Results 481-500 of 16,746 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is committed to working to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities. The Intreo Employment Service (ES) provide a wide range of supports to assist jobseekers, including those with a disability, to find work. Intreo ES also provides recruitment advice and support for employers including information on recruitment and retention incentives. Intreo ES offers...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Wage Subsidy Scheme is a key disability employment support. It aims to encourage employers to offer substantial and sustainable employment to disabled people through a subsidy. Last year, my Department published a review of the Wage Subsidy Scheme. In April 2024, based on the findings of that review, the minimum required hours for the scheme was reduced from 21 hours per week to 15...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 21 September 2018. Following a review, the state pension contributory has been awarded from the date the person concerned reached age 66. Arrears from 21 September 2018 to 15 April 2024 are due to be paid to their bank account on 26 September 2025. The increase for a qualified adult on their spouse's contributory pension is in payment at the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Poverty (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The setting of a new and ambitious Child Poverty Target is a commitment contained in the Programme for Government 2025: Securing Ireland’s Future. This commitment is also set out in the Government’s national strategy to reduce poverty, the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2025-2030. On 10th September last, based on these commitments, and a public consultation process that took...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The data used by my Department in relation to poverty is the official poverty data published annually by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). This is an annual survey of approximately 5,000 households (or approximately 12,000 individuals) carried out by the CSO. The survey collects information on the income and living conditions of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget Process (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Working Family Payment is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings. The Working Family Payment is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependents, and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. The APR and the Summer Economic Statement are published by the Department of Public Expenditure,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Living Alone Increase (LAI) is available to people aged 66 or over receiving a State Pension or other qualifying payments, and to people under 66 who are getting a long-term illness or disability payment. It is included weekly with the primary social welfare payment. There were 241,450 people in receipt of a LAI in 2023, 241,450 in 2024 and 253,737 as of the end of August 2025. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned applied for Disability Allowance on 15th March 2024. Their application was refused on 25th June 2024, on the grounds that the person in question did not satisfy the medical criteria for Disability Allowance. The person concerned submitted an appeal of this decision. Having considered all of the available evidence, the Appeals Officer acknowledged the impact of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government acknowledges the key role that family carers play in Irish society and remains committed to supporting them. Carer's Allowance is the main income support scheme for family carers. Its primary aim is to support those whose earning ability is reduced due to full-time caring responsibilities. It is not and was never intended to be a payment for the provision of care. Like...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The State Pension (Contributory) (SPC) is funded from the Social Insurance Fund through the contributions paid by workers. The rate of payment reflects the number of social insurance contributions paid over a working life. Eligibility for SPC is based on a number of criteria:Being aged 66 or over,Having entered the Social Insurance system 10 years before drawdown of SPC, andHaving a minimum...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Personal Public Service Numbers (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: In recent years, Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSNs) are assigned at birth registration stage for children born in Ireland. Alternatively, a PPSN number can be applied for where a person needs to carry out a transaction with a state body. The person should complete an online application and contact their local Intreo Centre to make an in-person appointment to verify their identity and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: There have been significant improvements made in recent years to the Fuel Allowance Scheme. These improvements have resulted in many more households qualifying for the payment. In 2023, the enhanced Fuel Allowance measures for people aged 70 years and over were introduced. These measures included increased allowable means for those aged over 70 of €500 and €1,000 for a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The scheme operates from June to September each year. The allowance is payable in respect of eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of whom a Child Support Payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The information requested by the Deputy is available in my press release dated 03 July 2025 announcing the significant improvements to the Carer's Allowance means test. All Department of Social Protection press releases are available at www.gov.ie/dsp. I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit becomes payable in respect of newborn babies in the month after their birth, subject to the qualifying conditions. As part of Budget 2025, a new-born baby grant of €280 was introduced. This is paid to families of babies born, or children with a date of placement, on or after 1 December 2024 in addition to their regular first month’s Child Benefit payment of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My department uses off-site storage facilities for the purposes of records management services only. The list below provides the breakdown of expenditure by company for the period 2020 to 2025. In addition to storage, the costs provided in the list below includes other records management services such as file retrievals, collection and delivery, materials and scanning. 2020 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. That is why I was really pleased to announce extending eligibility for the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance to children for whom Foster Care Allowance is being paid. The Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme provides a...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Middle East (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 716 and 717 together. I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department has not purchased or acquired any products or services from Israel or the Occupied Territories in the last two years.

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Data (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Deputy should be aware that a new section, section 10A, was inserted into the Official Languages Act 2003 on the 10 October 2022, with the commencement of relevant provisions of the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021. Under this provision, public bodies are obliged to carry out at least 20% of their annual advertising in Irish and to spend at least 5% of their advertising budgets on...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Irish Language (23 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I can confirm that I did not attend the protest referred to by the Deputy. The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot answer on behalf of other members of Government. A day of protest was organised last weekend by Irish language organisations from across the island, north and south, to highlight a range of issues of concern to Irish speaking and Gaeltacht communities, namely, funding for the...