Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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347. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress made by her Department in respect of its targets and goals set out in the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development under the policy remit of her Department; if these targets and goals will be met by their respective deadlines; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7286/22]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Ireland has adopted a ‘whole-of-Government’ approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications taking the lead and with each Department having responsibility for implementing individual targets related to their functions. My Department has lead and stakeholder responsibility for several targets, focusing on the areas of social protection poverty and inequality and employment activation.

Social transfers have an important role in reducing poverty and inequality. In this area, my Department has lead or stakeholder responsibility for Sustainable Development Goal targets 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 10.1 and 10.4. Budgets 2018 through 2022 have all been progressive, with a strong emphasis on supporting the most vulnerable. Most recently Budget 2022 included:

- across-the-board increases of €5 to all weekly payments, with proportionate increases for qualified adults;

- increases to qualified child dependant payments, with the weekly rate for children aged 12 increasing to €48 and the weekly rate for children up to age 12 to €40;

- an increase of €10 per week to the weekly income threshold for Working Family Payment regardless of family size and

- an increase to the weekly Living Allowance to €22.

Progress in this area will be delivered through implementation of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025, for which I chair the steering group, among other Government strategies.

Currently, my Department also has lead or stakeholder responsibility for targets 4.4, 8.5, 8.6 and 8.b, which focus on training and labour market activation. Last July, my Department published Pathways to Work 2021-2025, Ireland's national employment services strategy, which aims to help people prepare for, secure and sustain employment. The implementation of this Strategy will make a significant contribution to achieving targets 4.4, 8.5, 8.6 and 8.b.

My Department also contributes to target 5.4 through supporting carers. Recent Budgets have included: an increase in the number of hours that a carer can work or study every week outside the home and still get Carer’s Benefit or Carer’s Allowance from 15 hours to 18.5 hours; an increase in the Carer’s Support Grant to €1,850 per year; an increase in the weekly income disregard for Carer’s Allowance to €350 per week for single carers and to €750 per week for carers with a spouse/partner, and an increase in the disregard when assessing Carer’s Allowance Capital/Savings from €20,000 to €50,000.

Finally, my Department’s provision of the Fuel Allowance supports the delivery of Target 7.1. Since the beginning of April 2018, the Fuel Allowance season has been extended to 28 weeks. Budget 2022 increased the weekly rate to €33, increased the income threshold from €100 to €120 and reduced the qualification period for people in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance or Supplementary Welfare Allowance from 15 months to 12 months. Research by the ESRI in October 2020 confirms that interventions of this nature can reverse the regressive impact of the carbon tax and can lead to a reduction in overall poverty, particularly child poverty.

My Department has been actively engaged in both the Senior Officials Group and Interdepartmental Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, and I am committed to my Department playing an important role in Ireland achieving the SDGs by 2030.