Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I quote:

Carers will be recognised and respected as key care partners. They will be supported to maintain their own health and well-being and to care with confidence. They will be empowered to participate as fully as possible in economic and social life.

That comes from the National Carers Strategy 2012. What has happened in the budget is very far from respecting carers as key care partners. They have been targeted in a blunt and brutal way for an attack on their incomes and their families. They do tremendous work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. In many cases it is not possible for carers to use the respite care grant for respite because they need to use it to pay for normal day-to-day bills particularly heating, which is vital for the elderly people for whom they care. Far from allowing them to take a holiday, the respite care grant is being used to fund the day-to-day expenses of the family of the person being cared for.

This brutal and vicious cut will only save approximately €26 million, which at 0.14% of a €20 billion budget is a drop in the ocean. In the general election campaign both Government parties claimed that the most vulnerable would be protected, but this is exactly the opposite. Both parties are reneging on yet another commitment. There were choices and the Government could have achieved savings elsewhere or could have imposed tax increases elsewhere. I repeat what I have said in this House on numerous occasions. The wealthiest 5% of people in this country have €239 billion in assets. The same people over 2009 and 2010 increased their assets by €46 billion - these are not my figures but CSO figures. The wealthiest 10% of people in this country increased their income over the recession by 6%. These are people who doing well out of the recession but the Government will not take a ha'penny from them. Why is there not a wealth tax or an asset tax as in other countries? Such a tax was introduced by a Fine Gael Minister years ago in the 1970s. If that tax was in place today it would be bringing in approximately €2 billion a year and there would be absolutely no necessity for these cruel and miserly cuts on people who are working above and beyond the call of duty for every minute of every day of every year.

I want the Minister of State to address this question. I have been dealing with applications for carer's allowance for many years. The Department of Social Protection has been given a political instruction to refuse carer's allowance.

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