I thank the Deputy. I do not mind at all. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a once-off annual payment to eligible families to assist with the cost of clothing and footwear when children start or start back at school each autumn.
Last year, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance payments totalled €57.04 million. This was paid to more than 149,500 families in respect of 264…
TDs / Dara Calleary
Dara Calleary
Minister for Rural and Community Development and the GaeltachtMinister for Social Protection
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
234,885
words spoken in the chamber
234,882 as a minister, 3 as a TD
406
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 896 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 42 |
| March 2025 | 66 |
| April 2025 | 12 |
| May 2025 | 140 |
| June 2025 | 43 |
| July 2025 | 32 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 46 |
| October 2025 | 40 |
| November 2025 | 42 |
| December 2025 | 42 |
| January 2026 | 43 |
| February 2026 | 74 |
| March 2026 | 31 |
| April 2026 | 45 |
| May 2026 | 46 |
| June 2026 | 40 |
| July 2026 | 37 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 45 |
| October 2026 | 30 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 735 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Mayo 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Rural and Community Development 23 January 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister for Social Protection 23 January 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht 2 June 2025 to now
- office Minister for Social Protection 2 June 2025 to now
On the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance for foster families, it was an anomaly that foster children could not qualify for this scheme. This was even to the extent that there could be foster children and other children within a family. Some of the children would have qualified and the foster children would not. I have corrected that anomaly. There are means tests, however, across all our schemes. I do no…
The Government welcomes the publication of the fourth child poverty monitor. I acknowledge and thank the Children's Rights Alliance and its constituent members for the work they have put into this. The child poverty monitor draws on the survey on income and living conditions, SILC, 2024, which was published by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in March 2025. It is based on a survey conducted throughout 2024 asking …
I wish to reiterate that we are disappointed by the latest child poverty figures. However, it is important to recognise that in 2023, when the SILC income data was collected, the Government had not yet brought in free school meals for all primary schools, which we have now done, or free school books across second level, which we have now done. Those supports will make a difference to children in poverty. It will be r…
It will require continuous targeted investment. We will be making choices in the context of budget 2026 regarding targeted supports for children and families. I look forward to the Deputy's support for those. In the context of the programme for Government, we will continue to retain the child poverty and well-being office in the Department of the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach made it very clear to me when I was appointed …
My Department is committed to providing quality service to all, ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made in a timely manner. We absolutely understand the pressures people face, and we ensure that claims are processed quickly and efficiently.
There are almost 170,000 people in receipt of disability allowance and more than 100,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance. The n…
I thank the Deputy for his feedback. We discussed this matter in the context of preparing a reply to his question. We are putting a huge number of resources into dealing with appeals. We have 20 extra staff who have been assigned to the appeals unit. They have been trained up and are working. The number of domiciliary care appeals decreased from approximately 1,200 in the middle of May to just over 600 by the middle …
In recent weeks, I took the time to try to visit all the Department's regional offices in which many of these claims are dealt with, including our head office in Dublin. I met all the staff, and they are doing absolutely fantastic work. We have nearly 7,000 members of staff across the Department of Social Protection, many of whom are managing these claims and turning them around as quickly as possible. Where there ar…
The carer's allowance is the main scheme by means of which my Department provides income supports to carers in every community. As the Deputy will be aware, more than 100,000 people are in receipt of carer's allowance. Expenditure on the scheme in the current year is estimated to be more than €1.24 billion. Carer’s allowance provides an income support to people whose earning capacity is substantially reduced because …
I reiterate our full support for carers. I fully recognise the gender impact caring has. Deputy Ardagh is right to highlight that.
It is important to look at the progress made on disregards in recent years. I want that to continue and for more people to qualify for the payment. The carer's support grant, which was paid at the beginning of June, is not subject to a means test. It is paid out. We are working through a…
I assure the Deputy that we are working on the plan and on what will be involved, not only financially but also in other ways, in the context of abolishing the means test, and we will continue to do so.
I also highlight that a great deal of work has been done to support long-term carers. The long-term carer's contribution scheme ensures that people who have been full-time carers for at least 20 years will get contri…
Mar is eol an Teachta, child benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is paid in respect of almost 1.3 million children. Expenditure on the scheme in the current year is estimated at more than €2.2 billion. In addition to child benefi…
Táimid ag obair ar an two-tier payment. We are looking at that but there is quite a lot of work involved and it is a complex issue to examine. In the meantime, budget 2025 had targeted increases in the one-parent family payment and the jobseeker's transitional payment, which increased by €12 per week. The weekly rate of the child support payment, which is very important in this space, increased by €8 to €62 per week …
That is our intention. The work of the Department is to help those who are struggling. To give the Deputy a sense of the complexity of this, one of the considerations in the ESRI proposal was to amalgamate the working family payment with the child support payment but that would result in people losing out on what they are getting at the moment. If we are to do this, people cannot lose out. We have to look at expandin…
I thank the Deputy for his question. I am very well informed of the situation at Wellman by the Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth. There is significant uncertainty for the employees, their families and the wider community and our thoughts are with those workers. Our priority within the Department of Social Protection is to ensure that affected employees receive access to all necessary supports.
Notification of c…
Yes. There is a long tradition with this company. There were previous short-term layoffs in 2023 and there was engagement at that time with the Department of Social Protection. There was departmental engagement on 9, 10 and 12 June of this year. We have been notified that there will be a number of redundancies but we will engage with each person. Intreo staff will provide a personalised service to each affected perso…
Yes, jobseeker's pay-related benefit has been in place since March of this year and will apply. We have already received quite a number of applications - over 10,000 - so that is very much in place. Furthermore, the experience of MyWelfare.ie and people being able to apply online gives us a quicker turnaround and ensures that people do not have any major gaps in their income. There are also wider supports available t…
I am aware of the report the Deputy referenced and I share her concern regarding the data from the 2024 survey on income and living conditions, SILC, presented in the report. However, as I said earlier this morning, the data does not fully capture many of the Government actions in recent years to address child poverty. SILC asks people each month to provide income and poverty status data for the previous 12 months. T…
Tuigim go mór cé chomh dáiríre is atá an fhadhb seo. Is é sin an fáth go bhfuil a lán oibre déanta ag an Rialtas. We fully understand the challenges but a lot of work has been done in this space. The ESRI has shown, backing up Deputy O'Reilly's view, that direct social transfers by way of child-related cash and in-kind payments have lifted an estimated 157,000 children out of income poverty and 94,000 out of consiste…
We recognise that the cost of living is still incredibly challenging. Not all the measures we have taken have been one-off measures. The hot school meals and free schoolbook schemes are continuous improvements that will directly assist in reducing child poverty. The expansion of the hot school meals scheme, in particular, was not recognised in the SILC data.
Deputy O'Reilly and I are at one on the importance of targ…
I thank Deputy Butterly for her question. The free travel scheme provides free travel on our main public and private transport services for those who are eligible. There are over 1 million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on the free travel scheme in 2025 is €107.6 million.
The programme for Government has committed to examining an extension of free travel to include children who benefit …
I fully recognise the importance of DCA. That is why we in the Department have put such a focus on it. We have particularly focused on trying to reduce the waiting periods for appeals and applications. I fully understand how important it would be to extend free travel to include those in receipt of DCA for many reasons, including medical and social appointments.
Regarding free travel, we are currently focused on imp…
I absolutely guarantee it will be considered. I fully understand the pressures those in receipt of DCA are under. We want to enhance their lived experience. It will be considered, in line with other commitments within the programme for Government. It is a commitment within the programme for Government and will be delivered on within the lifetime of this Government. I note the Deputy's strong support for the measure. …
Tuigim cé chomh tábhachtach atá na scéimeanna seo. Tá siad ag déanamh an-jab i ngach cuid den tír. Tosóimid le CE agus beimid in ann RSS agus Tús a phlé ar ball. Community employment schemes make an extraordinary contribution right around the country. I have engaged with many of the schemes over recent months since my appointment as Minister. There are currently 19,693 participants and 1,223 supervisors on 810 CE sch…
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as sin. Tá sé seo tábhachtach. The schemes have a lot in common; there are a lot of differences, though. All the schemes - CE, Tús and RSS - were set up with different priorities and different cohorts in mind, initially achieving different things but as they have evolved doing many of the same things. I am definitely looking at all the schemes. They play a vital role. As I look around…