Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I noticed that if it had not been for the one-off payment and the fuel allowance the Minister's underlying Estimate was €2 million more generous than required. That is significant because for the second year in a row the Minister has been bang on. An amount of €2 million is not much in the greater scheme of the maths being done here. It shows relaxing the means test on the fuel allowance did not create a tsunami and if anything the Department was a little bit on the generous side when estimating what it might cost. Even with the relaxation of the means test for the carer's allowance, that allowance is coming in just €12 million over the estimate in a budget of €1.4 billion or something. Put into simple terms, that is €12 out of €1,400, which is very small. It proves the fear of a means test being relaxed opening the floodgates is unjustified because it is not happening when we do that.

On the carer's allowance, how many people get the carer's support grant who do not get the carer's allowance? Supplementary to that, how many who are getting carer's allowance are getting the full rate of carer's allowance and how many are getting a reduced rate because of means? I am not talking about a half rate because they got another payment but a reduced rate because of means.