Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1853. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he has plans to improve processing times for those who do not have year-long contracts and must avail of social protection payments during holiday periods; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43519/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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A person who does not have a year long term contract may avail of social protection payments while they are temporarily laid-off during holiday periods. In the majority of cases Jobseekers is the appropriate payment. A jobseeker’s payment is paid for days of unemployment for which the person is not being remunerated by their employer. Receipt of any holiday pay entitlement during the school break is taken into account.

The person applying must satisfy all the qualifying conditions to receive a payment. This includes completing the relevant claim application forms and providing supporting documentation in a timely manner while also being available for full-time work and genuinely seeking work at each school break.

People in the education sector who have previously had a claim with my Department are issued with a repeat jobseeker’s application form and a holiday entitlement form in advance of the school holiday periods. This advance process facilitates an efficient service to these customers and allows for speedy processing of their claims when the period of unemployment actually arises, provided they return the information in a timely manner

Over the last number of years my Department has dedicated teams working solely on Education Sector Workers' claims in order to streamline processes and minimise delays for people. As each claim is assessed individually, and each person's employment and claim history is different, the payment due will also be different. The large volume of jobseeker's claims received at the school breaks means that some decisions on these claims may take a number of weeks to process. If any customer is in urgent financial need my Department’s Community Welfare Service may provide assistance while they wait for their claim to be processed.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1854. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the plans to reduce and remove the means test for carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43520/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government has set out a timeline which commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. This is a major change to the Carer's Allowance and to the Irish social welfare system generally. It is important that we make progress in a way that is sustainable, and which does not unduly limit our scope to support other vulnerable groups in society. We have also committed to progressively increasing the rates of payment.

Significant progress has been made in recent years to supports for carers. In fact, earlier this month the income disregard for Carer's Allowance increased from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse/partner, making the scheme more accessible. These changes amount to cumulative increases to the disregards of €292.50 and €585 respectively, or 88%, since June 2022. As a result of the most recent change, 5,280 carers received an increase in their Carer’s Allowance payment. In fact, some 99% of current recipients are now entitled to the full value of their payment rate, whether they be full-rate or half-rate recipients.

People in receipt of the Carer’s Allowance payment received the annual Carer’s Support Grant on June 5th. This payment of €2,000 is the highest ever level of the grant.

Further changes or improvements to the Carer's Allowance means test will be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context.

I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.

Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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1855. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the social protection measures for which a means test is applicable; and the relevant income thresholds for the years 2019 to 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43604/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has over 90 schemes of which a significant number are means-tested schemes, each with its own means test.

The following list outlines primary schemes which are subject, in addition to a range of other scheme rules, to a means assessment :

- Jobseeker's Allowance

- Jobseeker's Transitional Payment

- Disability Allowance

- Farm Assist

- State Pension (Non-contributory)

- Blind Pension

- Widow’s, Widower’s and Surviving Civil Partner’s (Non-contributory) Pension

- Guardian’s Payment (Non-Contributory)

- One-Parent Family Payment

- Carer's Allowance

- Supplementary Welfare Allowance

- Working Family Payment

A number of other secondary schemes, such as Fuel Allowance and Rent Supplement, are also means-tested. In addition, aspects of certain insurance based schemes, such as the payment of an Increase for a Qualified Adult, are income-tested.

A range of factors including Income, capital (savings and investments) and the value of property owned but not personally used or enjoyed are assessed as part of these means assessments.

Given the range and complexity of these rule sets, it is not possible to set out in a single tabular representation, the breadth of means test factors across all these schemes.

However, the detailed SW19 booklet, published by the Department of Social Protection, contains, on a scheme by scheme basis, tables of income thresholds and tables that convert weekly assessable income to payment rates for each primary scheme. The SW19 booklet for 2025 includes the income thresholds in tabular form, as requested, and can be found here: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/publications/current-rates-of-payment-for-social-welfare-payments-sw19/

In addition, an archive of previous editions of the SW19 booklet, including for several years prior to 2019 up to date, can be found here: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/collections/rates-of-payment-sw19/