Mr. Mark Darmody:

On carers, it all comes down to not just the means test. Family Carers Ireland is backing Cara at the moment and is looking to sit down with the Government to trash these issues out.

As I said, it is the way the carer's allowance is seen and the attitude towards it. It is seen as another welfare payment. I understand the basic thinking. However, when carer's allowance started, it was a whole different Ireland. It is now 2022 and we are talking about people such as my wife, who will be caring for someone for the rest of her life on this earth. That is the reality. There was a very young child who was diagnosed at one and three quarters and she is put into the caring career. That is essentially what it is. It needs to be treated almost like a career. It needs to be treated fairly. At the same time, massive tolerance must be given, as I said at the start, because your life has been destroyed.

I refer to the ordinary taxpayer. I remember when I was just working away. One has those arguments with the taxman over the little things. However, as the ladies said, one has to turn on the heat perhaps in the middle of summer or these other things that would never happen within the normal households and no one wants to discuss those things. There is no form where people fill out the extra money they are paying. That is not taken into account. I understand the basic revenue tax principle. However, real allowance to be given for the circumstances that a carer is going through. We are not talking about 1,000 or 2,000 people, we are talking probably more than 100,000 people in the State. It is a massive number of people.