Ms Samantha Kenny:

I will come in on disability services. As a family, we have been accessing disability services for eight years. My oldest son received his diagnosis via the HSE after a lengthy wait for an assessment of need. He fell through the cracks because the services in our area were undergoing a transition to the pilot scheme that is now being rolled out nationwide. He did not receive any services for nearly three years. They did not know he existed. His case was only discovered because the school sought an in-school visit, following which I got a phone call from the disability services who literally said they did not know my child existed because he had fallen through the cracks during the transition. That was interesting. That was six years ago.

As we are six years on and have had six budgets and increases in funding and therapist numbers, I find it astonishing that, when my youngest daughter transitioned from the early intervention team, where she had some therapists, to the school-age team, she was given none because the team had none to give her. It was not even that she was on a waiting list. She was already in services but, because there were no therapists, she was not given one when she transitioned. It is not even that the disability services model needs funding, but that it needs to be looked at as a whole. They are struggling to get and retain therapists. They are struggling for funding. The lengthy waiting lists will not be resolved by just throwing money at the issue if we have no one to take up the roles. That was what happened in my daughter's case. The services had open positions they were struggling to fill and no therapists were available to her. She requires a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a speech and language therapist and we, as a family, require a social worker because I cannot manage it all by myself. The disability services model does not only have an issue in respect of waiting lists, but also in respect of those already in services.

As for the means test on carers, I will have to take a breath before answering. I understand that the threshold for the means test for the carer's allowance was increased in the budget. This was met with triumphant fanfare but I want to stop for a moment and try to let people understand that this is the first increase in 13 years. An average private sector employment contract will have a clause written into it to allow for a 2% incremental increase year-on-year to protect against inflation. That change to the means test will not cover anybody who was close to the threshold if their husband, rather than themselves, received a 2% pay increase year-on-year for the past 13 years. They will not have been snatched back into the net. All the increase has done is to bring back into the net those who lost carer's allowance over the past 13 years or those whose circumstances are now so dire that they fall under the minimum wage.

It has left hundreds and thousands of carers without any financial support. Their financial value is tied to the financial viability and potential to earn of their husband or partner. My value as a carer is seen by the State in terms of the potential earnings of my husband rather than in terms of the 24-hour care I provide to one child or the fact that I have three children with disabilities. On that note, carer's allowance is only paid in respect of one and a half of my children. Do I pick which child and a half I am to take care of, because that is all I am paid for? That is how it works. My value as a carer is not based on the fact that I take care of my daughter 24-7, that I spend my life advocating to try to make society better for her or that I help my two other children gain some form of independence so that they might, one day, be able to leave the family home in some semblance; rather it is based on how much my husband earns. Carers are given a certain amount based on how much their husbands earn. That leaves us wide open to abuse because when that allowance is taken away based on a means test, people are left without an income. This means that, if they are in an unhappy marriage or partnership, they are only given money at the whim of their partner. They are unable to work. I am unable to work. I have an agricultural degree I have never used because I am unable to work. It is insulting that this is how value is placed on me.

I actually sat down and worked out the figures. An incremental pay increase of 2%, which is what is included in an average private sector contract, would add €877.45 over that period. Even a non-incremental increase, adding 2% for every year of the past 13, which is what is included in the average contract to protect against inflation, would add €845. We are offered €750. That represents an annual income for two people of €38,900. That is not a lot of money to raise a family on at all. That is the starting cut-off point and you may still receive some carer's allowance if you go slightly over it, but that is the value being placed on me. I am very upset about the means test and the carer's allowance situation as a whole. I do not feel valued, seen, respected or recognised for the role I play in society. I am very sorry if I am coming across as very emotional but this is a very emotional issue for me. This is the life I am living.