Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1399. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the responsibility that is on his Department to ensure that citizens are appropriately educated and informed about the terms of individual social welfare payments and the potential implications of availing or not availing of a particular payment, for example that some count as credits for a State pension and others do not; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46574/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department administers more than 100 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. My Department is fully committed to ensuring that members of the public are aware of the welfare supports and services available, and to ensuring key changes are communicated to them.

The Department of Social Protection communicates to members of the public using a variety of channels. These channels, including online (social media channels, gov.ie and our online application platform mywelfare.ie), face to face in our network of offices, and on the phone via our dedicated phone centres. We also issue thousands of letters to customers in relation to their applications, payments, and entitlements. Public information campaigns also play an important role in achieving our objective of informing citizens. These campaigns include paid media, use of our social media channels to promote information organically, as well as engagement and information shared directly with other public bodies where relevant. All advertising campaigns are tailored to ensure the best possible mix of media is used to effectively reach the target audience.

The Deputy has specifically referenced information related to the State Pension. State pension entitlements are assessed based on the qualifying criteria at the time of application or at the time a person reaches pension age or chooses to draw down their pension. To maximise their entitlement to contributory pensions or to other social insurance-based schemes, contributors are advised to maintain their social insurance records as fully as possible over their working lives, with either paid contributions, credited contributions or voluntary contributions, where relevant or possible. It is open to contributors to request a copy of their contribution records from my department at any time.

In 2023, my Department ran several public information campaign on changes to the State Pension Contributory. These included a campaign specifically for long term carers and their entitlements. The target audience for our national media and social media advertising campaign were people who either cared for, or were then caring for, a family member or loved one on a long-term basis. My Department also ran a campaign in relation to a more flexible pension, and how someone can apply for their contribution statement, so that they are aware of their pension entitlements. Further campaigns in relation to the State Pension ran in 2024 and 2025 and we are currently running a campaign to promote the online State Pension application process. As well as these paid campaigns we have also distributed information via press releases, and on organic social media posts. Our gov.ie pension hub has also been updated in the last two years to create a central, easy to use source of information related to the state pension and you can find out more at gov.ie/pension.

Officials from my Department also directly engage with stakeholders, including groups which represent lower paid, older and vulnerable communities.

Our Customer Representative Forum, which is a quarterly meeting, gives us the opportunity to engage with around 30 organisations and NGOs around Ireland who represent vulnerable communities and older people.

For more than 30 years my Department has hosted an annual Pre-Budget Forum, where the community, voluntary sector, and other stakeholders share their views on the measures that should be included in the upcoming budget.

We also host the Social Inclusion forum every year which brings together a wide variety of representative groups to highlight issues of concern and discusses issues concerning promotion and awareness of Departmental schemes and people's entitlements.

Meanwhile, as part of our commitments under the National Carers’ Strategy, we host the Annual Carers' Forum, which provides an opportunity for engagement between officials and people directly experiencing care issues.

My Department also funds the Citizens Information Board (CIB), which is a statutory agency tasked with providing independent, impartial, confidential, and non-judgmental information, advice, money advice and advocacy. CIB also acts as a signpost for people including vulnerable groups and older people and provides information in local Citizens Information Centres and through the Citizens Information website as well as periodicals and publications.