Ms Clare Duffy:

I acknowledge the point Deputy Joan Collins made about the bins. There is a bigger issue at play, which is a term I keep using. It is that carers should be recognised not penalised. There are so many little bombs across the system that penalise carers. We have a person who sacrifices their life to care, often full time for someone in need of that care, and yet the system penalises them. It is like saying to them that, by the way, their bin is going to cost more and if the disability services resume after Covid, they cannot provide the same transport service that was previously provided and the carer will have to provide it. There are so many examples of that. The pension was always the legacy issue and, thankfully, please God we are going to fix that.

I wish to say two things: one is positive and the other is not so positive.

The Chairman had hands-on involvement in a development that was wonderful. There was a scheme for which carers were ineligible, namely, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's better energy warmer homes scheme. Someone on a jobseeker's payment could apply and get a grant of 100% to do the installation in his or her house but a carer providing full-time care was not eligible. Thankfully, the Chairman fixed that. It is a great scheme. The waiting list might be incredible but it was a great development. Again, it was an example of how we recognise that carers should not be penalised for the contribution they make.

There is a similar anomaly in the system that I have been flagging for the past three years. It does not relate directly to this committee but I am going to make my point anyway. Under the tenant incremental purchase scheme whereby local authority tenants can purchase their homes if they can display that they can afford to do so, one of the only groups of social welfare recipients deemed ineligible comprises carers, or people in receipt of the carer's allowance. A person on a one-parent family payment is eligible. The only people said to be ineligible are those on carer's allowance. I know of genuine carers who have cared for years, scrimped and saved, worked the 18.5 hours and want to buy their own home but they are told they are not eligible. As a general rule, we have got to recognise the fact that we should not penalise carers.