Results 281-300 of 14,252 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 507, 508, 519 and 525 together. The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme, administered by my department through the local Community Welfare Service, was activated on the 23rd January 2025 to assist householders across the country affected by Storm Éowyn. Up to Wednesday 26 March, the Community Welfare Service have registered 75,813 claims for Stage 1 of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social Welfare Schemes (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit is a new social insurance income support which replaces the Jobseeker's Benefit scheme for people whose first day of unemployment is on or after 31 March 2025 and who satisfy the statutory conditions for the scheme. Pay-related benefit means that a person's rate of payment will be linked to their previous earnings, subject to maximum and minimum rates....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Care Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides the Domiciliary Care Allowance which is a monthly non-means tested payment to a parent or guardian for a child aged up to 16 who has a severe disability and requires care and attention substantially over and above that required by other children their age. One of the key proposals in the Green Paper on Disability Reform was to extend the upper age limit for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Disability Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, a means test and the habitual residency conditions. I can confirm that the Department received an application for DA from the person...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Inquiries (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Treatment Benefit Scheme provides dental, optical, aural and hair replacement products and services to insured workers, the self-employed, retired people and their dependent spouse/partner who have the required number of social insurance (PRSI) contributions. To qualify, a person needs to have at least 260 PRSI contributions paid at either Class A, E, H, P or S, since first starting...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: In general, medical or health related benefits, including those related to hearing loss and associated conditions, fall within the remit of the Department of Health and the HSE. My Department administers the treatment benefit scheme which provides dental, optical, and medical appliances benefits to insured workers, the self-employed and retired people who have the required number of PRSI...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Records (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The figures provided below for jobseeker claims include all individuals who received at least one jobseeker payment in the particular year. It is important to note that this includes persons who may have been in casual employment while receiving their jobseeker payment. The CSO's Labour Force Survey is the official measure of unemployment in the State. In 2023, a total of 297,511...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Legislative Reviews (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The report of the Review Group for the Gender Recognition Act under section 7 of the Act included, at recommendation 2A, that legal recognition should be made available to people who are non-binary. This recommendation will, in part, be informed by an impact assessment on existing legislation that would arise by providing for a new, non-binary, category of gender. This assessment will...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Gender Recognition (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Gender Recognition Act 2015 sets out the process behind the legal recognition of a change in gender from "male" to "female" or from "female" to "male" genders only. The recognition of a document containing a non-binary marker from another EU state is a matter to be determined by the department, or body, that a person holding such a document interacts with. I trust this clarifies the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Pension Provisions (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The social welfare system is primarily a contingency-based system where entitlement to benefits is based on a number of defined contingencies such as sickness, unemployment, old age or bereavement and having sufficient social insurance contributions over a working lifetime. There are two basic principles which underpin the Irish social insurance system. Firstly, there is the contributory...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Childcare Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: In general, medical or health related benefits, including those relating to eyecare, fall within the remit of the Department of Health and the HSE. My Department administers the treatment benefit scheme which provides dental, optical, and medical appliances benefits to insured workers, the self-employed and retired people. Treatment benefit is an insurance-based scheme which provides...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Care Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is very aware of the key role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. There have been a number of significant improvements made to the income thresholds in the means test in recent years. As part of Budget 2025, the weekly income disregard will increase in July from €450 to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social Welfare Schemes (1 Apr 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 full rate CA has been in payment to the person concerned since 12 January 2017. As part of Budget...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Care Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 25 July 2014. An application for State Pension (contributory) has not been received in my Department. To be eligible for the state pension (contributory), an individual must have at least 520 paid contributions. The records of my Department show the person concerned has 312 paid contributions from 1993/94 to 2013 which falls short of the minimum...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Transport Costs (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my Department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income or other personal and household resources. This can include assistance with transport costs incurred for attending hospital appointments where there are no other supports available. The decision process...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified 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. As a universal payment, Child Benefit assists parents with the cost associated with raising children and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Irish Sign Language (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Between 1 January and 31 December 2024 all videos posted to my Department's social media channels included closed captions. This includes the JobsIreland social media channels as well as those of the Department of Social Protection. Three videos using Irish Sign Language (ISL) were developed in 2024, one promoting the Work and Access programme and two in relation to the ISL voucher scheme....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Disability Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: The State Pension, whether Contributory or Non-Contributory, is paid to those who have reached pensionable age 66. Currently, the maximum weekly personal rate of State Pension (Contributory) is €289.30, some €40 to €45 per week more than those in receipt of a disability payment. My Department commissioned Indecon to research the cost of disability in Ireland; the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Disability Services (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disability Allowance and Blind Pension have been structured to support recipients to avail of opportunities to pursue employment, be that self-employment or insurable employment. When an individual commences employment, an income disregard of €165 per week is applied. In addition, 50% of earnings between €165 and €375 is also disregarded for the purpose of the means...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Reviews (1 Apr 2025)

Dara Calleary: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is payable to a parent / guardian in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and where the level of that disability is such that the child is likely to require this level of care and attention...