Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am upset now but I cannot take it up at the moment as I am otherwise engaged. However, there are a couple of things we need to keep in mind. The threshold is too low at the moment. It needs to be shifted. As my colleague has said, it has not been moved for many years. For example, a person with a disability may be on an invalidity pension. That person is disqualified and does not get it, as he or she is above the limit. There is a problem there. I am glad to see it is being dealt with or is under discussion.

There are several other cohorts of people affected as well, and the Minister of State has made reference to this with regard to carers and encouraging more carers into the system who are willing to carry out the caring provisions. The point is that there are many people who are on the verge all the time and who are worried . If anything goes wrong or if they get an illness of one description or another, it pushes them into the zone they cannot control. They are worried about that and I can understand that. This does not have to be older people. It is anybody of any age that has a particular illness that puts them in the area where they cannot work, their work is limited, they cannot get an income, their income is limited, and they cannot qualify for a medical card and other services in order to alleviate the burden they see upon themselves. That burden can best be evaluated by people who are in that particular category because nobody else can. One must put oneself in their shoes. They see themselves as being vulnerable and they are. The vulnerability comes from a number of things, including being dependent on all around them and being dependent on the rest of society coming to their aid at a time when they most need it. It is about recognising that in many of these cases these are people who have given all of their lives so far in employment in the private and public sectors. They feel that if there is a delay - and there have been delays in the allocation of medical cards - this then becomes something that increases what they see as a threat to them having a sufficient budget to survive reasonably well. It is also about recognising that more people providing care for more people means less of a burden on services, hospitals, the HSE and so on. I strongly support those recent provisions.

On the rent-a-room scheme, it would be ironic if the rent-a-room provision was made on the one hand, and with the other hand the money was being taken away. This is where the State moves in with the one hand and then with the other hand says "You get nothing or nearly nothing". In this regard it is a welcome provision and I strongly support it.