Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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193. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the occasions since 2000 that the weekly means limit for the increase for qualified adult allowance for recipients of the State pension was amended, including the date on which the current means threshold of €100 was established; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31126/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The main legislative provisions determining whether a person is a qualified adult are Sections 2(2) and 3(11) of Part 1 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005, as amended, and Articles 6, 7 and 8 in Statutory Instrument (S.I.) 142 (Claims, Payment and Control Regulations) of 2007, as amended. Article 7 specifies the income limits in order to be regarded as a qualified adult for social insurance schemes, while Article 8 provides the way this income is calculated.

The current weekly income limit of €100 for the Increase for a Qualified Adult (IQA) for recipients of State Pension (Contributory), amongst other schemes, has been set out in Article 7 of SI 142/2007 since 2007.

Prior to the implementation of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act (2005), as amended, regulations in relation to Qualified Adults had been set out in SI 417 of 1994 - the Social Welfare (Consolidated Payments Provisions) Regulations.

S.I. 417 of 1994 set the weekly income limit for IQAs on State Pension (Contributory) at £60, effective from January 1995.

This was increased to £70 by S.I. 81 of 2000, with effect from April 2000.

In response to Ireland's adoption of the Euro currency, S.I. 631 of 2002 converted this £70 income limit to an equivalent € limit of €88.88.

This value was increased to €100 by S.I. 571 of 2006 - the Social Welfare (Consolidated Payments Provisions) (Amendment) (No. 13) (Miscellaneous Provisions) regulations with effect from October 2006.

Following the implementation of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act (2005), the new Claims Payment and Control regulations (S.I. 142 of 2007) were implemented in March 2007 and retained the weekly income limit for IQAs to the rate of €100.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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194. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he intends to review the current weekly means limit for the increase for qualified adult allowance for recipients of the State pension with a view to increasing the current means limit of €100; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31127/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides State Pension payments through the State Pension (Contributory), which is a contributory based payment based on a person's social insurance record and the State Pension (Non-Contributory) which is means-tested social assistance payment.

A State pension (contributory) recipient can claim an increase on their pension in respect of a qualified adult where the eligibility conditions for this means-tested payment are satisfied.

An Increase for qualified adult (IQA) is payable at the maximum rate of payment where the means of the qualified adult are not more than €100 per week. Reduced rates are payable where means are over €100 and not more than €310 per week. No increase is payable where means are in excess of €310 per week.

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 to means testing which provide for higher income disregards have been introduced. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a means tested payment from my Department and are working, a certain level of income from that work is not assessed in the means test.

A comprehensive review of means testing in the social protection system is currently under way in my Department. 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 outcome of the review will inform decisions regarding any potential changes to means testing, including in the run up to Budget 2026. All prospective changes to means testing arrangements will have to be considered in both an overall policy and budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.