Results 381-400 of 15,365 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Legislative Measures (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the law as currently enacted, entitlement to a Widows, Widowers or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory pension is only available to a surviving partner who was party to a marriage or civil partnership. On 22nd January 2024, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the entitlement of an unmarried cohabitant to a Widower's Contributory Pension. The Supreme Court...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 875 and 950 together. The Diet Supplement, administered under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, is payable to qualifying persons, in receipt of the supplement prior to February 2014, who have been prescribed a special diet because of a specified medical condition. There are currently 841 people in receipt of Diet Supplement. A review of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Inquiries (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 876 and 877 together. In general, the issue of targeted supports for businesses is a matter for the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. There are no proposals to introduce an employer PRSI rebate for SMEs. Any changes to the PRSI employer rates or threshold would have to be considered in a budgetary context, taking account of the economic...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: This is a matter which is proper to The Courts service. My Department or the General Register Office does not hold information on the granting of divorces. I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (10 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. Illness benefit is the primary income support provided by my Department to those who cannot work in the short term due to illness of any kind and is funded by the Social Insurance Fund, through the payment of Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions. Subject to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 880, 881, 892 and 897 together. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The aim of introducing AE is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland and to provide workers with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement savings. The new system will...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Carer’s Support Grant is an annual payment made to carers who get Carer's Allowance, Carer's Benefit or Domiciliary Care Allowance. It can also be paid to certain other carers providing full-time care. The Carer's Support Grant was paid to 136,763 carers in June 2025, at a rate of €2,000 per person that is being cared for. A breakdown by county is provided in Table 1...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Maternity Leave (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides Maternity Benefit to support women who are on Maternity Leave from work and who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions. It is currently paid at a minimum €289 per week for 26 weeks. Many employers provide additional top-ups to individuals on maternity leave as part of contractual arrangements. An employee’s contract of employment will outline...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel scheme is available to people over 66 years and to people in receipt of certain social welfare payments who are under 66 years. From 29th July 2024, Free Travel is also available to persons from age 17 to 66 who are medically certified as unfit to drive for a period of at least 12 months. Free Travel recipients must be permanently resident in the State. The scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 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 Benefits (10 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. Means are any income belonging to the carer and their spouse/civil partner/cohabitant including property (except...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 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 25 July 2024. It is a condition for receipt of CA...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Carer's Allowance is the main scheme by which my department provides income support to carers in the community. There are currently 101,426 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance. Expenditure in 2025 is estimated to be over €1.24 billion. Carer’s Allowance aims to provide income support to those whose earning ability is greatly impacted by their caring responsibilities,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department does not have a scheme to fund the purchase of bottled water due to consistent boil water notices for homes as this is a matter for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Uisce Éireann. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides funding to maintain and improve our water supply infrastructure, such as pipes, filtration and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: It is my understanding that the Department of Education, under an arrangement with the Revenue Commissioners in 2015, placed home tutors on a payroll system to facilitate the payment of PAYE/PRSI/USC in a convenient manner, even though they continued to be regarded as self-employed. Scope Section has examined the status of individual home tutors on a number of occasions previously and has...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: PRSI is a compulsory contributions based system where an employed or a self-employed contributor pays contributions into the Social Insurance Fund and gains entitlement to benefits based on those contributions. PRSI is charged on an individual basis where each person builds up their insurance record and, hence, their entitlement to benefits over time. However, there are certain schemes,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The legislative provisions for the Half-rate Carer's Allowance payment came into effect on and from Thursday 27 September 2007. The scheme was provided for in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 which was signed by the President on 30 March 2007. At the time of the passage of the Bill through the Oireachtas, the late Seamus Brennan TD was Minister for Social and Family Affairs. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. There is a nutritional standard in place for the School Meals Programme since it’s inception....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My department has established an interdepartmental working group, which includes the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the Department of Children, Equality and Disability, to oversee and make recommendations on the operation of the scheme, including nutrition inspection and evaluation. This is a standing group which will make...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (10 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: There is a nutritional standard in place for the School Meals Programme since it’s inception. A specific standard was set for School Meals under the Nutritional Standards for School Meals and Nutritional Standards for Hot School Meals. A technical Nutrition Sub Group comprised of Dietitians from the following organisations was involved in developing these standards: The Irish...