Results 1-20 of 54 for carers speaker:Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: 23. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide an update on her examination of the issues facing kinship carers who receive nominal contributions from birth parents and who may then be prevented from receiving guardianship allowance. [18470/24]

Support for Carers: Motion [Private Members] (24 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...bhfuil siad compordach. Tá siad á ndéanamh toisc go bhfuil sé tábhachtach agus mar léiriú dá gcuid grá do na daoine atá siad ag tabhairt aire dóibh. I will start with a statement that I think is obvious but is important to reflect upon. Nobody is on carer's allowance because it is easy. Nobody is on carer's allowance because it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Impact of Means Testing on the Social Welfare System: Discussion (24 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Apologies; I had to depart for a while. Ironically, the discussion in the Dáil currently is about the means testing of carer's allowance and the potential for a participation income. I have a few questions and some general observations. Previously, I made the point in the abstract that if one has a properly progressive system of taxation and one can look at it in terms of two lines,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Impact of Means Testing on the Social Welfare System: Discussion (24 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...recent years but there is the example of the rent-a-room scheme. The way in which social welfare policy can be used to encourage particular social ends is an under-explored area. In talking about the carer's allowance and the participation income proposal from Family Carers Ireland, it occurs to me that there is a substantial discussion taking place in Britain on the social care crisis,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Impact of Means Testing on the Social Welfare System: Discussion (24 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: .... I might return to Dr. Boland. He might have a comment if it was he who raised the point of this potentially being an instrument of social policy. Does he have a view on the point regarding carers? In the context of the care crisis that exists in other jurisdictions - and may exist here but we are not discussing it - is there an extent to which social welfare policy should be an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: 161. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing the annual carer’s support grant by €1. [15922/24]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Apr 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: 163. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of extending carer’s benefit to the self-employed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15924/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Implications of Means Testing: Department of Social Protection (20 Mar 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...probably not strictly speaking a means test issue. The Minister is not here and Mr. Egan cannot commit on her behalf, but my main request is to have a meeting on this with the Minister. Kinship carers are entitled to the guardian's payment, non-contributory, on the basis that there is parental abandonment. The problem is that it is very strictly defined and that, operationally,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Implications of Means Testing: Department of Social Protection (20 Mar 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...adults is of particular importance. I wish to raise a more detailed issue relating to maintenance. While I welcome that this has been dealt with in legislation, the means testing of kinship carers is still an issue. To be fair to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, she came back to me looking for examples of the issue. Kinship carers often have to foster children, usually relatives,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Implications of Means Testing: Department of Social Protection (20 Mar 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...to be as quick as I can, although I am not sure how quick. There are actually four issues, but two are just for the record. One is to state my agreement with Senator Wall and Deputy Ó Cuív. Carers are probably among the most important people in the context of the means test. I am glad that is being reviewed. I am not totally sure how the two reviews relate to one other or...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Children in Care (20 Feb 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: There is a lot of talk about care at the minute in the context of the referendum. We should acknowledge, in that context, the role that kinship carers play. Very often they are the unsung heroes of the system who step up when, for whatever reason, a relative of theirs is not in a position to care for children. Very often they are working very hard, they step up and it can be complicated....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (20 Feb 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...for Employment Affairs and Social Protection whether she has considered the situation of those providing kinship care, and the discrepancy between the financial supports provided to kinship carers by comparison to non-familial foster carers. [7915/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Energy Poverty: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...part of the national fuel scheme; those on jobseeker's allowance for more than six months who have a child under seven years of age; working family payment; one-parent family payment; domiciliary carer's allowance; and disability allowance. Dr. Keilthy might also have a comment on this. As far as I know, people on invalidity pension do not qualify for the fully funded scheme. Is that...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (14 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: 369. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of increasing the annual carers support grant by €1. [55971/23]

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...to people handing up money in the traditional sort of way. It is difficult. It was a family in which everyone was doing their best and trying to be fair and decent to each other, but it ended up with a reduction in the carer's allowance that was being provided. The other case is similar whereby somebody had gone over the threshold but will now be under the new threshold. I raised this...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...budget. While we would have done things differently in the budget, we will not oppose the Bill as, naturally, we want to see the increased payments going to workers, individuals and families. We want to see people received them without undue delay. In our alternative budget, we allocated €1.7 billion to increase payments for pensioners, carers, people with disabilities and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: This has come to my attention because a number of people have contacted me recently who are being means-tested for their carer's allowance. Naturally, some of them are worried, as they would be when they are being means-tested. Anecdotally, from speaking to a number of these people, they believe this is occurring across the board and that a very large of people are being tested, perhaps...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: ...to operate on either side of that by not cutting people off. That type of thing has been done in the past. I ask the Minister to go away to think about that. It is possible to resolve this. The carer's allowance is very important to me too because a large number of carers, despite their sacrifice and efforts, are living in very constrained circumstances. There is a lot of hardship in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: 51. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on the review of means tests for carer's allowance; and whether, in light of increased thresholds in 2024, flexibility can be demonstrated to those being means-tested currently. [46770/23]