Results 321-340 of 16,746 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...

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...

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

Dara Calleary: My Department provides the fish assist support, which is available to self-employed fishers on a low income under the means-tested jobseeker's allowance scheme. It is based on the conditions and rate of payment under the farm assist scheme. The fish assist scheme provides favourable treatment to self-employed fishers compared with other self-employed workers through additional income...

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

Dara Calleary: I was surprised at the low numbers on the scheme myself. I have asked my officials to interrogate those numbers and to make sure there is awareness of the fish assist scheme in the communities where fishers are based. We will work on such an awareness programme. I will revert to the Deputy with regard to the provisions on seaweed, which he has discussed with me previously. We have a range...

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

Dara Calleary: We will certainly engage with the Deputy on that. One of the difficulties in relation to seaweed harvesting is that it continues to be a very informal part of the economy meaning it is very difficult to get statistics and measurements we can stand over as regards those participating in it and earning from it, supply chains and so on. We have looked at it. I have followed up with my...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: We have a range of supports available. I am happy to consider the proposal made by Deputy Timmins, but we must also ensure the State pension system is sustainable. The demographics of our country are changing very much as we speak. At present, we have four workers for every person over the age of 66. By the time we get to 2050, however, which is not that far away, this figure will be down...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government acknowledges the very important role that foster carers play. We remain fully committed to supporting them. The contributory State pension system already provides a range of measures to recognise caring periods outside of paid employment, such as PRSI credits, homemaking disregards and home caring periods, to recognise caring periods of up to 20 years outside of paid...