Results 821-840 of 15,365 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (14 May 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. My department provides the funding directly to the schools. All schools who wish to avail of funding...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (14 May 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. This is an overarching term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the customer’s own resources,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 125 and 128 together. This Government recognises the additional costs associated with having a disability and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people. In the Programme for Government, we have committed toIntroduce a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment.Reform the Disability...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: This Government recognises the additional costs associated with having a disability and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people. That is why the Programme for Government has committed to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. My Department is currently examining the best way of delivering an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: This Government recognises the additional costs associated with having a disability and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people. In the Programme for Government, we have committed to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment and, to progressively increase weekly Disability Payments. This will build on progress made over the last number of years,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Ancillary benefits such as the Household Benefits Package, Fuel Allowance, and Free Travel, with a combined budget of over €800 million in 2025, provide significant support to people with disabilities to cover household and transport costs. The Household Benefits package and Fuel Allowance payment provides much needed assistance to qualifying household with their energy costs....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government recognises the additional costs associated with having a disability and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people. In the Programme for Government we have committed toIntroduce a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment.Reform the Disability Allowance Payment and remove anomalies in the current means...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (14 May 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. The Chief Appeals Officer has advised me that this appeal was assigned to an Appeals Officer for consideration on the 9th May...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Contracts (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government does not support the Boycott, Divest and Sanction approach, while fully recognising that individuals and organisations have the right to make their own decisions in this regard. With regard to how my Department procures goods and services, it is my Department’s policy to follow the guidance of the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) and to utilise the procurement...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (14 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: Storm Éowyn was an unprecedented event which brought many challenges to communities. The importance of good community facilities and infrastructure was very clear in the aftermath of the storm, and the value of the investments made in recent years was fully evident. My Department has a comprehensive range of capital investment schemes in place which local authorities and communities...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (13 May 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. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Birth Certificates (13 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Civil Registration Act 2004 sets out the legislation around the registration of births in the State. The information required for the registration of a birth includes the forename or forenames of the child as provided either online or to a local registrar by a parent or another qualified informant. Section 25 of the Act legislates for any subsequent changes or amendments to a forename...

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

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit is a new social insurance income support which has replaced the Jobseeker's Benefit scheme for people who become fully unemployed and whose first day of unemployment is on or after 31 March 2025. Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit means that the income support is directly linked to a person's previous earnings rather than family composition. Prior to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (13 May 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. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (13 May 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. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

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

Dara Calleary: The criteria for Fuel Allowance are in place to direct the limited resources available to my department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance payment aged over 66 a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria including satisfy a means test and the household composition criteria. This ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment goes to those who are more...

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

Dara Calleary: The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme, administered by my department through the local Community Welfare Services (CWS) was activated on Thursday 23 January 2025 to assist householders affected across the country by Storm Éowyn. The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme is operated in 3 stages. Stage 1 of the scheme is to address hardship in the immediate aftermath of a severe weather event...

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

Dara Calleary: The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The legislative basis for implementing the new system was enacted last July. 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 savings. I recently...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Energy Usage (13 May 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection is committed to playing its part in the overall public sector climate targets, namely the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate and the Climate Action Plan 2025, which sets out key targets for energy: - Reduce energy related GHG emissions by 51% by 2030 and - Improve energy efficiency in the public sector by 50% by 2030. At present, the department is on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (13 May 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. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 5 September 2024. It is a condition for receipt of...