Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 April 2026
27. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will introduce a scheme to provide bikes free of charge for people in receipt of social protection payments and State pensions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31413/26]
View answerI thank the Deputy for his question. My Department provides over 140 schemes and supports to people who are in receipt of a social protection payment. These supports provide an extensive system of social transfers that is consistently one of the most effective social protection systems in the EU at reducing the at risk of poverty rate.
The social protection schemes provided by my Department provide income support to people who face certain contingencies. For instance an individual who loses their job can subject to satisfying the scheme conditions receive a jobseeker payment, an individual who is disabled can subject to satisfying the schemes conditions receive disability allowance and an individual who reaches pension age can receive a State Pension.
The provision of income supports to those who face these contingencies is the key element of our system of social protection. In addition to primary weekly payments, secondary payments are available to individuals who satisfy other scheme rules, such as the Living Alone Allowance and the Fuel Allowance scheme.
This year my Department will spend €28.9 billion in supporting people throughout the country. This investment, is delivered through the provision of income supports and each week my Department pays over 1 million primary social protection recipients. This excludes Child Benefit and any beneficiary (qualified adult or children) linked to the primary recipient's payment.
Given the scale of the payments issued by my Department, I do not envisage a situation where my Department would prioritise the provision of certain goods such as bikes to social protection recipients. Rather my preference would be ensuring that such significant investment would be used to increase social protection weekly rates of payment in future budgets.
