Dara Calleary
Mayo · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“Agriculture is the backbone. We have all been in the Mansion House today, or everyone has said they were anyway. Energy security is key and crucial. Everybody wants energy security but nobody wants wind energy. We have to strike a balance and get a real discussion, but food security is most important.”
“While we have gaps there, we are addressing them. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has announced the minor injury units, which will take the pressure off major hospitals and ensure services are available.”
“Recent figures from the CSO show that there is a 5.8% increase in the number of people living in rural areas between 2016 and 2022. In areas classified as highly rural and remote, the increase was 6.4%.”
“Enterprise Ireland is investing in Irish-owned, Irish-founded companies. Similarly, 59% of IDA investments were located outside the Dublin region. We will continue to work, looking at the progress we can make through the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and, as Senator O'Loughlin said, through supporting our local enterprise offices.”
“That is something we do daily and they are used where is necessary. The plan will be supported by ambitious, clear, practical and measurable actions. I have spoken to some of the funding programmes available within my Department.”
“Táim tar éis cuairt a thabhairt ar gach ceantar Gaeltachta chun plé fairsing a dhéanamh leis na pobail sin chun a fháil amach uathu féin cén cineál tacaíochta ar féidir a chur ar fáil dóibh chun cabhrú leo. Táim chun leanúint ar aghaidh leis an obair sin sa bhuiséad le teacht agus na buiséid eile.”
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“Investment in these payments in 2025 is expected to be in the region of €1.9 billion. The carer’s allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Almost 102,000 people are currently supported by the carer's allowance. This year, investment in the carer’s allowance scheme is estimated to be over €1.24 billion. As all Deputies are aware, the carer’s allowance is a means-tested payment awarded to those who are providing full-time care and attention to people who need such care. We will significantly increase the income disregards in each budget with a view to phasing out the means test over the lifetime of this Government. The carer’s allowance operates on the basis of a means test. In short, we agree with Deputy Quaide that the means test should be abolished.”
“They can be used to fill gaps in that person's contribution record, including satisfying the minimum 520 paid contributions required. Over 12,600 applications have been received since the introduction of the scheme. At the end of August of this year, over 2,800 customers had been awarded over 20 years of long-term carer's contributions. There have been other positive developments. The carer's allowance is now included as a qualifying payment for the fuel allowance, once the other qualifying conditions for the fuel allowance have been satisfied. We have increased the carer's allowance disregards, which I will come back to later. The income supports for carers are the carer's allowance, carer's benefit, the domiciliary care allowance and the carer's support grant.”
“This hugely important reform enables long-term carers, predominantly women, as was acknowledged by Deputies in the Social Democrats, who have been caring for an incapacitated dependant for 20 years or more to qualify for the State pension. Under the scheme, for the first time, full-time carers can get long-term carer's contributions to cover the gaps in their contribution record that arose as part of their caring, and that can then help them to qualify for the contributory pension. Since January 2024, long-term carer's contributions can be awarded to somebody who has cared for an incapacitated person for a period of 20 years or more. These contributions are treated the same as paid contributions for the contributory State pension entitlement only.”
“We cannot do so in a single budget, as the motion proposes, and I will deal with that point later, but we will do so in a progressive manner. Over the years we have sought, and ensured, that the interests of carers are front and centre of budget discussions. This approach has been evidenced across the suite of care income support payments. As part of budget 2025, we extended the social insurance-based carer’s benefit scheme to the self-employed for the first time. In June, we increased the carer’s support grant. It now stands at €2,000 a year, its highest ever rate. Significantly, we also delivered on the commitment to provide a pension solution for long- term carers.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Quaide as na Social Democrats as an rún seo inniu. Ní bheimid ag cur i gcoinne an rúin. We will not be opposing the motion put forward by Deputy Quaide and the Social Democrats. I welcome the opportunity the motion gives us to discuss the very important issue of carer's supports that are provided by my Department. The motion is timely and I welcome in particular the focus given by Deputy Cummins to the educational aspect. That issue was raised with the Department in June during the carer's forum we host annually and I am committed to looking at it. She raised a very important issue. The Government remains committed to phasing out the carer's allowance means test over the term of this Dáil.”
“There is never a good time to have a deduction but this is a deduction that will get a top-up from the employer and a top-up from the State and will be available to people when they do not have the chance to raise extra income. When they are going into retirement, their chances to raise that necessary extra income to supplement their State income will come through the My Future Fund. The chance to have a good standard of living at a time when they do not have the opportunities to raise money as they may have while working will be there through My Future Fund. That is why we are doing it now. I have asked the Department to change the tone of the communication so that people are not surprised and not shocked when that deduction happens. That deduction is a long-term investment in their family, in their selves and in their retirement.”
“In response to Senator Crowe on the management fees issue, NAERSA is going to be a strong body in running this scheme. It is not going to come from the Exchequer. Equally, this will also be monitored by the Pensions Commission and the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. Those owners of My Future Fund, those 810,000-odd people will have the same rights as anybody with a pension in terms of monitoring this. Gabhaim buíochas le gach Seanadóir as an díospóireacht seo. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach sna seachtainí romhainn, it is important that we start raising awareness of this and that, at the end of December, people will have deductions. Senator McCormack raised that issue.”
“We are trying to make that a key part of it as we all go through multiple employments. The days of a job for life are gone. We need to make sure people own and have possession of their fund as soon as they start working and contributing PRSI. NAERSA should absolutely focus on that aspect. In response to Senator Harmon, the contributory State pension is about €21,000 or €22,000 a year. That is a big drop for somebody on the average working wage at retirement. This is to add to that. The means test has been highlighted here this evening and in the Dáil last week. That is not an issue that will arise for some time, until that builds up. However, it is something I will be highlighting during my time as Minister to be aware to.”
“She is one of an exceptionally talented board. She will take no nonsense on behalf of workers. I welcome that appointment. In relation to self-employment, I went through the reasons it has not worked internationally in terms of the inability for them to register, but it is something I am very conscious of. The whole area of bogus self-employment, which was raised by the Labour Party Senators Cosgrove and Harmon and was raised in the Dáil last week, is something I will be tasking NAERSA to be vigilant to. The CEO of NAERSA began work this week. We have been very much awake to that. In regard to young workers, as we embed and strengthen the system, we can look to this issue. It comes back to a point Senator Curley made. This is transferable. Your Future Fund is yours. You bring it with you from employment to employment.”
“I dealt with the NTMA issue because Your Future Fund is yours; it is not country's. It will be invested to maximise the return for you. Senator Curley raised the point about ethical investment. That is laid out in legislation. Section 74 of the Act is very clear in terms of ESG. I will be instructing NAERSA to be very awake to that, and not just ESG but to other priorities that people have that may not be within the ESG issue. In response to Senators Cosgrove, Harmon and Crowe, I was absolutely delighted to see Patricia King come forward to the Commission for Public Service Appointments. Hundreds of people applied to be on the board of NAERSA, which was really interesting. There were exceptionally talented people with really good experience of big projects and small projects. I am delighted to see Patricia King appointed.”
“That is not something to be proud of. As our demographics change, we have to make the tough calls on that now. On it being a boon to the pension industry, I do not think so. A total of 800,000 people are going to come into the pension industry for the first time ever. Because they are coming in on lot, we have seen already that in terms of our contracts with Irish Life, Amundi and BlackRock the administration fees that are going to be paid are much lower because we are bringing 800,000 people to the table, as opposed to each of those 800,000 people going separately. We have used the power of that 800,000 to get a much lower rate on the necessary administration fees. The pension industry is absolutely not happy with this. Pension providers certainly tried to resist this for long enough in terms of information.”
“Our pension provision is relatively well-catered for as public service workers. When we have four workers for every person over the age of 65, do we wait until 2050, which scarily enough is not that far away, when we will have two workers for every person over 65 and when our State pension system, which will continue to be the bedrock, will become challenging? Do we continue to speak about pensioner poverty and not actually take the hard calls to get people engaged now? Pensions fry people's heads, especially younger people. When we are in our 20s and 30s, we all think that can wait, whether we can afford it or not. Senator Cosgrove made a good point that, when starting off in life, it is a difficult time. We are the last country in the OECD to implement an auto-enrolment such a scheme. Let us remember that.”
“I thank all the Senators for their inputs this evening. I join with Senator O'Donovan and, indeed, all of the Senators in paying my tribute and my respect to former councillor, Patrick Gerard Murphy, on his passing. I express my sympathies. He was a brilliant representative, a courageous man and somebody who always had the good of Cork at his heart. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. I have a very long script, full of technical stuff. I will try to deal with some of the queries and revert to the Senators. I thank Senators Rabbitte and O'Donovan for their welcome for the scheme. Senator Rabbitte had a lot of questions about the scheme in committee back in July. We tried to engage with her on that and obviously we answered a lot of those queries. I might ask Senator McCormack, when is the right time? At this stage we are lucky.”
“Therefore, nothing would change by requiring the NTMA to become involved in My Future Fund; in fact, all that would happen is the NTMA would have to set up a NAERSA-type entity, which we are already doing. A Sheanadóiri, I took this time to briefly explain the policy rationale for introducing My Future Fund to ensure that we all as public representatives have a clear understanding of its key features. This will be a transformative scheme for this country and will bear great fruit, particularly for younger generations. It will not be without its challenges, however, and I want to work with all Senators in addressing those challenges and the inevitable teething problems. Ultimately, My Future Fund and the auto-enrolment system is an investment in our country's future.”
“Further drawdown options will be developed over the coming years alongside the annuity and ARF options that are already available from the pensions market, but this will be for NAERSA, which is statutorily independent, to consider and make recommendation on. A number of issues were raised following our audiovisual room briefing in July and the Dáil debate last week. One is that the NTMA should invest the savings of participants, rather than NAERSA investing the savings in the commercial market on their behalf. This suggestion comes from the wish of some to keep participants’ funds entirely away from the services of the market. However, that desire would not be fulfilled by involving the NTMA because the NTMA invests State money in the international stock market and uses commercial investment managers from private industry to do so.”
“While NAERSA will ensure all investments will be in line with the prudent person principle, and in the best long-term interests of the participants, each of the contracted-for-investment services will be required to have environmental, social and governance, ESG, principles applied to it in accordance with section 74 of the auto-enrolment Act 2024. At the end of this investment period, each participant will be able to access their savings pot once they reach the State pension age of 66. In the first few years of the scheme, drawdown products will be limited to a simple lump sum payment because savings pots will be relatively small. Taxation arrangements are being provided for separately in the finance Bill but they will broadly align with the tax treatment of PRSAs, including the application of the tax treatment of trivial pensions.”
“Contributions will start at 1.5% of gross pay, increasing to 3% after three years of operation, to 4.5% after a further three years of operation and finally to 6% from year ten. This will, in effect, add up to 14% of an employee's gross income and is the very least that international evidence suggests is an adequate rate of saving. The incremental implementation of contribution rates will allow employees and employers to adjust over time. The money will then be invested, as I have already mentioned.”
“I am unaware of any country that has successfully included the self-employed in its auto-enrolment system. An attempt to do so in Chile, for example, failed and was ultimately substituted by a legal requirement on the self-employed to contribute to a private pension on their own behalf. It is important to note that the self-employed in Ireland already have the entire private pensions market, as well as State support in the form of generous tax relief allowances, to help them save for retirement. In terms of how much workers will save to My Future Fund, contributions will be made equally by employees and employers, with the State providing a top-up of €1 for every €3 saved by an employee. In short, every €3 saved by an employee will automatically become €7.”
“Anyone who is outside of these age and income thresholds may voluntarily opt in to the scheme. Where they do, their employer and the State will be compelled by the legislation to contribute as if they had been automatically enrolled. I will address the suggestion that the self-employed should be eligible for My Future Fund. It will not be available to the self-employed during the initial phase because the payroll-based operational model this system is based on does not suit the self-employed. The system is based on there being an employer who pays an employee through an established payroll facility, which is absent for the self-employed. The fixed contribution rates for auto-enrolment may not suit them either, given the variability of their weekly or monthly earnings.”
“In regard to the eligibility criteria, those earning in excess of €20,000 per annum across any number of employments, aged over 23 and under 60, and not already contributing to an occupational or private pension scheme through payroll will be automatically enrolled. It is expected that about 750,000 workers will be enrolled in this way. Participants will be able to opt-out after six months’ mandatory participation, at which time they will get their own contributions back, but the employer and State contributions will remain invested in their accounts. They will also be able to suspend their participation for up to two years. In all cases where a person opts out or suspends, they will be automatically re-enrolled after two years, after which opt-out and suspension options will be available again.”
“In addition, the scheme has a "pot follows the member" approach, which means that where an employee moves from employment to employment over his or her working life, that employee can maintain the same My Future Fund account at all times. Further, the system is automated through payroll software to minimise the administrative burden for employers, especially those that do not have expertise in operating pension schemes. These design features have come about from studying what other countries have done well but also what they have done badly, with a view to doing everything better here. This is the only advantage of being the last country in the OECD to adopt such a system.”
“It will ensure compliance with the scheme by following up where contributions are not collected or are collected and not remitted, up to and including the imposition of sanctions, penalties and prosecutions where necessary. I moved the launch date from the end of September to 1 January 2026 to allow payroll providers and small employers more time to prepare and to align their systems with the normal tax year. The design of the scheme is deliberately straightforward. It is easy to understand. From the investment perspective, there is a default strategy whereby participants’ savings are moved from a higher risk to a medium-risk to a lower risk fund the closer they get to the retirement age of 66. The scheme facilitates choice between these three risk levels but does not require a choice to be made by the participant.”
“I want to make the point that the system was deliberately branded "My Future Fund". This reflects the purpose of the scheme, namely, to save and invest for the future, while highlighting that these savings will remain the personal property of the participants. This is not a State fund. NAERSA will do the vast bulk of the administration of this scheme. There will be little for employers to do and very little administrative cost for them. The authority, which has statutory independence, will determine who will be enrolled. It will electronically issue notifications to payroll systems, collect the contributions and pool those contributions for onward investment with investment managers. It will provide online portals for employees, employers and agents to access accounts and services. It will provide a customer support service.”
“Members of this House will have seen the advertising campaign over the summer featuring ice cream with a cherry on top. This has been a continuation of the communications work that has been taking place over the past couple of years, which is now shifting from direct employer and other stakeholder outreach through webinars and in-person conferences to paid public awareness campaigns. This will continue and intensify over the coming months. A key point in the communications strategy for every citizen, but particularly for those of in the Oireachtas, is the auto-enrolment information hub that is available at [ www.gov.ie/autoenrolment ] . This resource has lots of information, including explanatory videos, to explain the scheme to us so that we can explain it to all types of stakeholders.”
“My departmental officials, who have done extraordinary work on this project to date, are continuing to work hard and are working closely with in excess of 60 payroll product developers across a range of payroll providers through the Payroll Software Developers Association to assist them with the changes they need to make to their software to facilitate the calculation and collection of My Future Fund contributions. Testing work is ongoing with the Revenue Commissioners, which will be providing vital payslip data. I recently announced the recruitment of a chief executive officer of the new National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority, NAERSA, as well as the chair and members of its board. Further staff recruitment is at an advanced stage.”
“Following an extensive procurement exercise, Tata Consultancy Services, TCS, based in Letterkenny, County Donegal, has been appointed as managed service provider of the scheme’s administrative services and is busy building, configuring and testing its systems in line with the scheme’s requirements. Three investment managers - Irish Life Investment Managers, Amundi and BlackRock - are being selected following an extensive public procurement exercise. These companies are busy readying their funds and developing and testing integration with TCS.”
“It is important to note that the State pension will remain the bedrock of the State pension system, providing retirees with a basic level of income and protecting them against pensioner poverty. In that context, My Future Fund will complement the State pension and provide additional income to future retirees to secure their standard of living in retirement. Many milestones have already been reached on this journey. The legislation to underpin this new system, the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act passed through this House in 2024.”
“If not addressed now, this low level of coverage means that a large cohort of people will, in their retirement, be fully dependent on the State pension and whatever assets they have otherwise accumulated. For some, this will result in a significant drop in living standards. Currently, we have four workers for every person over the age of 65. By 2050, we will have two workers for every person over 65. As well as a pension coverage gap, there is the ongoing challenge of pension adequacy because even where people may be in a pension scheme, many of them are not saving enough to ensure an adequate income in retirement that is commensurate with their lifestyle ambitions.”
“I join in the good wishes and wish Senator O'Donovan health and happiness. He will be very interested in auto-enrolment. The Government has prioritised the introduction of an automatic enrolment retirement savings system. It will be known by its brand name My Future Fund. It is a key reform commitment to support workers and a key priority for me personally as Minister for Social Protection. The scheme is necessary to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland. It is estimated that only 35% of private sector workers are in pension schemes. This pension coverage gap exists despite the fact that successive Governments, over many decades, have provided significant incentivisation through tax relief.”
“Absolutely. It is definitely worth an engagement and an analysis. My Department would be more than happy to engage in a conversation around the international experience and the international data, but also engage with the organisations in this space for their expertise on that. Certainly, the Department officials will engage. I look forward to seeing that engagement and I will work with the Deputy in relation to it.”
“Similarly, researchers found that when the United Kingdom replaced the family allowance payment to the father with a children's allowance to the mother, it resulted in greater spending on children's clothing. Second, Safe Ireland, which works with more than 40 specialist domestic violence member organisations across the country, has pointed out that domestic violence, which is overwhelmingly experienced by women, often includes economic abuse and that control of household income can be one of the ways in which this type of abuse manifests itself. Many would argue that directing the child benefit payment to the mother can act to mitigate the impact of this kind of abuse. Finally, in split custody arrangements, it would be challenging to split the payment proportionately on a case-by-case basis.”
“Legislation does not provide for splitting the payment between both parents, even in instances where the child splits their time evenly between both households. In cases where the parents have an equal custody arrangement, the payment is traditionally awarded to the mother. There are a number of reasons that this policy position has been maintained. First, various international studies have found that, on average, when the child benefit payment is made to the mother, it results in more money spent on the child than when it is paid to the father. For example, a 2017 article published in the International Tax and Public Finance journal found that more money is spent on food when the mother is in control of child benefits compared to when it is jointly controlled.”
“I thank the Deputy for the question. As we discussed offline yesterday, it would be good to start a conversation in this space and it might be something that the social protection committee could look at. Child benefit is a monthly payment to families with children up to the age of 16. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is currently paid in respect of almost 1.3 million children. Child benefit is paid to the person with whom the child normally resides. Where a child spends time across two households, they are considered to reside in the household where they spend the majority of the time.”
“The means-testing measurement is there to ensure that we target resources at those who most need them and that those resources, which are scarce, go to the areas that need them most. If there are specific cases, we will engage with the Deputy on them.”
“As I said in my main response, farm assist is a flexible payment as compared to, for instance, jobseeker's allowance, and there are better supports available to those on farm assist. That flexibility is built-in, as I said. Self-employed income, under jobseeker's allowance, is assessed at 100%. Under farm assist, that is 70%. Child disregards apply under farm assist which do not apply to jobseekers. In relation to the home carer's scheme, we are trying to ensure that carers who look after people within the home - the family carers, be that in a home or on a farm - are also given support through pension and we have reduced a scheme in recent years to ensure that is done.”
“If the Deputy has specific cases that are not qualifying, I ask him to bring them to my attention and we will work to try and assist him on those.”
“Child disregards apply under farm assist which do not exist under jobseeker's allowance. In addition, account is taken of any exceptional circumstances to ensure the assessment for the scheme reflects the current situation accurately. The scheme is demand-led and there are currently just over 3,300 farmers availing of the farm assist payment. The Government acknowledges the valuable role that family carers play and remains fully committed to supporting carers in that role, including those who care in a farm situation. This is recognised in the programme for Government. We provide a range of income supports for carers, including carer's allowance, carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance and the annual carer's support grant.”
“My Department provides a number of supports for small-scale farmers in the circumstances outlined by Deputy Roche. Farm assist is the statutory income support specifically for farmers on low incomes. A person can qualify for farm assist if he or she is aged from 18 to 66, engaged in farming and meets the other statutory scheme conditions of the scheme. The farm assist scheme is similar to the jobseeker's allowance in a number of ways, such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes where a person may want to take up off-farm employment or is seeking educational or training opportunities. However, the means test is more generous on farm assist. For example, under jobseeker's allowance, self-employed income is assessed at 100%; this is reduced to 70% under farm assist.”
“Funding is available for communications support, work equipment, workplace adaptation and training. Jobseekers, employees, self-employed people and employers may apply for those supports. We are very conscious of the need to continue to promote the schemes and this is something I want to focus on through next year.”
“Aontaím leis an Teachta go gcaithfimid an obair ag chur dínn agus an focal a chur amach. We did that this year through the summer after we relaunched the wage subsidy. We promoted it considerably and used targeted promotion to employers to encourage them to take on persons with disabilities and look at the opportunities that would bring to their businesses. In relation to the partial capacity scheme and the wage subsidy scheme, we have allocated an additional €3.7 million. We have also expanded the wage subsidy scheme to the community and voluntary sector and to the commercial State-sponsored sector to open up opportunities possibly on a more local basis than is currently the case. In July 2024, we launched the new work and access scheme, which offers seven supports to improve access in workplaces for those with a disability.”
“This is cofinanced with the EU employment, inclusion, skills and training, EIST, programme to support people with disabilities into employment through 57 local, regional and national organisations. In 2024, more than 1,400 people with disabilities engaged with these projects.”
“We are working through all the recommendations and the review with a view to implementing them. One of the key recommendations was to ensure we can keep the minimum required hours and the subsidy under more regular review than was done previously. This is something we are absolutely going to make sure happens. We are also working with our colleagues in Intreo to ensure services and employment opportunities are available to people with disabilities. EmployAbility provides a professional job-matching service and ongoing support, advice and information on employment supports for people with a disability. It also acts as a recruitment advice service for employers and provides the business community with access to a pool of potential employees. In 2023, we also established the WorkAbility programme.”
“In April 2024, based on the findings of that review, the minimum required hours for the scheme were reduced from 21 hours per week to 15 hours per week. This change sought to make the scheme more accessible and flexible to disabled people. However, it is also intended to ensure that the wage subsidy scheme maintains a key aim of encouraging employers to provide substantial and meaningful work to disabled people. The cost of the reduction in the hours requirement is estimated at approximately €889,000. This represents the cost of paying the subsidy in respect of employees whose weekly contracted hours are from 15 to 20 hours, inclusive. Prior to the change, employers would not have been eligible for the subsidy in respect of those employees.”
“The wage subsidy scheme is a key disability employment support provided by my Department. It aims to encourage employers to offer substantial and sustainable employment to disabled people through a subsidy. As the Deputy knows, the employee must work at least 15 hours per week for the employer to qualify for the scheme. The subsidy is payable for a maximum of 39 hours per week. The base subsidy rate is €6.30 per hour, which increases to €9.45 per hour for employers with 23 or more disabled employees. An employer who employs 25 or more employees on the wage subsidy scheme may receive a grant of €30,000 towards the cost of employing an employment assistance officer. Last year, my Department published a review of the wage subsidy scheme.”
“We had an engagement earlier with Deputy Quaide around the Indecon report and the ESRI report and the work of the network will involve going through those figures and ensuring we have full understanding within the Department and the Government of the full cost of disability, not just for those who have a disability, but also for their families and their communities.”
“Absolutely, it is. Under the national human rights strategy for disabled people, one of our jobs is to lead a strategic focus network from within the Department. The network will include people with disabilities and their advocates. I have asked the officials to expedite the establishment of that group, and one of the areas we will be looking at is the cost of disability payment. I intend to bring a proposal to the Government in the first half of 2026 concerning this payment. In the meantime, I am engaging with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Department of public expenditure around continuing to give support to disabled people in budget 2026 in terms of a recognition of the substantially higher costs that they face daily and weekly.”
“As the Deputy said, we are examining the whole area of means testing. It is important that our supports are targeted and go to those who need them most in terms addressing people in poverty. The work is ongoing on that, in particular as regards the disability allowance. We have been tasked within the human rights strategy on disability to look at this issue. We have set up a network to examine it. Most importantly, however, we will be engaging with people with disabilities and their advocates in this space with a view to informing me and the Government about the best way to proceed and ensure, first, that whatever changes we make will not disadvantage those on the payment currently and, second, ensure the payment is as relevant and effective as possible to those receiving it as their main income every week.”
“This enables those in receipt of disability allowance to earn more without having a negative impact on their payment. It means that people can earn up to €165 per week and keep their payment in full and can earn up to €517.60 per week and keep a portion of their payment. We know that disabled people are at a much higher risk of poverty, have lower employment rates and a higher cost of living and we want to address that. The national human rights strategy has tasked my Department with dealing a strategic focus network, including people with disabilities and their advocates, on the cost of disability. The work of this network, which I have asked my officials to expedite, will inform my approach to the reform of disability payments.”
“Applying a means test ensures that the recipient has an income need and that scarce resources are targeted to those with the greatest need. This approach supports an economically sustainable and socially equitable allocation of scarce resources. Disability allowance has one of the highest capital disregards operated by my Department. A recipient can have up to €50,000 in savings and still receive the full rate of payment, compared to €20,000 for most other social welfare payments. Over the last four budgets, the Government has progressively improved payment rates and income disregards for disabled people. The weekly payment rates for disability allowance have increased by €41 per week in that time. The earnings disregard has increased by almost 38% since budget 2021, from €120 to €165.”
“Supporting disabled people is a key priority for me and for the Government. That is why the programme for Government contains a range of measures to support disabled people. One of these commitments was the publication of a new disability strategy. I am very pleased that we recently published the national human rights strategy for disabled people. This strategy sets out a whole-of-Government approach to disability, with its focus on ensuring the full participation of disabled people in Irish society. Disability allowance is my Department's primary disability-related social assistance scheme. The payment is subject to a medical assessment, a means test and a habitual residency requirement. The means test takes account of the income a person or couple has in terms of cash, property other than the family home and capital.”