Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Ring. While it has been described in many quarters as a giveaway budget, I prefer to describe it as a "give back" budget. With revenue receipts this year running at €1.8 billion above the estimated figure, the Minister for Finance has opted to give back taxes taken by stealth in recent years. People deserve to have this money returned to them and I thank the Minister for doing so.

I wish to be positive about the budget. The Fine Gael Party welcomes the increase of €14 per week for those aged 66 years or over and in receipt of old age contributory pension, widow's or widower's contributory pension and deserted wife's benefit. We also welcome the €16 per week increase in the weekly personal rate for the old age non-contributory pension, blind pension, widow's and widower's non-contributory pension and one parent family payment, where the recipient is aged over 66 years.

What more could the Minister for Finance have done in his budget? He could have done substantially more with the €1.8 billion in unanticipated revenue. How much could have been achieved if so much money had not been wasted in recent years? For example, €50 million was wasted on electronic voting and the figure increases every year as the costs of storage rise, while €130 million was wasted on the PPARS project in the Department of Health and Children, a figure which increased to €180 million last year. The consultants involved were protected from liability, which rested with the then health boards, and paid €30 million. The Dublin Port tunnel is running €300 million over budget and we also had Abbotstown, the "Bertie bowl" and many other examples of waste.

Despite these examples, we still managed to collect an extra €1.8 billion in revenue this year. Were it not for the reckless waste of Government money on the projects outlined, Ireland could be a great country. The way in which a Government deals with good fortune is just as important as the way it acts in bad times. The voters will judge it on this at the next election.

The increase in support for the carer's allowance amounts to €27 million, the same figure as was conceded in the reduction in betting tax. Where are the values in that decision? While the Fine Gael Party welcomes the increase in the respite grant, for many carers, particularly in Dublin and the east coast, the rise will only cover the cost of about one week in respite care. Since the Government took office in 1997, the number of respite care beds has declined from 785 to 689 in 2004, according to the Department of Health and Children's long-stay activity statistics 2004.

The Minister for Finance made great mileage in his Budget Statement about caring for older people. He stated:

This Government has always given high priority to supporting older people. Respect for older people and the dignity of older people are at the heart of our policies. That is as it should be. Many older people have active and fulfilled lives. Others have increasing needs for health care and support... While previous Governments have aimed to support this desire, this Government has decided to make a step-change in the level of care and support service for older people in their home or community.

These are fine words but they are far removed from the reality on the ground.

The Minister also stated that most older people and their families want to live and be cared for at home for as long as possible. He is correct that most elderly people would like to end their days in their own homes in their communities. If people were able to keep their loved ones at home, it would deliver benefits to families, communities and society which would far outweigh the expenditure invested in trying to achieve this outcome. In previous generations grandparents stayed at home and educated and exerted a positive influence on their grandchildren, while also benefiting their communities. What people learned from their experience of life is being lost in many cases, as older people are compelled to enter institutional care or a nursing home for family reasons. Policies which encourage more people to stay in their communities should be supported at every level. Unfortunately, however, such policies run contrary to the current trend.

The Minister and his officials will be sick of hearing me citing the following example of the heartlessness of the Department of Social and Family Affairs in penalising some carers. I have raised this case with the Minister and his predecessors, including Deputies Woods, Coughlan and Dermot Ahern. It relates to a carer, generally a woman, who provides full-time care and attention at home to a relative of her husband, for example, his father. If her husband were to die suddenly and the carer became a widow, she would qualify for a widow's pension but lose her carer's allowance. What could be more cruel than that and what message does it convey to carers in the home? I have asked various Ministers to address that matter, given that there is provision in the Social Welfare Acts to deal with it in special circumstances.

I will cite another example of where the reality differs from what the Minister for Finance said in his Budget Statement and what the Minister for Social and Family Affairs is saying now. The day following the budget I had a call from a constituent, a farmer who was looking after his aged mother at home. She was getting eight hours of home help per week in September, but that has been cut to four hours. I rang the community care services and informed them that there was a lady in the area who was willing to take on the four hours of work, yet they told me that they could not employ anyone extra due to a Government embargo. With €150 million included in the budget for care of the elderly at home, I ask the Minister to lift the embargo on the recruitment of home helps. I am only talking about my own health service executive area, although I am sure the situation is the same in various parts of the country where the home help service is being cut back. That is the help that families need to keep elderly people in their own homes for as long as possible, while getting the services they require.

Will the Minister consider abolishing the means test for the carer's allowance? It would cost approximately €200 million or €300 million to abolish it, but it would be money well spent because it would make many more people eligible for the allowance. It would assist in what the Minister and his colleague, the Minister for Finance, are trying to achieve. It would pay for itself in the long run because apart from their great work, carers are saving the State billions of euro annually in caring for loved ones at home. That is to the benefit of the families concerned and society as a whole.

The Minister said he is increasing the number of hours a person can work and receive the carer's allowance from ten to 15 hours per week. That will apply to very few people because most full-time carers in the home have neither the opportunity nor the energy to work even one hour per week outside the home. Caring for someone at home who needs attention due to physical or mental handicap, or old age, is a full-time job. Such carers are exhausted at the end of the week through undertaking such full-time endeavours and, needless to say, they are unable to work outside the home.

In his speech the Minister stated: "This is a most significant budget for carers, not only in terms of expenditure on income supports from my Department but also in the realisation of this Government's commitment to the proper recognition of carers and the delivering of the necessary structures and supports for carers and the people for whom they care." I ask the Minister to consider the points I have raised, including abolishing entirely the means test for carer's allowance. If he does so, he will go down in history as being the Minister for Social and Family Affairs with the greatest approach to caring.

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