Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I could never put my hand on my heart and say that we are doing enough for carers, who deserve every support we can give them. We must continue to make improvements and, as I said, we have made substantial improvements, both in the budget and in the legislation that followed. The new respite grant will be paid to approximately 9,000 full-time carers who would otherwise qualify for nothing. From June €1,000 will be paid to an estimated full complement of 33,000 carers, 9,000 of whom will be additional because there will be no means test. It is not intended as a payment as such but as recognition of the valuable work they do.

I am aware of all the arguments and I continue to consider them. There is a basic rule in welfare that one receives one payment, and I am examining what is possible there. Many widows provide full-time care and attention. Many old age pensioners also provide it. The Deputy is right that they either get the old age pension or the widow's allowance. By and large they do not move to the carer's allowance. The Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs recommended that they get a half rate. There are substantial implications in moving from the concept of one payment. It throws up a number of anomalies across the board. We need to be sure it is the way to go given the implications in terms of welfare for a payment other than a single payment to a person. I will continue to examine that. I do not have a cost for it, but the cost of removing the means test is about €160 million per annum. A half rate payment would be very substantial, costing many millions of euro.

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