Ms Niamh Ryan:

I agree with Mr. Douglas. Abolishing the means test would be the big one. If that cannot be done, definitely expand the bands greatly. Also, the carer's allowance rate could be raised quite significantly, as was mentioned earlier, perhaps in line with the artist rate of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. There is also the cost of care, as Mr. Douglas said. I have to correct one thing. Liam has a medical card. I believe Ms Budayova was speaking about that earlier. The cost of care includes the cost of the wheelchair vans and the cost of electricity for running all the equipment in the house. The cost of care is crippling. We have no option but to buy these big diesel wheelchair vans and it is a huge expense. It is the initial outlay really. There are the diesel costs and everything else as well, but the initial outlay is very difficult for families. If the cost of care could be taken into consideration as well, that would be a big one for us.