Parliamentary questions

Social Welfare Payments

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

1. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection if, in light of her not proceeding further with the consultation on the Green Paper on disability payments, she intends to examine a cost-of-disability payment; and whether she intends to introduce different reforms to the disability payments. [18467/24]

Flood Relief Schemes

Seán Sherlock

2. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications made under the humanitarian aid scheme for uninsured householders in 2023, particularly on flooding, segmented by county; and the number of successful and unsuccessful applications, in tabular form, with the total amount issued. [18232/24]

Citizens Information Services

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

3. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection the steps she and her Department are taking to ensure workers in citizens information companies are provided with a pay increase, given the length of time since their last pay increase; and if she will provide the funding to ensure this happens [18468/24]

Food Poverty

Gary Gannon

4. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if there are plans to seek more sustained, long-term solutions to support families experiencing food poverty during school holidays, given the Children’s Rights Alliance food provision scheme received applications totalling over €350,000 - six times its capacity, in the run up to the Christmas holidays in 2023. [18664/24]

EU Directives

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

5. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection to clarify whether she intends to taper benefits received by beneficiaries of temporary protection in advance of the ending of the temporary protection directive in 2025. [18469/24]

Social Welfare Payments

Pauline Tully

6. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Social Protection if she is considering the consolidation of all disability payments together into one single payment system; if so, her plans to consult and co-design this scheme in conjunction with the disability community; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18411/24]

Social Welfare Eligibility

Robert Troy

7. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider abolishing the punitive means test for the carer's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18203/24]

Social Welfare Appeals

Peadar Tóibín

8. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who, having been refused the disability allowance, were successful in their appeals of her Department’s decision to refuse in each of the past ten years and to date in 2024. [17667/24]

School Meals Programme

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor

9. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Social Protection if her Department has measured the progress and success of the school meals programme in the context of diet, attendance and educational attainment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18078/24]

Departmental Reports

James O'Connor

10. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Social Protection when the Social Protection annual report for 2023 will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18434/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Ciarán Cannon

11. Deputy Ciarán Cannon asked the Minister for Social Protection when the extension of child benefit to 18-year-olds in full-time education will take effect; the number of students who will benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18169/24]

Social Welfare Eligibility

Ciarán Cannon

12. Deputy Ciarán Cannon asked the Minister for Social Protection when people with epilepsy can apply for the free travel pass; if she will outline the process for applying; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18168/24]

Equal Opportunities Employment

James O'Connor

13. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of organisations in receipt of the workplace equipment adaptation grant in 2023 in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18435/24]

Social Welfare Schemes

Pádraig O'Sullivan

14. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who availed of the activation and family support programme in 2022 to fund the cost of training supports and education courses for people on social welfare in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18137/24]

School Meals Programme

Alan Farrell

15. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the roll-out of the hot school meals programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17836/24]

Departmental Programmes

Richard Bruton

16. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has considered the scope for promoting engaging activities and positive health measures as a part of the welfare programmes promoted by her Department to the pensioners whom she supports with regular financial payments and occasional urgent need payments as part of a more joined-up approach to positive ageing. [18076/24]

Social Welfare Offices

Ruairí Ó Murchú

17. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the creation of processing hubs for community welfare and other services; whether she is aware of any administrative difficulties caused by the creation of the hubs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18405/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Catherine Connolly

18. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline, further to the recent scrapping of the green paper on disability reform, her plans to introduce a cost of disability payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18376/24]

Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Brendan Griffin

19. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of staff, including total WTE positions and grade breakdowns, working in the Department's scope section; if the section is adequately staffed to undertake the work required of it in relation to examining bogus self-employment in large organisations such as RTÉ; how long she expects the RTÉ scope investigation to take to conclude; if the scope section plans to examine cases of workers at RTÉ prior to the period currently under examination by the scope section; if the scope section is currently examining or has plans to examine other State or semi-State agencies; if so, which ones; the annual budget for the scope section for each of the past five years; how many prosecutions her Department has initiated as a result of bogus self-employment cases in each of the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18380/24]

Social Welfare Payments

Bernard Durkan

20. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has considered any options to improve the speed with which applications for disability allowance or similar means-tested payments are processed thus eliminating hardship for people who may be vulnerable; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18337/24]

Pension Provisions

Robert Troy

21. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Social Protection her assessment of the impact of the Supreme Court's recent decision to award a pension to a widower who was not married but had children with his former partner; if this will have an impact on other retrospective and future cases; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18202/24]

Pension Provisions

Catherine Connolly

22. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Social Protection what value-for-money analysis has been carried out in relation to the different rates of participation in the proposed automatic enrolment pension scheme; the different rates of opt-outs; the different rates of suspension; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18377/24]

Social Welfare Eligibility

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

23. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection to provide an update on her examination of the issues facing kinship carers who receive nominal contributions from birth parents and who may then be prevented from receiving guardianship allowance. [18470/24]

State Pensions

Paul McAuliffe

24. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Social Protection her plans to provide a State pension for those currently in receipt of the increase for qualified adult under their partner’s pension; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18366/24]

Pension Provisions

Niamh Smyth

25. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Social Protection the specifics regarding the pension entitlements being worked on for carers by her Department presently; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18134/24]

Labour Activation Measures

Brian Stanley

26. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection the amount that was allocated in 2019 to 2023 to companies engaged by her Department in providing labour activation programmes; the number of clients they assisted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17614/24]

State Pensions

Aindrias Moynihan

27. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Social Protection to allow for caring periods under 20 years to be included for long-term caring contributions for the purposes of the State pension (contributory); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18355/24]

Employment Rights

Brendan Griffin

28. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Social Protection what threshold needs to be cleared for an appeal to be granted by her Department’s appeals office in respect of challenges to decisions by her Department's scope section against employers in relation to findings on bogus self-employment; if applications for appeal are scrutinised, what percentage of appeal applications by employers in respect of scope decisions on bogus self-employment were granted in 2023; the average time such an appeal takes to be heard and decided upon; the number (and percentage) of appeal hearings in 2023 initiated by employers in respect of scope decisions on bogus self-employment, where the appellant subsequently did not present for the hearing; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18381/24]

Poverty Data

Gino Kenny

29. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Social Protection if she is aware that one in five (19.7%) people unable to work due to disability live in consistent poverty, that this is almost four times higher than the national average (5.3%); what measures will she take to lift people with disabilities out of poverty; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9513/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Violet-Anne Wynne

30. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Social Protection her plans in respect of the means test for the carer's allowance; how she plans on ensuring that more carers can avail of the payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18269/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Thomas Gould

31. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Social Protection her plans to reform payments to family carers. [18408/24]

Parental Leave

Paul Murphy

32. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will allocate funding to extend paid parental benefit to cover at least the first year of a child’s life; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18330/24]

Social Welfare Appeals

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

33. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection whether she is aware of the substantial discrepancies that exist between initial applications for domiciliary care and the level of success of appeals with regard to same; and what she intends to do to address this. [18473/24]

Departmental Bodies

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor

34. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Social Protection when we can expect to know the findings of the interdepartmental working group between her Department and the Department of Health concerning a reform of the disability payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18079/24]

Employment Support Services

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

35. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection to provide an update on the tender for EmployAbility which was due to be published in April 2023; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18471/24]

Disability Services

Gary Gannon

36. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection how the green paper on disability reform will impact students in higher education receiving disability payments. [9087/24]

Employment Support Services

Matt Carthy

37. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will review the position regarding the mandatory retirement age for participants on the job initiative scheme to ensure that those who wish to can remain on the scheme past the State pension age. [17717/24]

Social Insurance

Paul Murphy

38. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she is concerned at the impact proposed cuts to employers’ PRSI will have on the Social Insurance Fund; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18331/24]

Social Welfare Payments

Pauline Tully

39. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider altering the Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024 to apply the reduced rate of social welfare payments to Ukrainian people who arrive after a particular date instead of the current approach of connecting the reduced payment to new designated centres; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18412/24]

Social Welfare Eligibility

Thomas Gould

40. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Social Protection whether ME is eligible for disability allowance. [18407/24]

Pension Provisions

Bernard Durkan

41. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applicants who have been refused insurance-based private pensions on the basis of insufficiency of contributions over their working lives or part thereof; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18338/24]

Social Welfare Payments

Peadar Tóibín

42. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of times an individual in receipt of carer’s allowance had their allowance stopped, in each of the past ten years and to date in 2024; and to provide a sample of reasons that carer’s allowance may be withdrawn from carers. [17668/24]

School Meals Programme

Violet-Anne Wynne

43. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider extending the hot school meals programme to a school (details supplied) on a permanent basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18268/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Paul Murphy

44. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will introduce a living wage for family carers through the social protection system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18329/24]

Departmental Priorities

Paul Murphy

45. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will introduce a universal disability payment of at least €350 a week; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18328/24]

Disability Services

Ruairí Ó Murchú

46. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an expected launch date of the reformed reasonable accommodation fund, following the recommendations from the review of the fund; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18406/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Richard Bruton

47. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has considered designing new initiatives to tackle under-claiming of benefits, which is widespread across her own Department and other agencies of Government. [18077/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Niamh Smyth

48. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Social Protection the status of plans to extend child benefit for those continuing in secondary education but who have turned 18 years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18135/24]

Social Welfare Payments

Mark Ward

49. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline the appeals process for domiciliary care allowance payments that are refused; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18431/24]

Social Welfare Benefits

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

50. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Social Protection what steps she intends to take regarding the extent of the backlog in processing disability allowance claims. [18474/24]