As I said earlier, this year, 2026, we are going to spend €557 million on the fuel allowance. We have extended it to May. It is being paid right until the beginning of May. It has been extended by four weeks and increased by €5 per week. It has been extended to 50,000 people who are on the working family payment. That is a significant extension. In 2020, we spent €290.4 million on the fuel allowance. This year, we will spend €557.4 million. The household benefits package continues to be paid. I am very much open to…

I thank Deputy McCormack for his question. Jobseeker's pay-related benefit is a new social insurance income support that replaced the jobseeker's benefit scheme for people who became fully unemployed since 31 March 2025. This is a significant reform that brought Ireland in line with many other European countries. Jobseeker's pay-related benefit means that the income support is directly linked to a person's previous earnings. People with five years' PRSI contributions receive 60% of previous earnings, subject to a m…

I thank the Deputy. His overview of people's feelings about the scheme is absolutely correct. There are 34,500 claimants of the benefit in the first year, 84% of whom qualified for the higher rates payable. Over half of those who qualified for the higher rates were paid the maximum rate, €450. We have begun an analysis of the first full year of operation, which ended at the end of March. It is too early to identify a trend or pattern from that, but most people are closing their claims before moving to the second ti…

Absolutely. As the Deputy knows, the programme for Government commits to introducing a pay-related parent's benefit and also to exploring other payments where a similar model could be applied. Parental leave and benefit were introduced in 2019. As the Deputy knows, parents can take up to nine weeks of leave in blocks of a minimum of one week in the first two years following the birth of their child. We are now going to examine the experiences from the first year of operation of jobseeker's pay-related benefit to in…

There is no direct correlation between the number and percentage of disability allowance decisions and the number of appeals that are registered during a particular time period as time differences always apply. This is particularly the case given that appeals regulations that came into effect on 28 April last year are now giving customers 60 days to make an appeal from the date of their decision. This is an increase from 21 days previously. Accordingly, appeals received in January 2026 may refer to decisions that w…

I will come back to that.

I have emphasised that 60% did not go into an appeals process. There was engagement with the person through that. As I said, in other jurisdictions, the person would be asked to submit an entirely new application. In respect of the 40%, if that decision remained unchanged, the appeal went to a formal determination by the appeals officer. The appeals officer then examined the documentary evidence that was presented and considered the appeal. Where an oral hearing is required, the appellant is generally given up to t…

It is not tangential. It is really crucial that we get consistency of information and a certain level of information and engagement. I will revert with regard to that. During quarter 1 of this year, nearly 9,000 disability allowance decisions were accepted and approved so we also have to look at the overall approval rate, which continues to be quite high. I will follow up with engagement with the various organisations regarding the consistency of information that is provided. It is important our medical assessors a…

I am certainly very aware of the situation and very much acknowledge the work of our branch managers around the country in the delivery of our services. The introduction of auto enrolment in January 26 2026 sought to address the employee pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland in order to provide all employees with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement income. As the Deputy knows, each social welfare branch office is operated and managed under a contract for service by our branch managers. As …

I can assure the Deputy there has been a lot of engagement from my Department's branch office support unit with both branch manager associations. Over the course of 2025, both associations expressed their intentions to seek a request for the review of the remuneration package. The representative group of branch managers submitted its formal request and case to the Department in May and the branch manager association did so in August. They all reflected not just auto enrolment but also the operational challenges of …

I thank Deputy Wall for his question. The Government recognises the important and valuable role of family carers and we - myself in particular - are committed to continuing to improve the supports available to them. Carer's allowance provides a personal rate for the carer with additional increases for child dependants. If the carer is providing full-time care to more than one person, the rate payable is increased by 50% of the standard personal rate. As part of budget 2026, the personal rate of carer's allowance in…

We also engage with the carer organisations and we look forward to engaging with them on their work yesterday and at our annual carers' forum, which is being held next week on 7 May. This gives carers and carers' organisations a chance to engage directly with not just myself but also with officials from across the Department and a range of budgets. We also have our pre-budget forum as a Department on 1 July, at which carers will be represented and will be part of. There are a number of issues and I will pursue the …

That is a very sensible proposal and those who care depend on heat and very high energy usage in terms of washing machines, tumble dryers, electrical equipment, beds, etc. I will look at that and see what the reason is. We introduced carers as a qualifying payment for fuel allowance a number of years ago. We will do some work to make sure those who are supposed to get it are getting it. As I said, this year we expanded the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment but, obviously, anything we do has to b…

I thank Deputy Callaghan for her question. As part of budget 2026, I announced a €1.15 billion package of new social protection measures, which included a €10 weekly increase across social welfare schemes from 1 January 2026. This raised the maximum personal rate of State pension contributory to €299.30 per week and non-contributory to €288.00 per week. These increases were set above the prevailing consumer price index, CPI, with pension rates rising by 3.46% for contributory and 3.60% for non-contributory. In dete…

I am not saying that it is not going to be possible to do anything. We are obviously not in the budget situation yet, but I am very aware of the pressures people are under and that those pressures will increase during the winter. That is why, in the context of our initial €750 million response, we have made it clear that we may have to produce further responses. However, it is important that we give ourselves the ability to be in a position to respond, and do so quickly, if this energy crisis continues through the …

I agree, particularly in relation to the fixed nature of pensioners' incomes and the challenges they face. They will be a priority for me in the context of budget 2027. I assure the Deputy of that, not just in the context of 2026 but also with regard to the increased energy costs they will face. I am very much aware of their need to have security. In respect of information, unfortunately, we will not be able to do that until budget day, but the Deputy should be very aware that I look forward to working with colleag…

I thank Deputy Boland for her question. As she acknowledged, parents' benefit provides nine weeks' paid leave to parents during the first two years of a child’s life or following adoption. Any proposal to extend the period of leave is a matter for Deputy Foley, who has legal and policy responsibility for family leave as Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. My Department has legal and policy responsibility for the payment of the associated benefits. Parents' leave and benefit were introduced in November 2…

As the Deputy knows, the programme for Government has a commitment to introduce pay-related parent's benefit. We are looking at that. We introduced pay-related jobseeker's benefit in March 2025. That has just finished its first year of operation and I am undertaking a full review of it. We will learn from the lessons of pay-related jobseeker's benefit what we can do before we carry out a consultation later in the year in relation to parental benefit. We introduced a very specific child poverty package of over €260 …

I agree and I think we have done that. This year, the fuel allowance has been extended to those on the working family payment. It is the first time the fuel allowance is available to those who are also working. That means that 50,000 extra people now qualify for the fuel allowance payment. We also ensured that it was backdated to 1 January so that the 50,000 or so families with children would receive a lump sum payment in the beginning of March for January and February and were now getting the payment up to the end…

Hear, hear.