Ms Catherine Cox:

That is not an easy question. I refer to the report by the former Ombudsman, Peter Tyndall, called Grounded. Everything he said in that report made perfect sense. For us as a quick fix, I do not know but we need to see an allowance brought back, whatever it may look like. How it could take nine years is beyond me. We need to see that and that needs to be a payment. The Government did it in the past with home care, where cash vouchers were available and people could buy in care, whatever it looked like. The responsibility was placed on the family but at least they had a choice. For us, that choice is what is most important, as well as a system that is simple, flexible and meets those needs.

On the budget, we obviously represent family carers and we want to see the means test for the carer's allowance, for example, abolished. We want to see carer's paid for the work they do. We want it to be a fair payment and not €224 per week. The artists were mentioned earlier. The artist grant is a non-means tested payment of €325 per week, whereas the carer's allowance is €224 per week. How is that fair? If carers had a fair payment for the work they do, that would go some way towards paying for the additional costs of transport, along with everything else. Budget-wise, we would like to see the carer's allowance increased, the means test completely abolished over the coming years, and a flexible allowance for people in order that they can pay for whatever transport they require.