Mr. Damien Douglas:

I am 65 years old and a carer. My wife Mary is also a carer but I will not tell the committee her age. We have five wonderful children. Una and Ailis are our youngest daughters. They are 27. They are twins and have a condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Because of this, they cannot eat, drink, talk or walk. They have severe developmental delay, epilepsy and are doubly incontinent. They are non-mobile and use wheelchairs which we have to push. That is grand. They are PEG-fed. They function at the level of a nine-month old baby although they are 27 years of age. We love them to bits.

In 2003, Mary gave up work to mind the twins and our other children full time. Beaumont Hospital lost a brilliant accident and emergency nurse. Mary gave up a career she loved and forfeited a salary and future pension entitlements. In 2013, I had to retire early from my job as an assistant director of mental health nursing because the girls were now at the magic age of 18. I loved my job, but I love my girls more. Being 18 meant the end of school for them. However, no adult day services were available. I retired early to look after the girls and fight for day services. Eventually, we were successful.

Carer's allowance is a means-tested social welfare allowance that is paid weekly to people who provide at least 35 hours care to a person who needs support because of age, disability or illness. Many carers in our situation provide far in excess of 35 hours per week. Often, as in our case, it is nearer to 24-hour daily care. For those who are not wealthy, the carer's allowance is essential to help them manage financially. The new scheme coming into effect in June gives a disregard for savings and investments of €50,000. I thank the Government for that. It is very important. The means test cut-off will be €750 per week per week, allowing an income of €39,000 per annum. For a couple, this works out at €9.38 per person over a 40-hour week. This is far below the minimum wage of €10.50 per hour, which equates to €42,000 if both partners had full-time minimum wage jobs.

In recent times, people who lost their jobs or were unable to work because of Covid were able to claim the PUP. At one stage, this was valued at €350 per week. This would be a fair sum to have the carer's allowance pitched at. Currently, the maximum carer's allowance payment to a carer under 66 looking after one person is €224 per week. If over 66, he or she would get the magnificent sum of €262 per week. That is if the carer is looking after one person. Carer's allowance is definitely a social welfare payment. It is not a payment for work done. It does not compensate for loss of earnings or pension entitlements.

Some carers may have a weekly work pension or work part time. All earnings, income, investments and savings are taken into account in the means test. No allowance is made for the purpose for which the savings are intended. We do not all go on exotic holidays. If people happen to have money that puts them over the means test limit, it does not mean they are rich. It might mean they have more than they need for today but the money is necessary for future needs. It might be for replacement vehicles, wheelchair vans, house repairs or improvements, respite breaks or extra carers to help, especially when it is so difficult to engage in essential therapies due to the difficulty in getting assessments for physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, all of which are essential.

We know there are about 500,000 carers in Ireland. Not all of them are full-time carers. In 2021, 115,000 carers received the carer's support grant. Only 91,000 received carer's allowance in some form or other. We know that approximately 6,000 full-time carers who receive the carer's support grant did not qualify for the carer's allowance based on the means test, which means the annual grant is the only recognition they receive from the State. These carers continue caring and looking after their loved ones. In many or most cases, if they stop caring for their loved ones, there is no one else to step in to do it. The State is not able to do it, yet the State is saved billions every year by the dedication and love of carers like us. All we ask is to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect. We do not want to face a future of poverty and frugality. Our futures are bleak enough as it is, getting older and frailer and still minding our adult children when we are getting to a stage when we ourselves are beginning to need help. I thank members for their time and consideration in listening to us.