Mr. Fiacre Hensey:

The biggest thing, given the nature of care and the nature of people who get into that profession, is they are willing to work the peak hours when there is peak demand for the mornings and the evenings. In between is a kind of lean period. However, if they work that one hour in the morning, that might be their only source of income for the day. Why work further then if they sacrifice any right to a social welfare payment?

That is why I am pushing the idea that it be worked out on the basis of working X number of hours for a working week. Then carers, whether they work five hours in one day or five hours across five days, would still be entitled to the balance as a social welfare payment. Most of those we would interact with do not want a social welfare payment. However, they do want security of income and they do not have it. I have had people coming up to me and saying, "I cannot get a credit union loan because I do not know how much I will be earning next month." There has to be a way that fuses the two together. I imagine that it would be cost neutral if not a saving to the Government to complement the income derived from delivering a care hour with the balance they would get for that day from social welfare. I really believe that is the biggest thing that would make a huge contribution.