Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset I want to pass on the apologies of the Minister for Social Protection who cannot be here to take this debate as she had a long-standing commitment. The Minister is not opposing the motion put forward by the Deputies. I welcome this opportunity to discuss the important issue of supporting our family carers.

I thank the Regional Group of Deputies who brought forward this motion. I think this is a timely discussion. As the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, I regularly engage with Family Carers Ireland. I will touch a little bit on the work I have been doing for carers later in my speech. Any opportunity to raise caring on the floor of the Dáil Chamber is really important.

I am conscious that some people are dual carers and may be caring for a child with an additional need as well as elderly parents. That is an area on which there is not a lot of focus but many people may end up playing a dual caring role.

Next month, the Department of Social Protection will host the annual carers forum as part of its commitment under the national carers strategy. Every year, the Minister for Social Protection engages directly with carers' organisations and family carers at the event. A number of initiatives and improvements have been a direct result of her engagement with carers at this forum. On a personal level, I know that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has sought to prioritise carers in recent budgets. In budget 2021, her first budget in the Department of Social Protection, the Minister increased the carer's support grant to €1,850, its highest ever level. She has also delivered on the programme for Government commitment to provide a pension solution for long-term carers, which has been welcomed by Deputies.

From January 2024, a new long-term carers contribution scheme was introduced. This significant reform enables long-term carers who have been caring for 20 years or more to qualify for the State contributory pension. We know this reform is a great comfort and relief to the many carers across the country who have spent their lives caring for loved ones, including, in particular, the many mothers who have had to give up their jobs or who have been unable to work to allow them to care for severely disabled children into their adulthood and who have found themselves coming into what we regard as their retirement years without any income. This year alone, the Department of Social Protection will spend €1.7 billion on payments such as carer's allowance, carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance and the carer's support grant. It is important to point out that more people are now qualifying for the carer's allowance payment than ever before. In fact, there has been an increase of over 50% in the number of people receiving carer's allowance since 2015, with 96,400 people currently supported by the payment.

As Deputies are aware, carer's allowance is a means-tested payment. There had been no changes to the carer's allowance means test in the 14 years prior to the appointment of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. She has made it a priority in recent budgets with significant enhancements to the means test. She deeply valued the work and recommendations of the Joint Committee on Social Protection when making those changes. The net effect of the changes will mean that from June 2024, a couple can have earnings of €900 per week and €50,000 in savings and still qualify for the full carer's allowance payment. These changes to the means test will help more carers to qualify for a payment. While carer's allowance now has the highest income disregards in the social welfare system, the Minister is conscious that no matter where the line is drawn on the means test, some families will fall on the wrong side.

This motion calls for a high-level officials group to examine the abolition of the carer's allowance means test. I am pleased to inform Deputies that the Minister has recently announced the establishment of an interdepartmental working group to examine and review the system of means testing for carers' payments. The group will be chaired and resourced by officials in the Department of Social Protection and will include representation from the Departments of Health and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which are the lead Departments with responsibility for the delivery of supports and services for older people and people with disabilities. This is important because responsibility for caring does not only lie in one Department but requires a cross-departmental approach.

The work of the interdepartmental working group will be informed by a broader review of means test being carried out by the Department of Social Protection, which includes the carer's allowance means test provisions; work being carried out by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under the Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026 to increase family resilience and provide extra support for carers and their families; and the national carer's strategy, led by the Department of Health, which is designed around a core vision of recognising, empowering and supporting family carers.

The programme for Government commits to delivering a carer's guarantee to provide a core basket of services to carers across the country regardless of where they live. This comes under my own budget. Since budget 2021, €2 million has been provided under the national carer's strategy with a view to improving equity of access to supports for carers across the country. The funding contributes substantially towards delivering the carer's guarantee, providing a more standard package of supports for family carers in every region in tandem with the community and the voluntary sector. Some €1.9 million of that funding is being channelled through Family Carers Ireland while the remaining €100,000 is to support the development and delivery of online supports for family carers through Care Alliance Ireland by means of an online support group. The €1.9 million allocation to Family Carers Ireland aims to improve access to carer supports across the country. The funding has enabled Family Carers Ireland to significantly upscale its support provision using a public health approach of universal, targeted and intensive interventions. Under a service level agreement with the HSE, Family Carers Ireland is providing supports across five areas of activity, including community carer supports and intensive and emergency supports. Family Carers Ireland has called for an additional investment of €3.1 million to complete the carer's guarantee. The Department of Health has undertaken to consider the carer's guarantee request in the context of the Estimates and the budgetary process. I will certainly be putting an emphasis on that for next year's budget.

While I understand that the report referred to in the motion estimates that abolishing the means test will cost an additional €397 million per year, I am advised by officials that the figure is likely to be well over €600 million per year. The Minister for Social Protection has sought a report from the interdepartmental working group by quarter 3 of this year. Any policy proposals recommended by this group will be brought forward for consideration and decision by the Government. The establishment of that group to examine the means test is very positive.

I assure Deputies that the Government remains fully committed to doing all it can to support our carers. As I said at the outset, we are not opposing this motion. All of us in this House recognise the huge contribution that family carers make to our society and we all want to further enhance the supports available to them. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has done a lot in a short space of time. A pension has been introduced for long-term carers. The carer's support grant has been increased to its highest ever level. Weekly carer's payments have been increased by €29 in the past three years. Carers were prioritised as part of the various cost-of-living lump-sum payments provided by the Government. There have also been significant improvements to the means test in recent budgets, with another to come in June 2024. The Minister and I recognise that more needs to be done but we need to make sure that whatever we do is affordable and sustainable into the future.

I again thank the Deputies for raising this matter. As I said, any morning is well spent if it is spent speaking about supports, especially for older people. We have an ageing population in this country. Every week, I strive to provide the best supports we possibly can through the triangle of supports, which comprises home care, day care and meals on wheels. We should acknowledge that although we have an ageing population, we have the highest life expectancy in the EU, as deemed by the World Health Organization, and that did not happen by accident. It is down to carers, both paid and unpaid, who provide tremendous support. As Deputy Tóibín said, they do so in many cases out of love. They provide phenomenal support every day of the week. They support older, young and middle-aged people. I welcome this motion and the fact the Government is not opposing it. I thank Deputies for the opportunity to speak on the motion.

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