Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

310. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the timeframe within which the Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024, which was signed into law in March 2024, will be applied. [23603/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Commencement of the provisions of the Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 is set out as follows:

It is my intention that Part 2 of the Act will come into operation very shortly by way of a Commencement Order. I am also preparing Regulations that will give effect to certain provisions of Part 2 that will also come into operation at the same time. The purpose of Part 2 is to change the means tests for social welfare payments so that child maintenance payments will no longer be assessed as means and to remove the liable relatives provisions from the social welfare code.

Chapter 1 of Part 4 came into operation on 12 March 2024 under the Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 (Chapter 1 of Part 4) (Commencement) Order 2024 (S.I. No. 102 of 2024). The purpose of Chapter 1 of Part 4 is to remove entitlement to most social welfare payments for Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection who are provided with accommodation by the State in a designated accommodation centre under section 60(14A)(a) of the International Protection Act 2015.

Chapter 2 of Part 4 came into operation on 12 March 2024 under the Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 (Chapter 2 of Part 4) (Commencement) Order 2024 (S.I. No. 95 of 2024). Chapter 2 of Part 4 amends section 60 of the International Protection Act 2015 to introduce a more time-limited 90 day accommodation offering for newly arriving Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection, and to remove the current equivalence with Irish citizens in terms of accessing social welfare benefits, while still meeting the standard set out in Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001.

Other than mentioned above, the remainder of the Act came into operation upon enactment on 5 March 2024.