Social Welfare Benefits

15. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the average waiting time in the last five years to award maternity benefit; paternity benefit; parents benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15027/26]

17. Deputy Catherine Callaghan asked the Minister for Social Protection the progress that has been made on the introduction of pay-related carers benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15519/26]

18. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of claims, by county, in 2025 for maternity benefit, paternity benefit and parents benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15029/26]

21. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of men, and number of women, who applied for parent’s benefit in the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14193/26]

28. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of domiciliary care allowance applications refused over the last three years, by county; the number of those refused where an appeal was registered; the outcome of that appeal, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15025/26]

29. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Social Protection for an update on plans for a targeted second-tier child benefit payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14957/26]

31. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection if he has given consideration to updating the communications allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15411/26]

32. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures being taken to strengthen income supports and remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities; and the way his Department is responding to the additional cost-of-living and service access challenges facing individuals and families in areas such as north Dublin. [15482/26]

34. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons in County Mayo claiming carers allowance; and if that number has increased or decreased over the past five years. [15141/26]

38. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of men who applied for paternity benefit, and the number of women who applied for maternity benefit, in the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14192/26]

44. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Social Protection if he intends to ensure that any disregards, means testing and income thresholds for secondary benefits including back- to-school clothing and footwear allowance, and national childcare scheme, are automatically raised in line with any core social welfare payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15655/26]

48. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline the progress in extending illness benefit to the self-employed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14228/26]

51. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the exclusion of self-employed workers from illness benefit, despite their payment of PRSI. [15646/26]

57. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Social Protection the way in which he will ensure that every effort is made to support individuals transition from welfare into further education/training and work, by examining the way in which to avoid a cliff-edge when people take up work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15022/26]

61. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons in County Mayo claiming disability allowance. [15140/26]

63. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Social Protection the current average processing times for carer's allowance; the steps his Department is taking to reduce delays and barriers faced by applicants in applying for this payment; the plans in place to deal with increased applications post July 2026 when the latest changes to the carer's allowance scheme come into place; and if he wil…

76. Deputy Catherine Callaghan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of people in receipt of unemployment benefits who have faced a reduction in their payments due to non-participation in required training, work experience, or attendance at Department of Social Protection meetings in the years 2020 to 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15520/26]

81. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection the entitlements widows and bereaved partners have from his Department; if he has any plans to revisit their entitlements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15585/26]

89. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection if consideration has been given to introducing a pay-related maternity benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15525/26]

407. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will review a jobseekers benefit payment for a person (details supplied). [15729/26]

408. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Social Protection if his Department is considering a policy change to bring Ireland in line with the rest of Europe by granting maternity and paternity benefit at 100%, or a high percentage of salary for all, or a portion of a person's entitlement to the corresponding leave; if there are policy learnings from the recent implementation of the jobseeker…

167. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons in receipt of the fuel allowance; the number of applications for fuel allowance; the number of refusals for the fuel allowance over the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15279/26]

171. Deputy Shay Brennan asked the Minister for Social Protection if stamps from taxable employment earned under employment by Posts and Telegraph, then Eir, that class D stamp can be looked at in retirement, to qualify for optical and dental treatments. [15381/26]

180. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications for jobseeker’s benefit refused since 2016 where the applicant’s primary prior income derived from elite sports participation supported by State high-performance funding; and the grounds on which such refusals were made. [15642/26]

707. Deputy Eamon Scanlon asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the current illness benefit rate, in light of concerns that the existing payment is extremely difficult to manage during periods of illness; if he will consider introducing a higher rate for individuals with long and continuous work histories; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14356/26]