Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for attending. I apologise for being late. I was on local media speaking about yesterday's budget. I have met a number of the witnesses previously to discuss this comprehensive proposal. As Deputy Ó Cuív outlined, we are all aware that it is significant and has challenges. While I am critical of elements of the budget, I welcome that the thresholds were increased in the yesterday's budget, which is something we have looked for.

As a general observation, it is a somewhat challenging proposal to communicate politically in that there are two balancing factors. One is the principle of recognition; this work is going unrewarded and unrecognised. The second is the strategic issue of whether the current care system and the reliance on families is sustainable. Ireland probably has a higher proportion of family carers than other societies do. Will that continue into the future if they are not properly supported? We need to be aware of both and need to communicate both, but we do not want to lose the emphasis on the principle of recognition, nor do we want to lose sight of the strategic consideration. I offer that as an observation.

I probably should know the answer to this and I was rooting around to try to find it but I was not able to. I think the Parliamentary Budget Office costings that Deputy Tully requested on the witnesses' behalf indicated that there are 90,000 people on carer's-----