Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Her focus is particularly on carers, as has been highlighted in the amendment. It has been absolutely crucial. As she will be aware, in rural areas it is family carers who are doing a lot of the work. It is very difficult to access carers in rural areas for many different reasons. Access for people living in city centres is a bit easier because there are more people available to do the work. In rural areas, that is just not the case, so it falls to families and family members to do the work.

I know that the Minister has been looking at the role of family carers. It is literally what she has brought through. She is looking at how to support families and, in particular, women who have been managing caring in the home to ensure that they get access to contributory State pension. I note that the income disregards will be enacted from June of next year. Those income disregards will be very important in terms of the income threshold for carer's allowance. The Minister might comment on the access to those supports. As far as I am aware, the disregards will be enacted in June of next year, but she might comment on that.

I am aware that the means test is something that the Minister is looking at for carers overall, because we know how much carers contribute. There is no price that can be paid to be able to keep a loved one at home. We see the grants that come through local authorities to make our homes more accessible, to adapt them and accommodate family members by putting ramps in or making bathrooms and showers accessible for those with disabilities. So many families go through this. What I have found, in my own area of Roscommon-Galway, is that sometimes families are not aware of the supports that are available through the local authority to help keep people at home. I am very much an advocate for independent living, so that people can live in their own home for as long as possible. Part of the Minister's remit in social protection is looking at how we support family carers because of the role they play. Given the lack of access to beds in nursing homes now, and the fact that patients cannot be discharged from hospital, family carers are important, just as the means test and income disregards are for them. I know that the Minister has been looking at this group in particular over the last number of years, with a view to ensuring that the carers means test is reasonable and will encourage and support family carers and women in the home, particularly around part-time access. Some of the questions I have are around cases where a carer has been working a certain number of hours per week, and whether they will be able to access those supports. I was contacted by a single mother with a full-time job in a hospital on the lower end of the scale who, unfortunately, was not able to access any sort of carer support for looking after her brother at home. How do we support those people? They are women who are usually in their 30s, 40s and 50s, who have young families, are working full time and also trying to take care of a loved one. That is the situation I see in my area.