Written answers
Thursday, 25 September 2025
Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
- Artificial Intelligence
88. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the means by which his Department plans on using artificial intelligence to speed up the processing of application forms; and... - Wage-setting Mechanisms
98. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the position regarding the establishment of a working age payment as committed to in the Programme for Government; and if he... - Social Welfare Benefits
99. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans for a targeted child benefit payment. [50693/25] - Social Welfare Appeals
100. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection since the introduction of updated regulations to modernise and streamline the social welfare appeals process implemented on... - Social Welfare Benefits
101. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the period of a social welfare payment following the death of a dependent from six to 12... - Child Poverty
105. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will report on the new child poverty target that he recently announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter.... - Social Welfare Benefits
106. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the means by which he is enhancing application processes within his Department, and providing additional resources where... - Social Welfare Eligibility
107. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will review the rule that prevents widows, widowers and surviving civil partners from receiving illness benefit when... - State Pensions
108. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for an update on the establishment of the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority; and if he will make a... - Social Welfare Benefits
109. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans for a comprehensive review of means tests across the social welfare system; and if he will make a statement on the... - Employment Support Services
111. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures he is taking to support persons with disabilities into employment; and if he will make a statement on the... - School Meals Programme
112. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to undertake a review of the hot school meals scheme, specifically to examine the quality and nutritional value of... - Departmental Schemes
114. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to increase the top-up payment for participants on CE, TÚS, and the rural social scheme, in recognition of the... - Social Welfare Benefits
115. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to address delays in processing illness benefit and invalidity pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50783/25] - Social Welfare Fraud
116. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of active cases of social welfare fraud investigation currently ongoing in each county, in tabular form; and if he... - Employment Support Services
117. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to outline any plans there are for work activation and disability access to work, including any improvements or streamlining... - State Pensions
118. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will review the policy whereby a person in receipt of the State pension is only entitled to half-rate carer’s... - Social Welfare Benefits
119. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will extend the domiciliary care allowance from 16 to 18 in Budget 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter.... - Social Welfare Code
121. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of extending illness benefit to the self-employed; the estimated increase in PRSI rates which would be required to... - Community Employment Schemes
122. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to consider a revision of the TÚS programme guidelines for people in receipt of disability allowance, in order to allow... - State Pensions
124. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will consider changing the means-test for the state pension (non-contributory) from gross to net income; and if he will... - Social Welfare Code
125. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will provide an update on the report on benchmarking and indexing working age social protection rates; and if he will... - State Pensions
126. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to review the capital element of the means test for the non-contributory pension, which has not been updated in many years... - Poverty Data
128. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his views, in light of a report (details supplied) showing almost half of families cutting back on essentials, whether he... - Child Poverty
129. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his views in light of the latest ESRI report, that successive Governments have failed to reduce child poverty; and that only... - Social Welfare Benefits
131. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the rationale for his decision to remove the credit option for the household benefits package from December; and if he will... - Social Welfare Eligibility
132. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will extend illness benefit to self-employed workers, recognising that illness can prevent them from earning a... - Child Poverty
133. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if his Department has analysed the impact on child poverty of the previous Minister's decision to more than double penalty... - Social Welfare Eligibility
134. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to review the eligibility criteria for the fuel allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50782/25] - Social Welfare Benefits
135. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people in Counties Cavan and Monaghan availing of companion passes; the measures in place to promote this... - Budget 2026
136. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to clarify whether his Department intends to introduce a targeted, second tier payment of child benefit in Budget 2026; and... - Social Welfare Eligibility
137. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there is any process by which former partners who were divorced or separated from the bereaved ie, widows; widowers;... - State Pensions
138. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the plans in place for the pension auto-enrolment; the means by which they are proceeding; and if the deadline of the 1... - Social Welfare Benefits
139. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will review the appeals process and criteria for carer's allowance and disability allowance, in light of cases where... - Departmental Schemes
140. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if consideration will be given to extending the voucher scheme run by the Irish Sign Language (ISL) Interpreting Service and... - Social Welfare Benefits
141. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he is aware of cases where persons who commenced a self-employed role in 2023 and subsequently became unemployed in 2025... - Community Employment Schemes
142. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he plans to make changes to the community employment scheme to encourage more participants into the scheme; and if he will... - Social Welfare Benefits
144. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people who have had their jobseekers' payments cut, by month, to date in 2025; the amount deducted from... - Departmental Reports
145. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to publish the report of the Interdepartmental Working Group which reviewed the system of means test for carer's... - Social Welfare Code
147. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to consider removing the means test for fuel allowance for those over 70 and in receipt of qualifying payments and meeting... - Social Welfare Eligibility
148. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his assessment of the impact to date of improvements to the carer's allowance means test. [50673/25] - Social Welfare Benefits
149. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to extend automatic entitlement to the household benefits package, the fuel allowance payment, and the additional... - Child Poverty
151. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he is aware of the ESRI's recent findings from their report on 'Poverty, Income Inequality and Living Standards in... - Social Welfare Eligibility
152. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to expand the criteria of the occupational injuries benefit scheme to include healthcare workers suffering with... - Social Welfare Benefits
153. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide a costing for increasing the carers allowance by two percent, in line with inflation, ten percent and 20 percent;... - School Meals Programme
154. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the position regarding the rollout of the hot school meals programme; the percentage of schools in the Dún Laoghaire... - Social Welfare Benefits
155. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who qualified for the carer’s allowance, in each of the past ten years and to date in 2025; and... - Child Poverty
159. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when he expects to bring forward proposals on a new child poverty target; his views on the measures that will be most... - Social Welfare Benefits
160. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average processing time for an urgent needs payment in Cork. [50774/25] - School Meals Programme
161. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of schools in Cork county that have made contact with his Department due to recent changes to the procurement... - State Pensions
162. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people in Kilkenny currently in receipt of the bereaved partner’s (contributory) pension; and if he will... - Fuel Poverty
163. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures he is taking to address the risk of more people falling into energy poverty this winter; and if he will make a... - Social Welfare Benefits
164. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of children/families who will qualify automatically for back to school clothing and footwear allowance, by county;... - Social Welfare Code
166. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress made on introducing a new working age payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50697/25] - Social Welfare Eligibility
168. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will consider removing means-testing for access to social protection supports e.g. fuel allowance and the household... - School Meals Programme
169. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection regarding the hot school meals scheme, the steps he is taking to measure the food that is wasted; the steps he is taking to... - Social Welfare Appeals
170. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number and types of oral hearings completed by the Appeals Office to date in 2025, in tabular form; to outline whether... - Social Welfare Benefits
171. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the projected number of recipients to benefit from the fuel allowance payment in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the... - State Pensions
172. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will report on the national campaign to raise awareness of 'My Future Fund'. [50672/25] - Social Welfare Benefits
173. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who applied for job seekers allowance or job seekers benefit who listed their previous employment as... - Budget 2026
174. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the Department is currently evaluating increasing the carer's allowance in Budget 2026; and if he will make a statement on... - Social Welfare Benefits
175. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will report on the extension of the free travel companion pass; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50695/25] - Child Poverty
176. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide an update on the Child Poverty and Well-being Programme Office's child poverty target. [48905/25] - State Pensions
177. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for an update on the roll out of the auto-enrolment pension scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50750/25]
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