Results 161-180 of 16,540 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government has agreed a number of commitments that are to be achieved over the lifetime of the Government. I am currently considering options for the Social Protection package as part of Budget 2026. Consideration and decisions in relation to any Social Protection measures as part of the Budget process will be taken in the context of overall funding available, the economic context...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Among the key points made in the Indecon report on the cost of disability in Ireland was the fact that the costs of disability vary based on the type of disability a person has, and the impact that disability has on their daily lives - including through their needs for heating and lighting, transport, medication, therapies and treatment, housing adaptations, and education and employment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 103, 127 and 130 together. The Programme for Government includes a range of commitments in relation to supports for disabled people. This includes a commitment to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment. Our commitments in the Programme for Government will be advanced over the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: In line with the Programme for Government commitment, my Department is examining a new Working Age Payment. The Programme for Government commits that the Working Age Payment will ensure that individuals will always see an increase in income when they work or take on additional hours. It will do this by addressing inconsistencies and anomalies in the current Jobseeker's Allowance Scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Poverty (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The setting of a new and ambitious Child Poverty Target is a commitment set out in the Programme for Government 2025: Securing Ireland’s Future. This commitment is also set out in the Government’s national strategy to reduce poverty, the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025. On 10th September last, based on these commitments, and a public consultation process that took...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department understands the many pressures faced by customers and always seeks to ensure that claims are handled quickly and efficiently. I am sure that the Deputy can appreciate how processing times can 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 107 and 113 together. 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. People must have made the required number of contributions...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: 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 as My Future Fund - will commence from 1 January 2026. My...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 109 and 146 together. Means tests are a central part of any social welfare system in ensuring that limited resources are targeted at those who are most in need. Ireland's system of social transfers consistently ranks among the top performers in the European Union for poverty reduction. A key factor in this achievement is Ireland's use of means...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public transport services and and on private transport services operating the Free Travel scheme. There are over 1.1 million customers with direct eligibility for Free Travel. As part of Budget 2024, Free Travel was extended to people who are medically certified as unfit to drive. From 29th July 2024, the measure extended access...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Government is very aware of the difficulties that disabled people can face in entering and retaining employment. My Department provides a range of employment supports for disabled people in that regard. My Department's Intreo service is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports in the State. Disabled people can access mainstream employment schemes such as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Nutritional Standards for School Meals have been in place since the scheme's inception and were developed by a technical Nutrition Subgroups comprised of:Dieticians from the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute of Ireland,The HSE,Safefood, andThe Food Safety Authority of Ireland.These standards are available to all schools, organisations and suppliers and are publicly available on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department offers a range of employment schemes and other supports to encourage long-term unemployed people to return to work, while also assisting communities across the country in the provision of vital services. They are targeted at people who have been on an unemployment payment or certain other social welfare payments for a specific period of time. Community Employment (CE) and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My 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 documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department’s Compliance and Anti Fraud Strategy sets out a range of measures designed to prevent and detect fraud, ensure effective oversight of schemes, recover any overpayments identified and to pursue the prosecution of offenders where appropriate. Where suspected fraudulent activity is identified, each individual case is examined and the Department then decides on the most...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides a range of employment supports to facilitate access to the workplace for disabled people. My Department's Intreo service is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports in the State. Disabled people can access mainstream employment schemes such as Community Employment and Tús as well as referral to tailored supports such as Employability....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Carer's Allowance is the main income support scheme for family carers in the community. Under the one payment per person rule, people eligible for multiple social welfare payments typically receive the higher of the available options. This reflects the fact that payments are intended as an income support that arises due to a specified contingency that eliminates or significantly restricts a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Domiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly non-means tested payment to a parent or guardian for a child aged up to 16 who has a severe disability. The child must require care and attention substantially over and above that required by other children their age. Eligibility is not based on the disability or diagnosis, but rather on the impact of the disability in terms of the level of care and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 120, 123 and 167 together. The Programme for Government has clearly 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. This is a major change to the Carer's Allowance scheme and to the Irish...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (25 Sep 2025)

Dara Calleary: Self-employed contributors pay class S PRSI at a rate of 4.1%. This is 11.15 percentage points lower than the combined employer and employee contribution of 15.25% made in respect of employed contributors. However, self-employed contributors do have access to over 90% of benefits available to employed contributors. The cost of extending illness benefit to the self-employed was considered...