Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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954. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to outline the details of his Department's review of means testing across all social assistance schemes, with particular reference to the disability allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30567/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. In particular, a number of changes were introduced to means testing which provide for higher income disregards. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, a certain level of income from that work is not assessed in the means test.

A review of means testing in the Department was initiated by my predecessor. The purpose of the review of means testing is to look at the different means-tested schemes and to identify any issues in terms of the application of their respective means test.

The Department has over 90 schemes and a significant number are means tested schemes, each with their own means test. This is complex and detailed work but the review is currently being finalised and will be presented to me shortly. I can assure the Deputy that I will carefully consider the report once it has been received.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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955. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of parents eligible for parent's leave in the past twelve months; and how many weeks of leave, if any, those parents took, by county, in tabular form. [30599/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Children, Equality and Disability has legal and policy responsibility for Parent’s Leave; the Department of Social Protection has responsibility for the associated benefit.

My Department maintains data on individuals who have applied for and subsequently qualified for Parent's Benefit; it does not maintain data on the number of weeks of leave taken by those parents, broken down by county.

However, my Department paid Parent’s Benefit to 68,177 parents in 2024 compared to a total number of 54,678 births in 2023 and 54,062 in 2024.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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956. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plan to review parent's leave to make it more flexible and viable for parents, including partial weeks or single days of parent's leave; transferring unused leave to the partner parent; and the option to redistribute payment across a reduced number of days/weeks. [30600/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Children, Equality and Disability has legal and policy responsibility for Parent’s Leave. The Department of Social Protection has responsibility for the associated benefit.

The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 is in line with Directive (EU) 2019/1158 Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers. It aims to promote gender equality in the workplace and in caring roles. To this end, it provides that this leave is not transferrable between parents to incentivise both parents to avail of their leave entitlement.

The manner in which this paid leave can be taken is set out in section 5(2) of the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act provides which provides that it can be taken in a continuous period or in periods of one week. Section 61G(7) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 makes similar provisions for the payment of Parent’s Benefit.

Any review of the modalities of parent’s leave would primarily be a matter for the Minister for Children, Equality and Disability and would require careful consideration and consultation with stakeholders.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)
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957. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures in place to support and promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities; the progress made under the comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities; the new initiatives planned to improve access to the workforce for those with disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30644/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Comprehensive Employment Strategy set out a number of actions for my Department. They included measures around early intervention, employment activation, and reform of employment supports, such as the Wage Subsidy Scheme. In recent years, my Department has introduced and reformed a number of supports to implement these recommendations and promote employment opportunities to people with disabilities.

In July 2022, my Department launched Early Engagement. The scheme aims to proactively engage disabled people in a ‘return to work’ process in the early stages of disability or illness. Specially trained Intreo staff reach out to people on Disability Allowance for 6 to 12 months and people on Disability Allowance aged 18 to 25 to invite them to discuss employment and training supports. All engagement is on a voluntary basis. Almost 28,000 people have been contacted and nearly 3,000 referrals have been made for further education or employment supports.

In July 2024, my Department launched a new scheme called Work and Access. This scheme offers seven supports to improve access in the workplace for people with a disability. Funding is available for communication supports, work equipment, workplace adaptations and training. Jobseekers, employees, self-employed people and employers may apply for supports both for the business premises and remote workplaces.

In December 2023, my Department established the WorkAbility programme. It is co-financed with the EU Employment, Inclusion, Skills, and Training Programme. This programme is to support people with disabilities into employment through 57 local, regional and national projects. The programme aims to support over 13,000 disabled people progress their training and employment ambitions over five years.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme supports employers to hire people with disabilities through a subsidy. In August 2024, my Department published a review of the scheme to make it more accessible and flexible to people with disabilities and their employers. An additional €3.7 million has been allocated to implement the review’s recommendations.

As a result of the review, the minimum hours for the scheme have been reduced from 21 to 15 hours and the scheme was expanded to those on Partial Capacity Benefit and to the community and voluntary sector. Last week, I formally launched the reformed scheme. We are also now running a media campaign to raise awareness of this very beneficial scheme for employers and employees.

In addition, the Government has prioritised the development of a New National Disability Strategy, one of the key features of which will be a strong focus on improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities. This is a cross-Government initiative and my Department is actively contributing to this work with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and others.

Notwithstanding these improvements, the Government recognises that more needs to be done to support people with disabilities into employment. The Programme for Government prioritises improvements to employment supports for people with disabilities. These commitments include:

• reviewing the minimum hours requirement and examine an increase in the payment rate for the Wage Subsidy Scheme;
• expanding and build on successful programmes like WorkAbility, Employability and Work and Access; and
• examining ways to make it easier to regain Disability Allowance if employment ceases.

I trust that this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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958. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to confirm the status of a domiciliary care allowance application by a person (details supplied) for their daughter who it is documented has having medical difficulties, that serious consideration would be given to granting this domiciliary care allowance due to these difficulties and the level of care required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30680/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is payable to a parent / guardian in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and where the level of that disability is such that the child is likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12 consecutive months.

An application for DCA in respect of their child was received from the person concerned on 22 May 2025.

As part of the decision process, their application is currently awaiting the opinion of a Departmental Medical Assessor (MA). On receipt of the MA opinion, a decision will be made by a Deciding Officer and the person concerned will be notified directly in writing of the decision on their application.

The medical details supplied with this Parliamentary Question has been associated with the person's file and will be available to both the MA and Deciding Officer.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.