Ms Catherine Cox:

Family Carers Ireland has done exactly what Deputy Ó Cuív said. We knew this would not come overnight so this year we looked at a call to increase the income disregards over the next three years. This would bring us to the point, in three years' time, where the means test would be abolished. We certainly welcome the Minister's announcement yesterday bringing it to €450 and €900. We had looked for €500 and €1,000 but it is certainly a move in the right direction. We knew it would not happen overnight

Regarding the question of adequacy, in our prebudget submission we had asked for the income disregards to be raised and also the amount of the payment. The carers allowance is inadequate and does not support the actual costs of caring and particularly the hidden costs of caring. We know parents are paying privately for vital services such as speech and language therapy. Children are on waiting lists for two or three years because they cannot access the services they should be able to through our health services.

We want to see the amount of the carer's allowance raised. I do not believe it should be a one or the other choice. We have to call for both of those, which we did in our prebudget submission. Going back to Covid, the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, was set at €350 per week because the Government recognised that people could not live on much less. However, family carers are now expected to live on €248 per week on foot of the €12 increase. We welcome the changes and commend the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, but there is still a huge amount to do. Part of the issue is that in the health service, the systems and supports are not there for carers, which puts even more financial pressure on family carers like Ms Thyne and others. She made a really important point on the carer's benefit. The issue of the five years is something that could be looked at and discussed. Half of the 500,000 carers in this country are juggling paid work with care. Where we can, we want to keep carers in work and support them through initiatives like Caring Employers. We want to support carers to stay in work but we also want to support those who have to leave work for a time. The period of five years might be something the navigational group could look at.