Social Welfare Code
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

Core rates have increased for all payments, including disability allowance. Core rates in budget 2026 increased by 4.1%, and by 4.8% for some payments. Second, in the so-called noughties, what the Deputy calls pre-austerity, there were no hot school meals going to every primary school in the country. A minimum of 500,000 children are now receiving hot school meals every year. That is an investment of nearly €300 million. It is a cost reduction for families that otherwise would be paying for meals. Every family is getting it. That universality is important because in any given school, you do not know what is happening with any given child. That is why we went for the universal model. As for the free school books scheme, ten years ago, families would have paid for everything regarding books and school equipment when going back to school. That is now paid for centrally from the Department of Education. There are the weekly rates, but there are also other interventions that are reducing the burden of cost on families, in particular, low-income families.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24