Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

Gabhaim buíochas le gach Teachta as a gcuid óráidí anocht. Bhí turas suimiúil againn. Ní coimirce sóisialaí amháin a phléamar. Bhí muid ag caint faoi dhroichid, faoi bheithígh agus faoi gach rud. Gabhaim buíochas le gach Teachta a chur suim sa díospóireacht agus a thug am don ábhar tábhachtach seo. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach a rá go bhfuil €28.9 billiún le caitheamh ar chúrsaí coimirce sóisialaí sa chéad bliain eile. We will be spending €28.9 billion in the Department of Social Protection in 2026, which includes €1.15 billion in new measures. That is a record amount and a record investment in families, in communities and in people across the country. I said in opening the debate that we had prioritised resources and concentrated on a number of areas. A number of Deputies have raised the whole area of child poverty but we have provided the largest ever increases in the rates of child support payments, which are specifically targeted at people on social protection and on the lowest incomes. We have increased the threshold for the working family payment. We have increased the domiciliary care allowance, DCA. I have also applied extra resources to addressing appeals in DCA this year to try to get as quick a response as possible. Among all of the social protection budget measures, the €10 is in excess of this year's inflation rate. I accept that there is grocery inflation and energy inflation and that is why we have done targeted measures in extending the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment and also making changes to the fuel allowance for those people on disability. Therefore, there have been very targeted measures on this occasion and they are not one-off. They are permanent, targeted payments that will assist people and families.
I will try to deal with some of the issues that were in the remit of the Bill. I will not get to them all. We will have the chance to discuss them at parliamentary questions tomorrow and at committee next week. Deputy O'Reilly and a number of Deputies raised the issue of jobseeker's pay-related benefit. Budget 2026 does not provide for a change in jobseeker's pay-related benefit because it is a new scheme and I needed to go through an annual cycle to see the impact on workers, as the Deputy predicted I would say.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12