Results 721-740 of 16,691 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Blind Pension is a means-tested payment for people aged 18 years to 66 years who are visually impaired and are habitually residing in the State. Therefore, all income, including pensions, capital, property (excluding a person’s own home) is assessable as means. If a person is married or cohabiting with another person, then each person will be assessed with half of the joint means. A...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Correspondence (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: In instances, such as this one, where a representation is made on behalf of a Deputy, the response is issued directly to the Deputy. This response was delivered to Leinster House on 9 July 2025. This will also be issued by email to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: As Minister for Social Protection, I am fully committed to making the case for a fair budget that protects the people most in need in our society - particularly families on low incomes and those people, including pensioners and carers who are dependent on social welfare payments. As part of Budget 2025, a €2.6 billion Social Protection package was secured. This was, for the third...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The One-Parent Family Payment is a payment for lone parents whose youngest child is under 7 years old. The Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment is a special arrangement under the Jobseeker’s Allowance scheme for lone parents whose youngest child is between 7 and 13 years of age inclusive. Both schemes are means tested social assistance payments. These schemes include earnings...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Primary weekly social welfare payments are intended to enable recipients to meet their basic day-to-day income needs. In addition to these primary payments, my Department also provides a range of other payments on a weekly, monthly, or less frequent basis. These payments are considered secondary in nature and cannot be made available to those who are not in receipt of a primary payment.The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: As Minister for Social Protection, I am fully committed to making the case for a fair budget that protects the people most in need in our society - particularly families on low incomes and those people, including pensioners and carers who are dependent on social welfare payments. As part of Budget 2025, a €2.6 billion Social Protection package was secured. This was, for the third...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Grant Payments (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Details of all scheme expenditure can be obtained from the Department's audited financial statements for both Vote 37 Appropriation Account and the Social Insurance Fund. The audited financial statements for Vote 37 are available under the Publications section of the Comptroller & Auditor General's website at www.audit.gov.ie/. The audited financial statements for the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur for a number of reasons, including through error on the part of either the customer or the Department or where a person has provided false or misleading information. Persons who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The number of Jobseeker's Allowance and Jobseeker's Benefit claims where the employment immediately prior to the claim commencement was in Sector A - Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (based on NACE Rev 2.1) are set out in the table below. Year Recipients June 2016 506 June 2017 485 June 2018 460 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (29 Jul 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 will be extended to all remaining...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from the impact of energy costs through a combination of financial supports, energy efficiency awareness initiatives, and investment in programmes to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock.The Programme for Government includes a commitment to examine improvements to key ancillary benefits such as the Fuel Allowance,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government 2025 has committed to expanding the Fuel Allowance scheme to include those in receipt of the Working Family Payment. The extension of Fuel Allowance to those in receipt of the Working Family Payment, along with other potential budget measures, will have to be considered in the context of the budgetary resources available.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1766 and 1846 together. The Programme for Government commits to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. We have also made commitments in relation to the rate of the Disability Allowance payment. Introducing a €55 weekly cost of disability payment to all recipients these...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office 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. Appeals where customers may not have recourse to Supplementary Welfare Allowance or are particularly vulnerable are currently...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly allowance payable to a parent or 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The information requested by the Deputy regarding reviews of customers over 80 years of age is not readily available. The system used to record control reviews, of which there are over 650,000 annually, only uses the PPSN, and scheme type as the unique identifiers. Details regarding, name, date of birth, or address of customers are not recorded on the control review system. Reviews of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Finance Act 2023 introduced the Mortgage Interest Tax Credit. Those who applied for and did not qualify for the Mortgage Interest Tax Credit 2023 from Revenue, due to an insufficient tax liability, but who did satisfy all other conditions could apply to my department to be considered for the Homeowners Once-Off Payment 2024 in respect of 2023. Sixty-one claims for the Homeowners...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: In Budget 2024, the Government announced a new temporary mortgage interest tax credit (MITC) available through Revenue. This MITC initially applied to the 2023 tax year, however, it was extended to include the 2024 tax year. The Homeowner's Once-Off Payment was a separate payment, administered by the Department of Social Protection. A person may have been eligible for support through this...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (29 Jul 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. The data requested by the Deputy regarding the estimated timeframe for the completion of review of applications for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Jul 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...