Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I welcome the south Tipperary carers, who are still with us in the Gallery, and Denis and Josephine Higgins from Monaghan, who are also with us here today. I thank the Regional Group for tabling this Private Members' motion and for highlighting the fantastic work carers do throughout the country.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, said in her opening statement, the Government is acutely aware of the valuable work being carried out by family carers and this is evidenced by the extensive measures that have been taken to support carers over recent years. This approach was maintained as part of budget 2024. In recognition of the role carers provide in our society, the Government announced further improvements to payments for carers, as outlined earlier by Deputy Sherlock. These include a €12 increase in the maximum rate of the carer's allowance and carer's benefit. The Government has increased the weekly rate of carer's payments by more than €29 over the past three budgets. A €10 per month increase was awarded for people in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance from January of this year. From June of this year, the earnings disregard for the carer's allowance will increase to €450 for a single person and €900 for a couple.

We have been in the midst of a rising cost of living over the past two years and carers are among the groups who have been most significantly impacted. Therefore, the Government has made provision for a number of cost-of-living lump-sum payments and double payments for these vulnerable groups over the past two winters. They include a cost-of-living double payment in January of this year and December of last year and a €400 lump-sum payment for people receiving the carer's support grant, which was paid in November 2023. In addition, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has acted to provide a pension solution for long-term carers. A range of other supports for carers, provided by the Department of Social Protection, are not based on a means assessment.

These include the carer’s support grant, carer’s benefit and domiciliary care allowance. The carer’s support grant is a payment for all carers, even those not in receipt of carer’s allowance. It can be claimed by carers regardless of their means or social insurance contributions. The Minister for Social Protection has increased this grant to €1,850, its highest ever rate. In early June, the grant will be paid to more than 127,000 carers in respect of some 143,000 carees. It is estimated that expenditure on this grant will be more than €290 million this year alone.

Carer’s benefit is based on social insurance contributions. It is an effective payment for people who may be required to leave the workforce or to reduce their working hours to care for a person in need of full-time care. It is payable for a period of up to two years for each care recipient and is estimated to cost almost €58 million this year alone. The income ceiling for this payment will also rise to €450 in June as part of our budget measures.

I wish to speak briefly about the domiciliary care allowance payment. Currently, there are 54,652 families in receipt of this payment in respect of 61,373 children. This represents an increase of almost 37% in terms of families and 40% in terms of children in the past five years. In acknowledging the financial burden the families of sick children face, three significant changes have been made to the domiciliary care allowance payment in the past three years. First, the period during which domiciliary care allowance can be paid for children in hospital was extended from three months to six months. Second, with effect from last year, domiciliary care allowance is available for babies who remain in an acute hospital after birth for a period of six months. This year, the Minister for Social Protection will extend that period further to 18 months. Third, the monthly payment has increased by more than €30 to its current rate of €340, with this year's expenditure estimated to be €274 million.

While the Department of Social Protection provides other valuable income supports for carers, they often have more wide-ranging needs, including respite care, home care hours and access to disability services. Many Deputies raised these matters. Naturally, there is a tendency to focus on direct cash supports over investment in services, but access to these services and wider supports is crucial. In this regard, the Government is committed to continued improvement in the delivery of services and has made a number of commitments specifically for carers. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, outlined the carers guarantee. The family carers needs assessment is another important initiative. It was piloted in community healthcare west using moneys from the Dormant Accounts Fund to test the implementation of the interRAI family carer needs assessment across various care groups, including carers of people with dementia, older people, physical and sensory disability, intellectual disabilities and mental health issues. The pilot, which was carried out with family carers, examined the role of the family carer, how caring affects carers and how much care they can realistically provide while still allowing for involvement in other activities. The family carers needs assessment identified the types of support family carers needed to support them in their caring role and seeing how these could be met. The project’s final evaluation report was published in March. The HSE and the Department of Health are considering what next steps may be required to further support family carers.

Respite care is a vital part of the toolkit in supporting carers. Some €62 million is provided annually to provide respite beds in older people’s services. In June 2021, the HSE, in partnership with Family Carers Ireland, launched the home support emergency respite scheme, with funding of €600,000, to provide a total of 27,000 hours of respite care to unpaid carers who required additional emergency respite. The HSE is committed to continuing to improve emergency respite supports in 2024. Many Deputies referred to the need for access to respite care to be increased.

The Government and the HSE are very much aware of the importance of respite service provision for the families of children and adults with disabilities and the positive impact it can have on people’s lives. Respite is a key priority area for the HSE in respect of people with disabilities and their families and there has been significant investment in respite services in the past few years. Successive Governments have provided additional funding for respite services, resulting in an increase both in respite nights delivered and in the provision of day respite. New development funding of €15 million has been provided for 2024 – rising to €25 million in a full year – for respite. This will ensure that provision continues to expand significantly across the country. It is recognised that families and individuals have different needs and there will therefore be an investment in a range of respite options, including day services and overnight stays.

The 2024-26 action plan for disability services, which is led by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, is a plan to increase capacity in disability services. It also sets out the overall strategic direction for policy development and for the development of services over the next three years. Under this plan, we will be adding capacity to services in 2024 through extra residential services, more day service placements, an increase in personal assistance hours, an expansion of respite staff and more staff for children’s disability services.

I will take a moment to respond to some of the issues raised during this debate.

Deputy Tully inquired about the interdepartmental working group. It is due to report in quarter 3 of this year.

Deputies Verona Murphy, Fitzpatrick, Tully and Sherlock inquired about the calculation behind the €600 million figure supplied by the Department. We can provide further details to them on that.

Deputy Conway-Walsh raised the need for a co-ordinated interdepartmental approach, with a strategy that was rights based and cut across all Departments. Our new Taoiseach, Simon Harris, has prioritised this area. He has established a Cabinet committee on disability to do exactly that.

Numerous Deputies raised the need for access to respite care hours. Funding is in place to provide those, but we need additional staff and services. We are committed to doing that in 2024 in terms of the plan and the increase in residential and day services.

Deputy Sherlock referred to an anomaly in respect of jobseekers applying for carer’s support. I will highlight the matter with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and ask her to examine it.

Interestingly, Deputy Boyd Barrett and others called for a move away from targeted measures towards universal payments. Deputy Boyd Barrett also spoke about the need to examine the threshold for medical cards. We will pass that feedback on to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and to the Minister for Health, whom I assume would need to negotiate any changes with GPs.

Deputy Harkin and many others discussed the need to change the income disregard. That will happen in June.

All contributors spoke about the fantastic work done by carers and Family Carers Ireland. I echo those comments. They do incredible work in my constituency.

The Government is not opposing the motion, and I thank the Deputies for tabling it.

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