Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I confirm that I am in my office in Leinster House. At the start, I want to thank Mr. Douglas, Ms Ryan and Ms Budayova for powerful and moving presentations and for giving us an insight into their day and what they do. I also thank Family Carers Ireland for its continued constructive engagement with this committee.

I think we should strongly endorse the proposals put forward by Family Carers Ireland. Particularly, Mr. Dunne made the point very well on the artists scheme. That sets a benchmark. Carers should be at least brought in line with that. Mr. Dunne also referenced the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, which had a baseline of €350. I think we should strongly endorse that and move the payment from €224 up to €325. We should strongly campaign and advocate for that in budget 2023.

In terms of the means test itself and the actual cost of care, looking in at Ms Ryan's situation, as Mr. Dunne said you would think she was in a high-dependency unit but she is at her home. She has incurred that cost and she gives that care in a loving way. The State needs to recognise that in terms of the cost of care and looking at that in terms of the income, and trying to get a balance in terms of the means test. Obviously, ideally, that means test would be abolished. As Ms Duffy said, there are safeguards in terms of continuity of care and the amount of time, etc. Those two points are the ones that we, as a committee, should home in on for budget 2023. The points made by Mr. Dunne were constructive and achievable and we should endorse them as a committee.