Social Welfare Benefits

165. Deputy Brian Brennan asked the Minister for Social Protection the current status of the carer's benefit application for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36649/25]

510. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Social Protection the reasons for the persistent delays in processing applications for the domiciliary care allowance; to provide the current average waiting time for new applications; to detail the measures being taken to reduce backlogs and improve processing efficiency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35293/25]

521. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing child benefit by 10% and extending payment to all children aged 18 years or under, including those in the international protection process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35641/25]

522. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing qualified child rates by €6 for children under 12 and €15 for children 12; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35642/25]

525. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of extending parent’s benefit to 52 weeks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35645/25]

528. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of extending parent’s benefit by one week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35706/25]

529. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the weekly payments for maternity benefit, adoptive benefit, paternity benefit, and parent’s benefit to €350 per week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35707/25]

534. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will address the issue of supports for families who are sharing custody of children with special needs (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35761/25]

129. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Social Protection the supports available from his Department to bereaved parents of children. [34682/25]

131. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Social Protection for an update on the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34796/25]

576. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of claims open for jobseekers benefit on 31 March 2025 before the jobseekers pay-related benefit scheme began; and if any consideration was given to retrospectively applying the new benefit to the cohort in receipt of the original payment.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33983/25]

588. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason jobseeker’s benefit appeals are taking so long and to examine the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34238/25]

600. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline the entitlements of EU and UK nationals living in Ireland to jobseekers allowance, jobseekers benefit, children’s allowance, and any other additional supplementary or emergency payments; to outline the conditions attached to such claims; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34490/25]

89. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection whether his Department will conduct a review of the delays relating to the awarding of disability and carer’s allowance, particularly in light of delays of up to five months that have occurred in County Laois; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33295/25]

91. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide an update on the progress made by his Department in exploring the introduction of a targeted second-tier child benefit payment for low-income families in light of recent reports highlighting a significant rise in child poverty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33150/25]

96. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Social Protection his plans to suspend the periodic means test reviews for carers in receipt of carer's benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33130/25]

107. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Social Protection if he recognises the anomaly in the social welfare system which means that people in receipt of widow’s pension, and who are working, are penalised if they become ill and can no longer work, because they cannot claim illness benefit for example; if he intends to address this anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter.…

123. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Social Protection the breakdown of illness benefit recipients by length of time they have been in receival of the payment, under 1 year, between 1 and 2 years, between 2 and 3 years, between 3 and 4 years and between 4 and 5 years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32949/25]

134. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Social Protection if consideration will be given to entitling persons on widows’ pension to claim illness benefit when off sick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33211/25]

142. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider extending social welfare benefits to surrogate parents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33201/25]

148. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection if he is aware of a cohort of people in the State with five plus years of PRSI contributions who are only entitled to the minimum rate of jobseeker’s pay-related benefit; if he is aware that this group, due to historically favourable circumstances in the housing market may have had the means to purchase a house, pay off a mortgag…

166. Deputy Catherine Callaghan asked the Minister for Social Protection the cost of extending illness benefit to the self-employed; the estimated increase in PRSI rates that would be required to meet this cost; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32947/25]

176. Deputy Catherine Callaghan asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide a breakdown, by county, of the number of persons who have qualified for the new pay-related benefit since it was introduced; if he will confirm the average payment rate under the scheme to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32946/25]

181. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of people who have availed of parents benefit in each of the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; the number of mothers and the number of fathers who have availed of parent's benefit in each of these years; his views on whether further steps can be taken to encourage greater uptake of parent's bene…

182. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection regarding the self-employed who are on an S contribution for access to illness benefit, if he will implement a similar scheme as the scheme in place for job seekers benefit for self-employed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32973/25]