Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the funding aspect and if the funding was removed there were two figures for the total cost. The additional costs - as Deputy Tully acknowledged with a reply back from the Department - would be €300 million, bringing it up to some €1.2 billion.

The report referred to other international experiences - it may have been Belgium or another European country. It talked about a setting up a company or a not-for-profit state-controlled company that, essentially, employed people as carers. This meant there was holiday pay, respite and pensions and so on. It is a really interesting idea that the state would take on the role as an employee of people and give them recognition that this is work, and it is people who are doing really important work, first and foremost for the people they love but, second, that this is work that needs to be done to support people.