Marie Moloney (Labour)
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I also welcome the two groups to our meeting. I have not dealt with WALK before but I have read its presentation which I found to be very impressive. It would be great if its programmes could be rolled out nationwide in the future. I have worked with Mr. Dunne from the Carers Association on various issues. On the cut to the respite care grant, Mr. Dunne knows that I moved very quickly to try to counteract it by asking the Minister to ensure carers got a break through the use of some employment schemes. I know Mr. Dunne has worked very closely with the Department on that. I ask him to fill the committee in on the progress that was made in that regard.

I have spoken to the Minister for Social Protection about the half-rate carer's allowance and she is adamant that it will remain in place. Mr. Dunne also spoke about pension entitlements for carers, as did Deputy O'Brien. Every person on carer's allowance gets a carer's credit which is valid for old age pension purposes. It is as good as a paid contribution once a person has 520 contributions paid from work earlier in life and so forth. I know of a number of people whose carer's benefit has expired and their income is over the threshold for carer's allowance. I have applied for a homemaker's credit for those people and they have been awarded it. Credits are available to people and it is important they are made aware of that.

A suggestion was made that the respite care grant could be split in two, which seems like a good idea in the context of, for example, a caree who dies in May. However, someone who only started caring at the end of May would get the payment immediately. It is as broad as it is long in that sense but perhaps breaking it up into two payments would cancel out the anomaly that exists. Reference was made to situations where a carer goes into hospital and loses his or her payment, but that is not quite the case. The carer can hold on to the carer's allowance or benefit for 13 weeks. The payment does not automatically cease as soon as the carer goes into hospital.

The witnesses spoke about the importance of Departments speaking to one another but I know that is happening. In the case of third level grants, for example, there is no longer any need for applicants to provide information to the Department of Education and Skills from the Department of Social Protection or from the Revenue Commissioners because their records are all interlinked through PPS numbers. Reference was also made to a single medical assessment unit, and I wish that was the case. If such a system operated in the context of medical card applications, it would solve many of the problems currently being experienced by those with discretionary cards. Unfortunately, however, as we have been advised, medical cards are not awarded on the basis of medical conditions but on the basis of means.

On several occasions I have called for a single means testing centre for applicants for all State payments, whether that be housing payments, third level grants, medical cards, social welfare payments and so forth. If a person has been means-tested once, that information should be shared between Departments. In that way, individuals would not have to be means-tested on multiple occasions. When a person applies for a social welfare allowance, for example, he or she is means-tested. While that person is awaiting approval, he or she can apply for a supplementary welfare payment but is means-tested again. That is a complete waste of resources and involves a doubling or trebling of the work. A single means test centre should be considered.

I undertook the shadowing programme and had a gentleman in here who shadowed me for the day. I can certainly say that he could teach me a thing or two, especially about politics. He knew his politics inside out.

I ask the witnesses to comment on some of the issues I have raised. I could raise several more but I wish to be fair to my colleagues.