Results 81-100 of 15,364 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: State Pension (contributory) payments issue weekly on a Friday to those who opt to have their pension paid to a post office; to an Irish account in a financial institution; or by cheque posted to an Irish residence. For those who opt to get paid to a foreign account in a financial institution or by cheque to a foreign address, these payments issue every four weeks on a standard schedule. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (24 Jun 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. The Chief Appeals Officer has put in place measures to deal with the increase in appeals received during 2024. 20 Appeals...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Any decision to further extend the over 70 Free Travel Companion Pass Budget 2025 measure to holders of a Free Travel Pass aged under 70 who are single and widowed persons, would require additional funding for the Free Travel scheme and would have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations. Free Travel Pass holders aged under 70 can of course receive a Free Travel...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department has a commitment to an annual level of control reviews and operates an ongoing continuous schedule of control and review activity for those in receipt of a pension. The objective is to ensure that customers on a pension, regardless of age, continue to receive their correct rate of payment over the lifetime of their claim. On review, claimants on a means tested payment or in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Working Family Payment (WFP) is a weekly in-work support which provides an income support for employees on low earnings with children. To qualify for Working Family Payment, the customer must be working a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight in ongoing insurable employment and have at least one qualified child who normally resides with them. The number of Working Family Payment claims...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Working Family Payment is a tax-free payment which provides an income top-up for employees, with children, on low earnings. It is a targeted measure that is directly linked to overall household income and therefore directly supports low-income working families. Currently there are some 48,500 households with approximately 100,000 children in receipt of the payment. The average...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to medical assessment, a means test, and habitual residency conditions. DA is a means tested payment. Social Welfare Legislation provides that the means test...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: It is always open for a person to apply for Illness Benefit and payment will be awarded if all the qualifying conditions are met. A person's Disability Allowance will cease payment if they are in receipt of Illness Benefit. However an applicant for Disability Allowance to whom Illness Benefit is payable may opt to forgo the Illness Benefit payment in order to receive Disability Allowance at...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. Currently, the payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. Currently there is no provision to pay Child Benefit after the death of a child. The Child Benefit payment ceases once the department is notified...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: As of 31st May 2025, there were 52 recipients of Fish Assist nationwide. The breakdown of recipients by county is set out in the table below. Counties with fewer than three recipients have been combined. - County Recipients Clare/Galway 15 Cork 3 Donegal 12...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The eligibility requirements that underpin the social welfare schemes listed, apply to all Irish, UK and EU citizens. For UK and EU citizens, social welfare entitlements in Ireland are generally protected under a number of bilateral agreements and regulations. Once an EU citizen has established legal residence in Ireland, their rights to social welfare are generally maintained in line with...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 contains a commitment to "Consider and prepare a report for Government on the potential application of the benchmarking approach to other welfare payments". The Mid-term Review of the Roadmap identified this commitment as one of the focuses for 2023 to 2025. The roadmap also includes a commitment to develop a benchmarking approach for use in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 602 and 603 together. I welcome the recent publication of the 2025 Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) on June 17th. The report provides an update of the MESL income needs to reflect price changes in 2025. The Government acknowledges the impact that increases in the cost of living have on people, especially in relation to income adequacy....

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Harbours and Piers (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: As the Deputy is aware, Galway County Council is responsible for the maintenance and development of piers on the Aran Islands, including Inis Oírr. Regarding the development of the pier at Inis Oírr, Galway County Council is the sponsoring agency and contracting authority, and as such, it is responsible for the business case and every aspect of the procurement process. ...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 961 and 962 together. My Department has a detailed procurement policy in place, which fully aligns with the guidelines produced by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). The Department procures a relatively small volume and value of goods and services each year, and it is Departmental policy that, wherever possible, OGP frameworks are utlised for the...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: As part of my Departments Procurement Policy, and in line with guidance from the Office of Government Procurement, officials in my Department maintain a Contracts Register to monitor and report on all contracts procured with a value over €25,000 excluding VAT. This register is updated quarterly. Given the relatively small level of procurement undertaken directly by the Department, my...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Reviews (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 964 and 965 together. My Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports 428 community organisations through 448 services to provide employment opportunities and the delivery of local services, through a social enterprise model, with a budget of €55.4m for 2025. A review of the CSP Programme funding rate categorisations is...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Funding (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: I would like to acknowledge the valuable work of social enterprises, and the meaningful impact they have on the lives of people in our communities. They frequently work to support disadvantaged groups such as the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, the Traveller community, etc., or to address issues such as childcare, food poverty, social housing, our ageing population or...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Funding (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) improves non-public rural roads and laneways not usually maintained by local authorities. Since its establishment in 2017, the Government has provided almost €170 million to local authorities under the scheme. In April 2024, €40 million in funding was announced for LIS across eligible local authorities to cover 2024/2025. This figure...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Reports (24 Jun 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department’s website is part of the gov.ie platform, hosted by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO). It is my understanding that the gov.ie platform underwent a major system upgrade in mid-April 2025. I am informed that following this systems upgrade, due to a technical issue, the links on some pages were broken and automatically replaced with the text:...