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because they are at home more. In the budget prior to the general election, they got cost-of-living measures, additional fuel allowance, living alone allowance and energy credits. When there is no election, they get zero. They got nothing this year. The budget came and went

have to be cognisant that this is very fast changing situation in the Middle East. It makes sense to extend the fuel allowance by four weeks. It makes sense that community welfare officers are liaising and working with families that are hard pressed and struggling at the moment … heating oil situation, as well gas and energy security, it is crucial that in any future supports package, we look at a living alone allowance. When two older people live together, they have the ability to combine their pensions, whatever type of pension

helping people most at risk. It is helping people when it comes to the fuel allowance, it is helping people with the living alone allowance, it is helping people in our farming communities, it is helping with the transition in the form of EV grants and infrastructure

place to send letters. In towns and villages across Ireland, the post office is the lifeline for communities. For many older people, those living alone and especially for people in rural communities, the post office is where the pension is collected, bills are paid and where the friendly … offices have closed in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan in the past ten years alone. These closures did not happen by accident, and they are certainly not the fault of the people who live in their communities. They are the result of political choices, a failure to properly

completely unwilling to provide meaningful support where it matters the most. People have been abandoned and left to face the spiralling costs alone. What should have been a moment of leadership, compassion and decisive action instead has been a bluster of hesitation, and the people have suffered. They … proper public transport to serve them. They are suffering because they still have to heat their houses, as do people who are living alone. The heat goes straight out the door for the owners of homes affected by defective concrete. They have to have the heating

Some 50,000 real people have benefited. We live in a country where over 470,000 households, or over one quarter of all homes in Ireland, now qualify for the fuel allowance. We have also reduced VAT on gas and electricity … householders, many of them pensioners, with an allowance of €420 annually towards their gas and electricity bills under the household benefits package. It is not correct to say that we are doing nothing. In fact, this year alone we are spending over €486 million on fuel allowance

huge inroads tackling vacancy and dereliction, with a particular focus on providing town centre older persons' housing to facilitate the 339 older persons living alone in two- and three-bedroom council houses in Carlow so that these family homes are accessible to families. Carlow County Council has already … build-ready position due to the nature of its previous use. If costs like this were borne by central government, it would allow Carlow County Council to more quickly fulfil its ambition to bring Carlow town centre back to life and increase housing supply for the people

they carry with them every single day. Sometimes the scale of loss is so overwhelming that it risks becoming abstract. We must never allow that to happen. I will name just a few of the victims of that day. Alan Radford died helping his mother … Mary Grimes's 66th birthday that day. Avril was 33 years old and heavily pregnant with twins, Eimear and Evelyn, whose lives never even got a chance to begin. Avril's daughter Aoibheann put it more powerfully than any of us ever could when she said: The pictures

what additional resourcing and structural measures are being put in place to ensure completion within the extended period. Second, the Bill proposes to allow the High Court to extend the discharge period where "good reason has been shown" and "it is in the interests of justice … bridge to completion, not a resetting of the clock. Third, the Bill provides that wards are to be notified of proceedings. Notification alone is not enough. The NDA research records that despite significant information efforts by public bodies, many wards and committees experienced what was described

testimony from those contributors was put to the social media companies, they disputed that there were widespread problems. Social media companies are living in their own reality. Maybe their research and assertions are being driven by their own recommender algorithms, or maybe they have built a confirmation bias … including social misperceptions, conflict and the spread of misinformation. What we take from that is that, when assessed, the platforms are failing. They allow harmful content, suicidal ideation and harmful eating disorder content. Their algorithms, as they currently are, push this on users regardless

Dhabi and Dubai a number of months ago to carry out a diaspora consultation. There are now over 14,000 Irish people living in Dubai alone. There are another 2,000 or so in Abu Dhabi and over 2,000 in both Qatar and Saudi Arabia … Irish Government has been equally clear Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. Our view was the legitimate concerns of the international community could best be addressed through dialogue. We regret more time was not allowed for diplomacy; we now face conflict in its place

reduce their energy bills permanently. This year, I secured a record allocation for fully-funded and granted-assisted retrofits of €640 million which allows us to target 73,000 home energy upgrades this year. That will be added to in excess of 240,000 that have already received … reduce their energy bills permanently. We need to accelerate the deployment of those grants as well as the grants to businesses. Last year alone, we saw 4,000 businesses avail of energy retrofit supports which reduces their energy use and to look to alternative uses of energy

August 1998 was the single worst atrocity of the Troubles. It was a senseless, brutal terrorist attack resulting in the loss of 31 lives and at least 220 people were injured. The Government has condemned the abhorrent criminal actions of those who planned and perpetrated the attack … features. The Bill is a stand-alone Bill concerned solely with the provision of assistance to the Omagh bombing inquiry. The mechanism it provides will be available to the chairman of the inquiry over the lifetime of the inquiry and will allow for assistance to be sought

capacity and ensuring that rural communities are not left behind. It means creating a network that people can depend on in their daily lives. It means going further in terms of our active travel network. Cycling is the cheapest, healthiest, cleanest and often most efficient way of getting … spat back out onto the road alongside cars. As the RTÉ presenter said, it does not pass the test of whether you would allow your child to cycle on that route. It is a real safety concern, and it is the sort of thing that discourages more people

recommendations on improving State responses to child abuse and child protection. Tusla's remit was always much broader than child protection and welfare alone. On its establishment, it took on the full functions of three existing national services - HSE children and family services, the Family Support Agency … should be. It allows Tusla staff to deliver consistent, regulated and evidence-informed services nationwide for child protection and child welfare. Successive Governments have recognised the need to assign appropriate resources to Tusla. Investment in recent budgets has allowed Tusla, among other things, to increase supports to foster

Budget 2026 increased the weekly Fuel Allowance payment by €5; and - Budget 2026 broadened the Fuel Allowance eligibility, such that an additional 50,000 working families will now be eligible for this allowance; and further notes that: - Ireland operates an open market economy, which generally means businesses … decade. We have increased the weekly fuel allowance, which remains in place. Last week we expanded eligibility to 50,000 more homes, who will now receive for the very first time the fuel allowance, with the payment backdated to 1 January. This means a back payment

Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Social Protection if the qualifying criteria for the living alone allowance can be expanded so that a public sector pensioner (details supplied) who is ineligible for a qualifying payment may be considered eligible; and if he will make a statement