Ms Zoe Hughes:

I can comment on the carer piece. The Deputy mentioned the gender component of caring. The breakdown in the census is that approximately 60% of carers are women and 40% are men. However, when we dig into the levels, intensity and long hours of care, it tends to skew more towards women providing that level of care. They tend to be most impacted by issues around the means test and can often end up reliant on their partners for additional income. Then if there are difficulties in the relationship - which no one likes to talk about, but it happens - women who are acting as carers where a partner is involved can be left at a worrying disadvantage. I am not sure how to get past that. We appeared before the Joint Committee on Gender Equality a few months ago to discuss care issues. The referendum is coming up so I am sure the debates around that will come out in due course. It is a good opportunity to have a conversation about that as a society and about how gender and care intersectionality - that is my favourite buzz word - impacts on family carers.

I have not done a huge amount of nitty-gritty costings of universal basic income and participation income as it relates to family carers. I am sure everyone is familiar with Family Carers Ireland. The organisation is working on the matter at the moment so that might be the best place to go for that information. It has specific expertise on the issue.

I hope that answered the Deputy's questions.