Mr. Joseph Musgrave:

One of the issues it is worried about is what will happen if it increases the hours in particular or the income limit. It is concerned that if it makes this specific to something like home care, other industries and sectors will say that it should be bumped up for them as well. The Department would then be in a position where something that should have been a support would, from its point of view, turn into an income support or a work support. One of the Department's points is that it would be subsidising low-wage work. The point we made is that members of our organisation, such as Ms Maher, pay €16 or €17 an hour. She pays more than is paid by the nursing homes in her area pay. The debate in our sector has moved past this old view that it is just low-or minimum w-age work, which is not the case.