Results 1-20 of 16,746 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Free Travel Scheme) Bill 2025: Second Stage (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí. Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Seanadóir Stephenson as an mBille seo. Nílimid i gcoinne an Bhille. Táim an-soiléir faoi sin ach tá a lán obair le déanamh againn. Those who know me will know I am not in the business of putting things on the long finger. I want this to work but I want to make sure it...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is focused on giving young people the best possible chance to participate in the labour market. Supporting and improving the capacity of young people to take up employment, education and training opportunities can enhance their employment prospects over time, as well as their ability to earn an adequate income to support themselves and their families into the future. A person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Oct 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 on or before 30 September and eligible...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: My department received an application for Illness Benefit from the person concerned on the 14th May 2025. Unfortunately, the person concerned did not qualify for payment of Illness Benefit as she did not satisfy the PRSI conditions. In order to qualify for Illness Benefit, you must meet conditions related to age and social insurance (PRSI) contributions. You must have at least 104 class...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (22 Oct 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. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 3 August 2022. An application for State pension (contributory) was received on 20 July 2022. Under current eligibility conditions, an individual must have 520 full-rate paid contributions to qualify for standard State Pension (contributory). 520 full-rate contributions equate to 10 years of full-rate insurable employment. According to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Artificial Intelligence (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department is currently examining the potential future use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) technologies. This has involved active participation in several stakeholder groups, such as, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment's working group on the implementation of EU AI Act. My Department follows the "Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Contracts (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: Consultancy is defined by the Department of Finance as where a person or organisation provides intellectual or knowledge-based services (e.g. expert analysis and advice) through delivering reports, studies, assessments, recommendations, proposals, etc. that contribute to decision making or policy development. As agreed with the Deputy details are available for my Department from 2011, they...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget 2026 (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: The cost of the Budget 2026 measure is based on information known to the Department, i.e. the current recipients with a reduced rate of Carer's Allowance due to household means. Carer’s Allowance is a demand led scheme and final cost will be dependent on take up by new recipients in the months following the changes which take effect from July 2026. The Department will closely...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Artificial Intelligence (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department follows the guidance issued by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) on the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The NCSC guidance recommends that new AI technology should only be adopted based on a clearly defined business need following an appropriate risk assessment. My Department does not...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Artificial Intelligence (22 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: The table below details the number of service contracts awarded to private consultancy firms, broken down by the categories requested, for each year from 2020 to date in 2025. My Department publishes information on all consultancies on an annual basis, including the nature of the work undertaken and the costs. The information can be found at the following link:...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Road Projects (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank Senator Kennelly for raising this issue. As he knows, the LIS is a programme for improvement works on small private or non-public roads in rural areas that are not normally maintained by local authorities. The scheme is funded by my Department but administered through the local authorities. It is important to note that the focus of the scheme is supporting the continued improvement...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Road Projects (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: Absolutely. I assure the Senator of my commitment to the LIS. I am engaging with officials on it. There are disparities in the funding per km across local authorities and I want to get a national standard on that. If we get a national standard, that will result in more roads being done in the counties that are delivering. I am also looking at the level of expenditure. Sometimes we...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Small and Medium Enterprises (21 Oct 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. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Budget 2026 (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: On Tuesday 7th October, over €1.15 billion of new social protection measures targeted to assist households were announced as part of Budget 2026. The measures contained in the Budget are designed to support the most vulnerable in our society and there is a particular focus on tackling child poverty. Included in this package are increases of €10 per week to maximum personal...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: Extending Fuel Allowance eligibility to Working Family Payment recipients was a key commitment in the Programme for Government, and I am delighted to be able to introduce this extension as part of this Government’s first budget. All Working Family Payment recipients will be considered eligible for the Fuel Allowance. This will benefit over 43,000 families and is a significant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make an ANP to help meet essential expenditure which an eligible person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income or household and personal resources. ANPs are administered by Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) in the Community Welfare Service (CWS), considering the requirements of the legislation...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Oct 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 a medical assessment, a means test and the habitual residency conditions. The Department periodically reviews claims in payment to ensure that there is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: The marriage bar was a legal requirement for women in the Irish civil service and some areas of the public service to retire from employment after marriage. While the legislation applied only to the civil and public sector, a similar policy was adopted by other sectors, such as the banking sector. The marriage bar for civil servants was removed from Irish legislation in 1973. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Contracts (21 Oct 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department of Social Protection has not incurred any expenditure to conduct tendering processes for public infrastructure projects in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Procurement of public infrastructure projects relating to my Department falls under the remit of the Office of Public Works (OPW).