Results 321-340 of 15,374 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy for his good wishes. I will once again emphasise that, from July, the income disregards for carers will increase from €450 to €625 and from €900 to €1,250. I am certainly committed to continuing to increase those income disregards in line with the budget. The bereaved partner's legislation will come before the committee before the end of...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: On pensioners living on their own, we have the living alone allowance, which is worth €22 a week. There is also the fuel allowance, which is paid during fuel allowance season. I am very conscious that one person has more expenses than two living together. We continue to keep that under review. At this point, my current priority is to extend hot school meals to every primary...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: We are proceeding with auto-enrolment. The team that is dealing with this is more than happy to come before the committee. It would help to get knowledge about auto-enrolment out there and build the committee's confidence in it. The team is exceptional and I would encourage the committee to bring it before it. Jobseeker's pay-related benefit is where we thought it would be at this...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: There is no timeframe yet. We will learn from jobseeker's pay-related benefit. We will learn the lessons from and get feedback about that. I am focused on making sure jobseeker's pay-related benefit is working the way we want it to and working for recipients. I am happy to share with the committee our work on that towards the end of this year and early next year.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I cannot say. That will depend on the review and the budget.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Regarding school meals, every school makes that call. I met a company earlier this week in my own area. It is a very local company that is supporting local schools. I am very conscious of the burden on school communities regarding managing procurement, etc., and we are trying to make it easy but also to encourage them to use local services. We have some good feedback on meals on wheels...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I agree with the Deputy. We will look at it. I will not give him a guarantee but I hear him and I do not necessarily disagree.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 37 - Social Protection (Revised) (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: It is very much based on our CSO figures. We have all those figures and our own figures from the Social Insurance Fund. We are very lucky in that we have a fantastic team in the Department whose job is to analyse all the statistics and make the demographic projections. They are doing a super job, which is evident in the health of the Social Insurance Fund. It is also relatively evident on...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Gabhaim buíochas arís leis an gCathaoirleach, leis an gcoiste agus leis an gcléireach don chuireadh a thabhairt dom plé a dhéanamh ar na polasaithe agus na tosaíochtaí do mo dhá Roinn le linn an téarma Rialtais seo. Tá áthas orm freisin fáilte a chur roimh ár gcomhghleacaithe ó Sheanad Éireann. We had a very good...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Senator. On the means test abolition, we are working towards that over the lifetime of this Government. As I said in my opening remarks, we will be making a major improvement in two weeks' time. I want to continue that income disregard with a view to phasing it out over the course of, I hope, four budgets and possibly five. We are very committed to doing that. We had our...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I will take the second question first, if that is okay. This is something I am going to look at. I have come across it in our work in the last number of months. I would certainly welcome people's guidance and advice on it, as Deputies, but also as a committee. It is one area where I will definitely try to get people's thoughts.

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: In relation to child poverty generally, first, there is a commitment in the programme for government that we will look at a targeted child benefit payment, and we are doing some preliminary work on that. I would also point out that over the course of 2025 we have increased expenditure on children by up to €115 million, including €72 million to fund the extension of the school...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I would not like to say there is work ongoing but, certainly, based on today's meeting, we will follow it up internally within the Department but also across the Department of education. That is not the intention. The intention was to reduce the burden on parents. I suspect I am with the Deputy on that, and I would prefer a book at any time. It is not the intention to place that cost on...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Senator. She is always good at getting value for her buck. The Senator raised seven issues. I welcome her remarks on carer's allowance. On the disregards from July on, a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €69,000 will retain the maximum figure. That €69,000 figure was €37,000 in June 2022. A carer with an income of...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I appreciate those points. We have increased the amount of support available for the self-employed in terms of pensions and other supports in recent years, but it does depend on the number of stamps that are paid, so we will not see the full benefit of it for a number of years. People must have paid the right stamps. We also addressed the PRSI rate of the self-employed for pensions. In...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank the Deputy. I am totally in agreement with him on that. There is the skill and the experience of the participant and also the extraordinary life experience they bring to the company. The company and its employees win from that person. I have seen that in companies. I acknowledge the former Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Ó Fearghaíl, who introduced the scheme into the...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: We are already well above the average. I will give the Deputy the specifics provided with those subsequently. She set me a challenge about targets and I will work with Department management to set those targets. In the past year, we have appointed 69 disability advisers in Intreo offices across the country. This was previously done at regional level. The view of the Department was it...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Okay.

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I appreciate the position they are in but the key word the Deputy used was "predictable". They know from year to year what is coming. We in the Department need to get a quicker turnaround in terms of payments to them. Jobseeker's pay-related benefit is for people in an unpredictable situation like the one we discussed earlier, where a company has to make redundancies at a late stage. We...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Social Protection Issues: Minister for Social Protection (11 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Part of NAERSA's remit is to ensure we get value for money in line with the normal returns on a pension and to ensure the majority of money people invest goes back into their pensions. From what we are seeing in the procurement process for investment advisers, the fact we are bringing 800,000 people to the table has considerably reduced the costs. If those 800,000 people had gone the...