Ms Clare Duffy:

I know Deputy Kerrane was involved in this or had brought it about. In the review the Department did on carer's allowance, it estimated that any increase in the income disregard for carer's allowance up to the level of average industrial earnings, which it committed to doing towards 2016, would cost €55 million. Those were the Department's figures. That is probably an overestimation but those were the figures the Department put out.

I want to go back to the Deputy's second question, which was interesting. When he was asking the question I was wondering if I would tell the truth or tell a lie and say that I thought about changing the €4 down to €3. It did not dawn on me to do so. The Deputy is right that it is €1 in the first €10,000, €2 in the second €10,000 and then it goes up to €4. The Deputy is right and it is a valid point. The reason we asked for the capital disregard to be increased from €20,000 to €50,000 is that it is in line with the disability allowance, which allows that so we felt the precedent had been set. The Deputy is right about the capital disregard at €20,000 for families, particularly parents who are caring for an adult child. They scrimp, save and do without in order to make provision for that child or adult child when they are no longer there and a capital disregard of €20,000 is nothing for them. We have had that discussion with the Commission on Pensions as well. The Deputy made a very valid point on why €4 may not be the best option and €3 might have been the more obvious choice. I will take that on board.