Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I too welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue and wish to refer in particular to the carer's payment, child poverty and rent supplement. Budget 2008 saw an increase in the rate of payments for carers, an increase of a paltry €14 per week. The carer's allowance for those under 66 years of age is €214, and for those older than 66 years it is €232, which is a small amount for people to have to live on.

The respite care grant has been increased by €200 to €1,700, which I welcome, but it is a small increase. It is estimated that 3.5 million hours are worked by 150,000 family carers, yet less than one in six of them qualify for carer's allowance. The Carers Association estimates that the work of Ireland's family carers saves the State more than €2.1 billion per annum, a sizeable amount of money, yet carer's allowance was increased by only €14. As Deputy O'Donnell said, carers should have their means individually assessed, not their partner's. There should be no means test for this payment. Many carers find it difficult to take up part-time employment as the rules on working and receiving carer's allowance are restrictive. The 2008 budget gave the Government the opportunity to ease this restriction by raising the working limit to 20 hours per week, enabling more carers to take up part-time employment, but unfortunately this did not happen. We want carers to be allowed to work 20 hours per week and the employer to confirm that the employee would be permitted to leave the workplace without penalty to assist the care recipient in an emergency.

One quarter of families in Ireland are one-parent families, among whom there is a high level of poverty, estimated at 17% in 2006. Some 41% of lone parent households experience debt problems. They are vulnerable and need to be looked after. They receive an income of less than €282 per week, which is not enough to live on, considering the costs for their children in school, of fuel and other items. The Minister needs to do more to ease their plight.

The rent supplement is the only housing support available to many on low incomes. More than 60,000 people in the private rented sector are dependent on this payment. Preliminary findings indicate the reason landlords do not like the payment is it is paid in arrears rather than in advance. The Minister needs to investigate this issue further. The payment amount is insufficient and the processing of applications takes too long. With the increase in rent costs for households in Dublin in particular, the Minister needs to investigate the issue again. Rent caps need to be put in place to reflect this. The payment is not responsive to local rental changes and does not reflect the changes in the rental market. Perhaps the Minister could respond to this.

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