test for CA in recent years. As part of Budget...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Judicial Reviews (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Below is a table of the number of judicial review cases taken against the Department or Minister for Social Protection: Year Number of judicial review cases Year Number of judicial review cases taken against the Department or Minister for Social Protection 2025 (to date) 10 2024 54 ...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Inquiries (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: A key focus of Our Rural Future - the Government's Rural Development Policy 2021 to 2025 - is to optimise digital connectivity to support vibrant, sustainable rural communities, ensuring equality of access to digital services. Our Rural Future committed to the establishment of a network of 400 remote working hubs across the country over the lifetime of the policy. Connectedhubs.ie was...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Data (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) has provided in excess of €109 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres. Over €45.8 million was approved for some 861 community centres nationwide under CCIF 2022. In early 2024, funding of over €30 million was approved for the construction of 12...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Rural Regeneration (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (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. Calls for applications under are sought under two categories, Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 relates to larger scale ambitious capital projects with all necessary...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Websites (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht's website is hosted by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) as part of the gov.ie central website for government services and information, and analytics are provided to the Department as part of that service. I have set out in the following table details in relation to the 1,222 visits, generated by...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Contracts (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: In general my Department’s communications work is delivered in-house and with external communications and/or PR inputs only utilised where external specialist expertise is required. With that in mind, there were only two contracts awarded by my Department for communications/PR work with costs in 2024. Both of these related to capacity and awareness raising for the community and...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Community Development Projects (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) has provided in excess of €109 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres. Over €45.8 million was approved for some 861 community centres nationwide under CCIF 2022. In early 2024, funding of over €30 million was approved for the construction of...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Judicial Reviews (17 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department was established in July 2017 and has defended two judicial review cases for matters currently under its remit. The requested details are provided in the table below, and I can confirm that there are no open or pending cases at this time. Year Initiated Cases Defended Cases Lost Cases Withdrawn Cases Settled 2022 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance (12 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: It is assumed that the Deputy's query in relation to “share buy back “ refers to share-based remuneration for employees. There is no employer PRSI liability on such remuneration, only employee PRSI liability. In 2024, the Department of Finance commissioned an independent review, carried out by Indecon Economic Consultants, of the taxation framework for share-based...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (12 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection has not recently been renamed or rebranded.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (12 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 Appeals (12 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's allowance (CA) 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. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 11 February 2025. It is a condition for receipt of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (12 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's Allowance (CA) 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. I can confirm that my Department received an application for CA from the person concerned on 20 March 2024. As a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (12 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Fuel Allowance is a means tested payment to help with the cost of heating a home during the winter months, payable to people who either live alone or only with certain other qualified people. To date, my Department has not received an application for Fuel Allowance from the person concerned. It is open to the person to apply for Fuel Allowance by completing a NFS1 application form. An...