Results 1,041-1,060 of 16,746 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Fuel Allowance is a payment to help with the cost of heating a home during the winter months. A person can get Fuel Allowance if are they are aged 66 years or over, or getting long-term social welfare payments. The number of recipients of Fuel Allowance in December for each year from 2020-2024, and for March 2025, are shown in the table below. YEAR RECIPIENTS ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing social welfare schemes by €1. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and the associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. It should also be noted that these costings include proportionate increases for qualified adults and for those on reduced...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing the weekly rate of Jobseeker's payments by €1, €10 and €12. For the purposes of answering this parliament question, "Jobseekers' payments" is assumed to include not only the direct Jobseeker's payment schemes which have a weekly maximum personal rate (i.e. Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB) is a payment you can get if you become fully unemployed and have paid enough pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contributions. You cannot work and get Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit at the same time. The amount you get is directly linked to your earnings from work before you became unemployed. As of the week ending 6th July 2025, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (15 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 evidence,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Early Childhood Care and Education (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Privately employed playschool workers who are not paid outside of school term time and who apply for a social welfare payment are included as Educational Sector Workers (ESWs). ESWs who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the school breaks can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. A jobseeker’s payment is paid for days of unemployment that the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Isolation (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less, and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. The Roadmap, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Isolation (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less, and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. The Roadmap, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in place...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Isolation (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less, and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. The Roadmap, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in place...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Guardian’s payment (contributory) and Guardian’s payment (non-contributory) are respectively social insurance and social assistance (means tested) payments made to a person caring for a child who satisfies the definition of an “orphan” under social welfare legislation. The purpose of the guardian's payment scheme is to provide income support in respect of those...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Civil Registration Service (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Persons wishing to marry in the State must serve three months notification of intention to marry to a registrar who is an employee of the Civil Registration Service which operates under the aegis of the HSE. The serving of notice of intention to marry is an operational matter for the HSE. Provision is made in the Civil Registration Act 2004 for such unfortunate scenarios whereby persons...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The scheme operates from June to September each year. The allowance is payable in respect of eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of whom a Child Support Payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (15 Jul 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. Reviews can arise from customer requests for a review...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible receive welfare and other payments. Our overriding objective is to ensure that we pay the right people, the right amount, through the right scheme/programme, at the right time. All schemes, including Disability Allowance (DA), are subject to periodic control reviews and continuing eligibility checks to ensure...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Disability Allowance (DA) is a means-tested payment for people with a specified disability whose income falls below certain limits and who are aged between 16 and are under 66. The Department periodically reviews claims in payment to ensure that there is continued entitlement. In this case, the means of the person concerned were reviewed.  Means are any income belonging to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Telephone Support Allowance (TSA) is a weekly payment of €2.50 for people on certain social welfare payments who are also receiving both the Living Alone Increase and the Fuel Allowance. The primary objective of the TSA is to support the most vulnerable people at risk of isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, by helping them maintain access to personal...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. That is why I was really pleased to announce that Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance eligibility is being extended to include children for whom Foster Care Allowance is being paid. The Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The main income supports to carers provided by my Department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. In 2025, total spending on these payments is expected to exceed over €1.9 billion. The Carer’s Allowance scheme is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is a means tested payment for lone parents, under 66, whose youngest child is aged between seven and their fourteenth birthday. The earnings disregard for the Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is €165 per week. In addition, 50% of earnings above this figure is also disregarded in the assessment of means. Increasing the disregards by €1,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined expenditure on these schemes in 2025 is expected to exceed €1.9 billion. Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance income support paid to carers who...