Results 41-60 of 17,038 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: This issue relates to a group of former workers who left the service of Waterford Crystal between 1990 and 1992 under a redundancy arrangement. At the time of the redundancy, the workers received a refund of their pension contributions relating to their service in the relevant company pension schemes up to that time. As a result, they then ceased to be members of the pension scheme and no...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Poverty (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: Reducing child poverty is a key priority for Government. In line with commitments in the Programme for Government, a new Child Poverty Target was agreed by Government in September, which is to reduce the child consistent poverty rate to 3% or less by 2030. This is an ambitious goal, representing a reduction of of 5.5 percentage points, or nearly 60%, from the current rate of 8.5%. It...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (13 Nov 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. Last year, my Department published a review of the Wage Subsidy Scheme following a public consultation to make the scheme more accessible and flexible for disabled people and their...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: The SAFE registration process is key to proper authentication of a person's identity. It helps to deter and, where attempted, detect fraudulent presentation of identities for the purpose of accessing public services and funds. It also acts to facilitate easier access to services by enabling people to present proof of identity on a 'once and done' basis rather than having to present such...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government commits to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. Our Programme for Government commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government, having regard to the overall policy and budgetary context. Government has been very clear that there would be no once-off measures in this...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Public Services Card (PSC) was provided for in legislation in 1998 when it was introduced alongside the PPS Number (PPSN) to replace the previous Revenue and Social Insurance number (RSI) and the Social Service Card (SSC). The most recent detailed cost benefit analysis, which was completed in 2021, showed at that time and taking account of administrative as well as control savings,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: 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 income. The new system - to be known as My Future Fund - will commence from 1 January 2026. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: As set out in the Programme for Government my Department is committed to ensuring that the State Pension remains the bedrock of pension provision in Ireland for older people. We will continue to strengthen the safety net for our older citizens, improving their quality of life and promoting dignity and independence in later years. At the outset, it is important to reiterate that this...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: Domiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly non-means tested payment to a parent or guardian for a child aged up to 16 who has a severe disability. The child must require care and attention substantially over and above that required by other children their age. Eligibility is not based on the disability or diagnosis, but rather on the impact of the disability in terms of the level of care and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 95 and 143 together. The Government recognises the significant additional costs that disabled people can face in their daily lives and is committed improving outcomes for disabled people by introducing permanent measures. That is why the Programme for Government commits to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's Allowance is the main income support scheme provided by my department for family carers in the community. It is an income support payment for carers and not a payment for caring. It currently supports over 103,000 carers at an estimated cost in 2026 of over €1.4 billion. Weekly social welfare payments are intended to address an income need that arises due to a specified...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 97, 102 and 115 together. Domiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly payment for a child with a severe disability. The payment is not based on the type of disability, it is based on the impact of the disability. Statistics are collated on an overall basis, and are not broken down by first time applications. The total number of claim registered, awarded and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the average number of weeks to award a Disability Allowance claim is consistently 6 weeks which is well inside the average target processing time target for the scheme of 10 week. In October 2025, the average weeks to award for a DCA claim was 8 weeks. The Department continues to work hard to ensure we maintain this good outcome. The Department is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides State Pension payments through the State Pension (Contributory), which is a contributory based payment based on a person's social insurance record and the State Pension (Non-Contributory) which is means-tested social assistance payment. A State pension (contributory) recipient can claim an increase on their pension in respect of a qualified adult where the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget 2026 (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: On Tuesday 7th October, I announced a €1.15 billion package of new social protection measures for Budget 2026. The Government has prioritised a number of targeted permanent measures as part of Budget 2026 to support people seeking employment. These include:An increase of €10 in maximum personal weekly rate of Jobseeker’s Benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance payments...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: In the Programme for Government we have committed to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. We know that addressing the cost of disability is not a question of income support alone. The delivery of and access to services are also key. We need all of the Departments and agencies of Government to work together...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (13 Nov 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 Scheme would be extended to all remaining...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Living Alone Increase is an extra payment for people on social welfare payments who are living alone. The Living Alone Increase is paid at the rate of €22.00 per week. The Household Benefits Package comprises of an Electricity or Gas allowance, and a Free Television Licence. Only one Household Benefits Package is payable per household. The payment is made on a monthly basis at...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: Last month, as part of Budget 2026, I announced a number of measures to support family carers, these include:A Christmas Bonus double payment will be paid in December 2025.From January 2026 there will be a €10 increase in the maximum rate of Carer's Allowance and Carer's Benefit. There will be proportionate increases for people getting a reduced rate. This is the fifth successive rise...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (13 Nov 2025)

Dara Calleary: The microsimulation model, Simulating Welfare, Income Tax, Childcare and Health policies (SWITCH) is produced and managed by the Economic, Social and Research Institute (ESRI), based on data drawn from the Central Statistic Office's Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). While the ESRI provides user access to SWITCH to a number of Government Departments, including the Department of...