The lifetime of this Government is to 2029. I have my ambitions to maintain this commitment. Any situation where a social protection support is available to a family on €110,000 per year in full or to a family on €138,000 in part represents very good progress. These are the biggest increases in the income disregard for the carer's allowance and will come into effect on 1 July. However, I also must have consideration of other pressures and priorities within my Department. I must have consideration for the people rec…

I thank the Deputy. We are very committed in the Department to reducing any administrative, financial or other barrier that may prevent people from accessing their social protection entitlements. Our schemes are generally accessed through two main mechanisms: by assessing the PRSI contribution record of a person in respect of social benefit schemes; and by applying a means test and other conditions as appropriate in the case of social assistance schemes. In respect of contributory schemes, we have broadened access …

To put Deputy O'Reilly's remarks in context, we discussed this at committee last week. I followed it up. I am going to follow this up with the Deputy. It was raised by many Deputies following her intervention. The Department of Social Protection does not require applicants to obtain private assessments or specialist medical reports to submit an application for a social welfare payment. All available evidence submitted as part of the application is considered. In addition, the Department funds GPs to complete the me…

I thank the Deputy. We will engage with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, in relation to the communication of this. It is something we have noticed coming up in forums as well - that there is a genuine consideration that we require very complex medical assessments. We do not. I also meant to emphasise in relation to the domiciliary care allowance earlier that we do not require assessments of need. That is still out there. We are trying to minimise the burden on those seeking to access the services. I certainly…

I thank the Deputy. As he knows, the State pension is the bedrock of our pension system in Ireland. As reflected in data from the CSO, it is effective in ensuring that our pensioners do not experience poverty. We, as a Government, are committed to ensuring that this remains the case for current pensioners, including those nearing State pension age, and today’s young workers, including those only starting their careers. Over €12 billion was allocated to State pensions in budget 2026, an increase on budget 2025. From…

I am very aware of the people of Belmullet. I had the privilege of being there recently at a 100th birthday, and with a neighbour who is 101. I give my good wishes to Mrs. Ginnelly who is 100 today. That is three people in one village breaking the 100 year mark. I am very aware of it and of older people everywhere, including in Dublin Bay South. We want to ensure there is an adequacy of income, particularly for those living alone. I am very aware of the gap and the cliff edge - for want of a better phrase - that pe…

The fuel allowance is paid to many people, such as pensioners, but it is paid to allow them make decisions about their own fuel and energy. I am certainly open to ideas as to how we make sure it can help people directly with fuel payments. People's fuel demands and fuel bills are different, depending on their use of fuel, what kind of heating systems they have and where they live. The whole basis of the fuel allowance, which we increased by €5 per week and extended by four weeks, is that people have the choice to u…

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for his question and his ongoing work on this. As a result of that work, there have been significant improvements in the fuel allowance scheme, particularly in relation to the income thresholds for those who are 66 and over. In January 2023, in order to allow more pensioner households qualify for the fuel allowance, a new fuel allowance payment was introduced for those aged 70 and over. People over 70 no longer needed to be in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment to be eligible fo…

I thank the Deputy for that example. Those are the anomalies I am looking at in the context of my previous discussion with Deputy Hayes. We are also looking at the living alone allowance. A person living on their own does not necessarily have half the costs. It is a rather arbitrary figure. In particular, it is especially challenging for somebody who goes through the trauma of losing a spouse or partner and is immediately faced with that cliff-edge. That is definitely something we will look at and particularly for …

I will work with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on that. The living alone allowance is also available for people in that situation and it is €1,144 a year. The weekly rate for the living alone allowance is higher than the 28 weeks of the fuel allowance payment. I will say it to everybody about the household benefits package. There are many people who qualify for the households benefits package who are not in receipt of it. We all need to work with those who come into our offices to make sure they are in receipt of e…

I thank Deputy McAuliffe. The annual carers’ forum was held on 7 May this year and I was delighted to attend and speak at the forum. The carers' forum is an important platform within the Department of Social Protection and allows family carers to engage directly with my Department and officials from other Departments to discuss important issues and carers' invaluable role in Irish society. I thank Family Carers Ireland and Care Alliance Ireland for partnering with my Department in organising the forum and contribut…

I thank the Deputy. As I reiterated to Deputy Healy, in the Family Carers Ireland State of Caring in Ireland report, it estimated that 68% of families can now access a carer's payment. We have made a very strong commitment in terms of abolishing the means test for the carer's payment during the lifetime of the Government which, as I remind people, is due to go until 2029. There are many other areas and the State of Caring in Ireland report outlines there are many challenges with respite in particular and access to …

There continues to be anomalies. I am due to receive a report into means testing generally across all of our Department's schemes in the coming weeks and we will be considering that. We obviously have to have means tests in many cases. We have made a commitment in relation to carers, but the kind of situation the Deputy has just described, where the caring spouse of somebody who works hard has to pay the bill for that and gets their allowance reduced, is not fair either. We are going to try to ensure this is as has…

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, on her appointment and wish her every success in her new role. It is acknowledged, as we have done this morning, that those who live alone and are dependent on certain payments from my Department face a higher cost of living than a two-person household. It is for this reason that the living alone increase is available to those in receipt of qualifying payments from my Department. The living alone allowance is a supplementary payment to those who are 66 or over, living…

I was wondering there, Deputy. I want to focus this year on targeted interventions to address those particular cohorts of people who are most at risk of falling into poverty. I want a situation where we can iron out rules within the systems that may be doing that inadvertently and may be driving people in that direction. As I said earlier, there is the situation of somebody who loses their spouse or partner and is immediately faced with the same bills but with half the income. We need to work better in terms of mak…

The programme for Government contained a commitment to introduce the automatic enrolment, AE, retirement savings system. The aim of introducing AE is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland and to provide workers with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement income. MyFutureFund was commenced on 1 January 2026. All elements of the system are operating as planned. The employer and participant website portals are fully functional and there is a very high level of compliance by employ…

It has been very successful so far. A Revenue analysis shows that 835,000 workers have been automatically enrolled. Over 9,000 have joined the scheme voluntarily and 112,750 employers are involved. Contributions thus far total €323 million. As I have said, the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority is running a campaign outlining the benefits of MyFutureFund. That will continue as the opt-out process opens. I know people are under pressure. I am very conscious of that pressure but I made the poin…

As I have said, the benefits are very much there. Somebody at the age of 23 may feel they are a long way from the age of 66. Looking around the room, I do not see anybody in that space. I assure the Members I am talking about the age of 66. However, it does happen. You get there very quickly and you do not notice it. We genuinely do have a major gap in pension coverage in this country. It is fine now, when we have four workers for every person over the age of 66, but, by the time we get to 2050, which is not that f…

I thank Deputy McGuinness for raising this matter. Supporting disabled people and reducing the disability employment gap are key priorities for me. The wage subsidy scheme is the key disability employment support provided by my Department. It aims to encourage employers to offer substantial and sustainable employment to disabled people through a subsidy. In 2024, the Department published a review of the wage subsidy scheme following a public consultation. We aimed to make the scheme more accessible and more flexibl…

I completely agree with the Deputy. Last year, we ran an overall information campaign about the wage subsidy scheme. This involved normal advertising. It led to a very small increase. We met on this issue this week. I intend to target chambers of commerce, which have a very direct connection to local businesses. Many national businesses support and use the programme. I want to see more local businesses involved because local visibility is important. I will certainly expand our outreach to include family resource ce…