Mr. R?n?n Hession:

It is not something where we would have a significant amount of decision-making influence. My understanding is that the direction of policy over a period of time has tried to support people being cared for at home. The natural implication of that is there would be more people on carer’s allowance or potentially more people caring at home, so it is demand-led. Since about 2015, we have seen about a 50% increase in the numbers of people on carer’s allowance and likewise on domiciliary care allowance. We are seeing more and more people and, to some extent, the eligibility with the means test changes brought some people in and it also is better awareness. In addition, it shows the extent to which people are taking on a lot more caring responsibility at home. It is situation where we sort of pick up the social welfare implications afterwards, if you like, in terms of what is driving it. This is more about people’s preference being cared for at home in terms of what the optimum use of the available bed space, residential space, hospital space etc. is and whether caring for people at home can be supported. We are in the follow-up of that now. We have the financial supports but if you look over the figures, it is clear that since about 2015, there has been a big jump in carer’s allowance, which is nearly a €1 billion payment at this stage.