Mr. John Dunne:

I wish to make three introductory points. In last year’s budget income support for family carers was cut by an average figure of more than 5% compared to an average cut across all social protection income supports of less than 2%. Carers received a hit that was two and half times the national average. Leaving aside how unfair that was, we believe the cut was a significant step towards a tipping point at which community health care simply becomes unviable and collapses. In that context, the budget this year needs to focus on how creatively there might be some redress to adjust that impact.

Second, last year’s cut was all the more egregious because the Government is still not implementing other reforms that have the potential to reduce costs at the same time as improving services. Last year I flagged how the fair deal scheme was costing money. This is avoidable and producing a sub-optimal outcome.

I am happy to explore it again this year if the committee wishes but our core message for this year's budget is that we think it is critical to protect income support over all other social expenditure. The reason for that is very simple. Notwithstanding some early and very welcome reforms with regard to administration, particularly of health or environmental services around the country, the access to support systems for family carers remains a lottery based on geography and opaque decision-making. At least if carers get income, they retain some control over their own destiny.