Results 641-660 of 16,746 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 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 Eligibility (8 Sep 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. I can confirm that two applications for CA were received from the person concerned on 31 July 2025. As part of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (8 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. In order to qualify for Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, an applicant must satisfy a number of qualifying...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Maternity Benefit is paid for 26 weeks to employed and self-employed women who are on Maternity Leave from work and who satisfy certain pay related social insurance (PRSI) contributions. Government has provided over €295 million for the scheme in 2025. Maternity Benefit is payable at the weekly rate of €289 and was increased by €15 from 1 January 2025. If a person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Properties (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection does not own or control any unused properties, lands or buildings in County Kerry. All premises under my Department’s control in County Kerry are in active use for the delivery of public services. Matters relating to the property portfolio for my Department are the responsibility of the Office of Public Works (OPW). With the exception of my...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker's Allowance is a means-tested payment for unemployed people. Among the qualifying conditions for this scheme is that a person must be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work. The estimated revised expenditure for 2025 for Jobseeker's Allowance is approximately €1.78 billion. My Department is not in a position to provide the costing requested by the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1355 and 1356 together. Child Benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to over 660,000 families in respect of approximately 1.3 million...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (8 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. In order to qualify for Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, an applicant must satisfy a number of qualifying...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: As the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), it is not within the remit of my Department to make any decisions surrounding the composition of reference baskets for measures of inflation. According to the CSO, the CPI 'tracks the change in prices of a fixed basket of goods and services that are representative of the spending habits of Irish...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Websites (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department's website - gov.ie/welfare - is hosted on a platform operated and managed by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) on behalf of other Government Departments. I understand that the OGCIO is currently developing chatbot technology for integration with the gov.ie platform. The initiative aims to provide members of the public with accessible, real-time...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing eligibility criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 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. My...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Staff (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: For information security reasons, the Department does not readily provide details of its cyber security capacity, capabilities or technology to interested parties. To place such information in the public domain would be of significant value to threat actors who are constantly carrying out reconnaissance on the Department’s security operations, and would compromise the ability of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Funding (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme is the safety net within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses, such as utility...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: A Bereaved Partner's Contributory Pension can be based on social insurance paid by the applicant or her late spouse. In order to qualify on which ever record is being used must have sufficient social insurance paid prior to date of death, or 66th birthday, whichever comes first. A decision regarding an entitlement to the Bereaved Partner's Contributory Pension can only be made when a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (8 Sep 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 Hot School Meals began as a pilot project in 2019 with some 30 schools. Since then it has expanded...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Personal Insolvency Arrangements (PIAs), which are provided for by the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, are an insolvency solution for people with unsecured and secured debts administered by the Insolvency Service of Ireland. Matters in relation to the Personal Insolvency Act, including any examination of the interaction between PIAs and pension entitlements, fall within the remit of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Money Advice and Budgeting Service (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS), funded by the Citizens Information Board (CIB), a statutory body under the aegis of my Department, is the State’s money advice service and provides assistance to people, in particular those on low income or dependent on social welfare supports, who are over-indebted. As part of its free services, MABS also provides support to those in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Strategies (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS), funded by the Citizens Information Board (CIB), a statutory body under the aegis of my Department, is the State’s money advice service and provides assistance to people, in particular those on low income or dependent on social welfare supports, who are over-indebted. As part of its free services, MABS also provides support to those in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Citizens Information Services (8 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Citizens Information Board (CIB) is the statutory body under the aegis of my Department, that has an independent mandate to provide information, advice and advocacy on a wide range of public services. CIB itself is governed by an independent Board of Directors. The Citizens Information Service (CIS), in turn, comprises of eight regional companies that are funded by CIB to deliver...