Results 441-460 of 15,365 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: This government is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people and recognise that they can face significant additional costs in their daily lives. As a result, Budget 2025 brought forward an extensive range of cost of living measures to support people with disabilities. These included cost of living lump sum payments, bonus double payments, increases to the maximum personal rate of...

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

Dara Calleary: The estimated full year cost of increasing all weekly social protection rates by €20 per week is €1,530 million. Please note this costing is subject to change over the coming months in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2025. It should also be noted that this costing includes proportionate increases for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (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...

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

Dara Calleary: Carer’s Benefit is a payment made to insured people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person(s) in need of full-time care. The scheme is payable for a period of 2 years (104 weeks) for each care recipient and may be claimed over separate periods up to a total of 2 years (104 weeks). To qualify, the carer must satisfy PRSI...

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

Dara Calleary: Matters relating to Parental Leave and employment rights are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Matters relating to SUSI Grants are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Therefore, queries relating to those issues should be directed to the relevant Ministers. My Department...

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. The ethos of the Hot School Meals Programme is that every child should have access to at least one hot...

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

Dara Calleary: Carer’s Allowance is a statutory, means-tested payment which provides an income support for carers who look after certain people in need of full-time care and attention. The carer must also satisfy a means test and be habitually resident in the State. Processing times vary due to a number of factors. Schemes that require a high level of evidence from the customer, particularly in...

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. In Budget 2025, it was announced that the Hot School Meals will be extended to all remaining primary...

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

Dara Calleary: Farm Assist is a statutory means-tested income support specifically for farmers on low-incomes. A person can qualify for Farm Assist if they are aged 18 to 66, engaged in farming and meet the other statutory scheme conditions. There are specific disregards for children under Farm Assist: €254 is disregarded annually for each of the first two children and €381 for the third and...

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

Dara Calleary: The Fuel Allowance is a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. The payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) is paid from late September to April. One of the conditions for receipt of fuel allowance is that a person must satisfy a means test. Following a means assessment, it was determined on 22 April 2025 that the household means...

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The legislative basis for implementing the new system was enacted last July. 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. I recently...

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

Dara Calleary: Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. In particular, a number of changes were introduced to means testing which provide for higher income disregards. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, a certain level of income from that work is...

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

Dara Calleary: The Department of Children, Equality and Disability has legal and policy responsibility for Parent’s Leave; the Department of Social Protection has responsibility for the associated benefit. My Department maintains data on individuals who have applied for and subsequently qualified for Parent's Benefit; it does not maintain data on the number of weeks of leave taken by those parents,...

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

Dara Calleary: The Department of Children, Equality and Disability has legal and policy responsibility for Parent’s Leave. The Department of Social Protection has responsibility for the associated benefit. The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 is in line with Directive (EU) 2019/1158 Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers. It aims to promote gender equality in the workplace and in caring...

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

Dara Calleary: The Comprehensive Employment Strategy set out a number of actions for my Department. They included measures around early intervention, employment activation, and reform of employment supports, such as the Wage Subsidy Scheme. In recent years, my Department has introduced and reformed a number of supports to implement these recommendations and promote employment opportunities to people with...

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

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

Dara Calleary: Paternity Benefit is a payment for employed and self-employed people who are on Paternity Leave from work who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions. It is currently paid for two weeks at €289 per week. Any decision to extend the period of Paternity Leave for employees is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Children, Disability, and Equality who has policy and legal...

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

Dara Calleary: The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks, a total of €924 each year, available from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €400 million in 2025. At the end of March 2025, 415,690 households were in receipt of the Fuel Allowance payment. Based on similar numbers of households qualifying for the Fuel Allowance Payment during the 2025/26...

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

Dara Calleary: The estimated annual cost of extending Fuel Allowance eligibility to all Working Family Payment recipients is €39.7 million, covering a full fuel season. This costing is based on the estimated average number of recipients in 2025, and is subject to change in light of emerging trends and subsequent revision of the estimated number of recipients.

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

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing social welfare schemes by €1. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and the associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. It should also be noted that these costings include proportionate increases for qualified adults and for those on reduced...