Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

This is an interesting debate which I do not mind having on the floor of the House, and I have an open mind. This year, by means of the budget, I am spending €53 million on carers. Arguably, I could have said I would not spend that money on carers and remove the means test instead. However, that would have meant people on very high incomes being entitled to carers' allowances. That may be justified from the point of view of keeping people out of nursing homes, and that is a debate we should perhaps have in the House or at a meeting of the joint committee.

Is it better for me to do what I did with the €53 million in the recent budget — raise the carer's allowance by €30 to €200, the highest of all welfare allowances? Am I to increase the respite care grant, which is not means-tested and is received by more than 34,000, to €1,200 and increase the disregard, which would benefit people on substantial incomes by allowing for an income of up to €58,000 to be disregarded? Are we better off investing the funds in that way — increasing the payments and disregards — or to sweep aside the means test and pay the grant willy-nilly to everyone, irrespective of income?

So far I have taken the view that fairly dramatically increasing the disregards, taking an increasing number of people into the net and allowing people to earn more money before we refuse them the carer's allowance represents the better way forward. It is worth noting that a mere four years ago, the expenditure in this area was €99 million and is now €220 million. Accordingly, there is a substantial investment by the taxpayer, with 25,000 people receiving the allowance. I have an open mind on removing the means test. The issue for me is one of fairness and equity, whether it is a decent thing to remove a means test and pay taxpayers' money to people on very high incomes who do not need it and can make other arrangements.

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