Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1429. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to remove the means test for carer's allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47439/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is fully committed to supporting family carers.  We recognise the vital role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face.

In July, the weekly 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 or partner.  This change has broadened access to the scheme, allowing more carers to qualify for the support.

Building on this progress, the Programme for Government has committed to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget, with a view to phasing out the means test.  The lifetime of the Government is the proposed timeline for this to be achieved.

Phasing out the means test 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.

I will consider any improvements to the Carer's Allowance means test within an overall policy and budgetary context.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1430. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to facilitate those with disabilities into the workforce through various schemes; his plans to update them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47440/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a range of employment supports to facilitate access to the workplace for disabled people.

My Department's Intreo service is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports in the State.  Disabled people can access information on employment and training options.  These can include mainstream employment schemes such as Community Employment and Tús as well as referral to tailored supports such as Employability.  This is a service that offers a professional job-matching service, on-going support and advice and information on employment supports for disabled people.

In July 2022, my Department launched Early Engagement.  This aims to proactively engage with disabled people in the early stages of disability or illness about options for education, training or employment.  Over 31,000 people have been contacted and over 3,000 customers have been referred to employment and further training opportunities.  A Designated Disability Employment Personal Advisor (DDEPA) is now available in each of the 62 Intreo offices nationwide.

In July 2024, my Department launched a new scheme called Work and Access.  This scheme offers seven supports to facilitate those with disabilities into the workforce through various schemes.  Funding is available for communication supports, work equipment, workplace adaptations and training.  Supports are available for both 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 aims to support people with disabilities into employment through 57 local, regional and national projects.  The programme aims to support over 13,000 disabled people over its lifetime.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme supports employers to hire disabled people through a subsidy.  In August 2024, my Department published a review of the scheme to update the scheme and make it more accessible to disabled people and their employers.

As a result, the minimum hours for the scheme were reduced from 21 to 15 hours.  The scheme was expanded to those on Partial Capacity Benefit and to the community and voluntary sector.  An additional €3.7 million has been allocated to the scheme.  In June this year, we launched the reformed scheme.  A media campaign to raise awareness of this very beneficial scheme for employers and employees followed the launch.

Notwithstanding these improvements, the Government recognises that more needs to be done to support people with disabilities into employment.  The Programme for Government commits to examining ways to make it easier to regain Disability Allowance if employment ceases and to expanding successful programmes like WorkAbility.

In addition, last week, the Government launched the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030.  This strategy prioritises a cross-government approach and my Department, alongside the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment will lead the employment pillar, focused on improving access to the workplace for disabled people.