Results 741-760 of 16,691 for speaker:Dara Calleary

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

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1774 and 1887 together. At end of December 2024, there were 18,316 people aged 66 and over in receipt of a Half-rate Carer’s Allowance payment, these include Qualified Adults. The estimated additional annual cost of providing a full rate Carer’s Allowance to those pensioners currently in receipt of the half-rate payment would be...

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

Dara Calleary: My Department provides two main payment method options for its customers: cash collection at a post office (Electronic Information Transfer (EIT)) or the transfer of funds directly into a customer’s account in a financial institution (Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)). On the 8th and 15th of July, officials in my Department became aware of a delay to payments issuing to customers...

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

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1776 and 1881 together. Income disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, their income from work - up to the level of the income disregard - is not assessed in the means test. As part of Budget 2025, the Carer's Allowance disregard was further increased to €625 for a single person, and...

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

Dara Calleary: Seasonal workers who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the summer months can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. A jobseeker’s payment is paid for days of unemployment that the person is not being remunerated for by their employer, including receipt of any holiday pay entitlement during the temporary lay off period. The person applying must...

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

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2025 was enacted on 21 July 2025. The provisions of the Act commenced from that date. I am very pleased that as a result of this landmark legislation that surviving qualified cohabitants can now access the Bereaved Partner's (Contributory) Pension, the Bereaved Partner's (Contributory) Pension under the...

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

Dara Calleary: The legislation providing for the Habitual Residence Condition is contained in Section 246 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Action 2005 (as amended). Habitual residence is a condition that must be satisfied in order to qualify for certain social welfare payments and applies to everyone, irrespective of nationality. Under the relevant legislative provisions, a person must be regarded...

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

Dara Calleary: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence, has decided to disallow the appeal of the person concerned by way of a summary decision as the assessed means exceed the limit to qualify for any payment of this pension. The person concerned will be notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision in the coming...

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

Dara Calleary: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income or other personal and household resources. These payments are available through our Community Welfare Officers. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account...

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

Dara Calleary: The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) Food and Basic Material Assistance programme in Ireland is a continuation of the EU Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) programme which ended in Ireland in 2022. This supports EU countries’ actions to provide material assistance (including food and clothing) to the most deprived. The ESF+ Managing Authority is the Department of...

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: Departmental Consultations (29 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I was delighted to attend my first pre-budget forum on 17th July last. It is an excellent event where NGOs, employer and employee representative groups attended to discuss their priorities for the forthcoming social protection Budget. It is an outreach event that my Department have organised for over 20 years. The organisations invited cover as wide a representation as possible - for...

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government includes a commitment to ‘Ensure Parents who are aged 66+ and caring for children with lifelong disabilities retain the rate at which they are paid their Carer’s Allowance and concurrently receive the State Pension’. This commitment will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government in the annual budgetary context and in light of available...

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

Dara Calleary: Matters relating to foster care, including any indexing linking of foster carers allowance, are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. The State Pension (Contributory) system already provides a range of...

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

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1794 to 1796, inclusive, together. The question at issue in the appeal referenced is whether the worker has been working for the appellant company under a contract of service or under a contract for services during the period concerned. The worker sought a determination on his employment status on 8 May 2020. The Scope section of my Department...

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

Dara Calleary: Firstly, I hope the Deputy will appreciate that I am unable to comment or intervene in relation to issues specific to an individual pension scheme. The concept of mandatory preservation of pension benefits was only introduced when the Pensions Act 1990 (“1990 Act”) was enacted. Prior to the introduction of the 1990 Act, a person with a number of years’ service could,...

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

Dara Calleary: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence, has decided to allow the appeal of the person concerned by way of a summary decision. The person concerned will be notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision in the coming days.

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

Dara Calleary: The provision of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in workplaces to assist in the prevention of sudden cardiac death is an important aspect of modern occupational first aid. Currently, almost all Intreo offices have a defibrillator in the building. My Department's Facilities Management Unit are currently progressing a tender for the supply, upgrade and maintenance of...

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

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1800 and 1801 together. 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 by...

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

Dara Calleary: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence, has decided to allow the appeal of the person concerned by way of a summary decision. The person concerned will be notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision in the coming days.

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

Dara Calleary: My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all customers, ensuring that claims are processed as quickly as possible and that backlogs are kept to a minimum. Processing times for new applications vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of...