Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 September 2025
634. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Social Protection the full-year and in-season costs of increasing the over-66 weekly means limits by €25 and by €50; increasing the capital disregard by €10,000 and by €25,000; and to provide estimated additional recipient numbers under each scenario, with distribution by local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51434/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraMeans tests are a central part of any social welfare system in ensuring that limited resources are targeted at those who are most in need. Ireland's system of social transfers consistently ranks among the top performers in the European Union for poverty reduction. A key factor in this achievement is Ireland's use of means testing in targeting resources for the most vulnerable in our society. In addition, research, including that presented at the ESRI's Budget Perspectives conference in June, indicates that targeting of supports to more vulnerable cohorts, through means testing, continues to be important even as societal income increases.
Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years. A number of changes to means testing which provide for higher income disregards have been introduced in recent Budgets. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, a certain level of income from that work is not assessed in the means test.
My Department has over 90 schemes and a significant number are means-tested schemes, each with their own means test. It is not clear from the Deputy's question which scheme he is referring to. Even limiting consideration to schemes where eligibility is restricted to people over 66 years, a number of different means tests apply.
The Department does not currently have the available data and modelling capacity to provide a detailed estimate for the cost of increasing the weekly means limits by €25 or €50 and increasing the various capital disregards by €10,000 or €25,000 across all schemes that apply to people aged 66 years or over. In addition, the Department does not record the local authority area of recipients, so it would not be possible to estimate the impact of such changes on recipient numbers by local authority.
Any prospective changes to means testing arrangements will need to be evaluated and considered within the broader context of overall policy and budgetary considerations.
