Ms Clare Duffy:

On the last question on the cost of care and the services in Cork, I am not familiar enough with the specifics of what the Deputy spoke about to say whether there is value for care deriving from that.

I will go to the first question, which was the graded payment for carer’s allowance. Deputy Tully and I have mentioned before that we are a little bit afraid of that. It has been floated by the Minister as well. People will say that no two caring situations are the same. I could be 24-7 and another person might be 40 hours a week. That is true. When we begin to try to decipher that we have one carer over here who is more deserving than that carer over there, when we do not goes on behind the front door, that becomes difficult. I often meet families where the person receiving care can present quite normally when they are out but it is a different story at home. I worry about how we distinguish between those levels and the administrative burden of starting to do that. In the Department, already the medical assessment they do in Longford is difficult without saying “You missed out on being tier 2.” It is a matter of concern to me, but that is probably Clare Duffy’s personal opinion as opposed to that of Family Carers Ireland's.