Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of matters to raise. First of all Ms Cox, in regard to the costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office, one glaring issue has been ignored in those calculations. The projected cost is €375 million to bring 27,000 carers in under the payment with the abolition of the means test. However, that cost does not take into account the significant administration cost of operating the means test. We are nearer to an actual cost of €300 million when that is taken into account, rather than €375 million.

I want to flag with all of the witnesses who have given evidence here but particularly the two who are not directly representing the carers here. Family Carers Ireland, FCI, has been prolific in making submissions on our pre-budget consideration. The committee is making a pre-budget submission again this year. We would welcome hearing from FCI in terms of submissions regarding what should be reflected in the forthcoming budget. The committee can give consideration that. If FCI wants to make a submission to us, we will be anxious to hear from it.

In regard to the 18.5 hours, this increased from 15 hours to 18.5 hours. Senator Regina Doherty was very much involved in that at the time. I made the argument that it should be increased on a discretionary basis beyond 18.5 hours where that person is not providing care within the home. For example, it would usually be a parent, usually a mother, and when that child is in the training centre or in school for more than 18.5 hours, the parent could avail of an opportunity to bring in additional income and still provide full-time care. The Department has refused to give that level of flexibility to it.

Coming to one-parent families, if we can address some of the anomalies there, it will deal with many of the challenges that home care workers are dealing with on an ongoing basis. We need to try to put a system in place that does not act as a barrier to one-parent families in accessing education, training or employment. The difficulty is that many elements within the system at the moment act as a barrier to this. Every time we make a submission, an immediate issue has been elaborated to us by the Parliamentary Budget Office in regard to the lowest quartile in terms of income in this country, which is the quartile in this country that is impacted most in relation to poverty, and that is one-parent families. However, there is also an intergenerational aspect to this that is being completely ignored. Those who find themselves in this situation are usually women. Supporting them to return to education, training or employment has a significant intergenerational aspect. Not just from an economic or a social point of view but in the long-term interest of the State, it is important that we address some of these anomalies.

If witnesses want to come back to us specifically in relation to some of these anomalies that we could look at in the forthcoming budget, or in our broader submission in relation to means testing, the committee would be very interested in hearing from them. We hear them in regard to the transitional payment. That is something we will recommend to the Minister.

I thank in particular Ms Moira Skelly for her evidence here this morning. FCI facilitated Anna Budayova, Niamh Ryan and Damien Douglas to come before us in the past and now we have Ms Skelly. It is important that we hear from people who are directly impacted. It is great to have advocates here and to have the NGOs coming before the committee. However, it is more important to hear from people themselves. All members of the committee acknowledge the difficult challenge it is for carers to physically come and present here. It is not the same for them as for the rest of us who can come in without worrying about what is happening outside. That is something that carers are very conscious of. They must take planned measures in order to come before us here. As a committee we acknowledge that. We are anxious to try to address the issues in relation to carers and ensure that people do not have to go through the type of stress that they go through at the moment in terms of the means assessment regarding the carers allowance.

My colleagues tabled the motion in the Dáil recently and we had the unanimous support of every single at Deputy in Leinster House. We previously had the unanimous support of every Senator and we have the support of the Government and particularly the Minister for Social Protection in relation to this. There is a willingness to do this. It is about trying to find the mechanism to make that happen.

I thank all the witnesses for their evidence this morning. If they have any supplementary thoughts, suggestions or proposals please feed them back into us because we are only now drafting this report and are quite willing to hear any additional supplementary evidence they may have, in written format. I thank them for taking the time to contribute to the committee this morning.