Results 841-860 of 14,252 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 26 March 2018. A State Pension (contributory) was awarded from the 26 March 2018. According to the records of my Department, the person concerned has a total of 1,366 reckonable paid contributions and 211 credited contributions from 1968 to 2018. This equates to a yearly average of 32 which gives entitlement to a state pension contributory at a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: Awaiting reply from Department

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: Awaiting reply from Department

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is very aware of the key role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face. The Programme for Government has set out a timeline which commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. I trust that this clarifies the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Projects (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: This is a matter which does not fall within the remit of my Department and I would encourage the Deputy to engage directly with Cork County Council in respect of the issue referred to. Once the project is a position to proceed, funding may be available through the range of rural development schemes operated by my Department.

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Cliffs of Moher trail has been on my Department's Walks Scheme since December 2010. Under that scheme, participants receive a modest payment to maintain the section of the trail that crosses their land. Since 2020, funding of over €132,000 has been paid to the landholders along the trail. In that time, funding of €1.146 million has been allocated for 6 projects on the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (27 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS) provides funding for the development and enhancement of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways, water-based recreation sites and mountain trails. Under the ORIS 2021 scheme, Wicklow County Council was approved funding of €198,000 to protect a section of eroded coastline along the Greystones to Bray...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (26 Feb 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 from other personal and household resources. Entitlement only arises where a person can demonstrate that the expenditure is essential and that they have no means of funding the expenditure themselves. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 188 and 195 together. 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (26 Feb 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. The reporting of the scheme was revised in 2022 to extract more complete information. Statistics on the number of disallowed claims are not available for 2019. Table 1 shows the number of Additional Needs...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make Additional Needs Payments (ANPs) to help meet expenses that an eligible person cannot pay from their weekly income. The ANP scheme is demand led and administered by Designated Persons (DPs) in the Community Welfare Service (CWS), taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Contracts (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: I have asked my officials if there are any contracts with the company concerned. The Department will respond to the Deputy directly.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Sector Pensions (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: My officials advise me that they have been unable to obtain clarification from the Deputy’s office on the specific individual issue raised in the question. Therefore, it is being taken that the query relates to the qualifying criteria for the state pension (contributory) under PRSI class B. Social insurance contributions are made in accordance with the legislation and the employment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: Customer in receipt of certain means tested payments, for example Jobseeker’s Allowance, Disability Allowance, Working Family Payment are required to declare to the Department any income from employment or self-employment as it may affect their entitlement or continued entitlement to a scheme payment. Social Welfare Inspectors are appointed by the Minister under Section 250(1) of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is very aware of the key role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. The Programme for Government has set out a timeline which commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: Illness benefit is the primary short term income support provided by my Department to those who are unable to work due to illness of any type and who are covered by social insurance. Eligibility for illness benefit depends on the person’s PRSI record and class. The person must have made the required number of contributions under class A, E, H or P to qualify. In general,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (26 Feb 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 has engaged with a number of schools that have been unable to secure a hot meals...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Feb 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 following table is a breakdown of the average processing times for Invalidity Pension appeals in the past three...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (26 Feb 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. Table 1 shows the number of Additional Needs Payments paid by county from 2022-2024. Any person who...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Welfare Services (26 Feb 2025)

Dara Calleary: The delivery of vital locally based Community Welfare Services to meet the challenges and the needs of citizens across the country is a priority for me and for my Department. The Community Welfare Service (CWS) provides a flexible service to meet the different needs of clients, who may find themselves in a financially difficult or vulnerable situation. It is a priority that this service is...