Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to address the 20% cut to the respite care grant which is being introduced by the Cabinet in the budget for 2013. I will not dwell on the meanness of this cut. I will not dwell on how unnecessary it is in the context of troika targets. I will not dwell on the hardship the cut will cause throughout the country. All of this has been covered with passion and eloquence by many other Deputies.

I want to demonstrate how technically flawed the cut is and how it will in all probability not save the State a single cent. The Carers Association tells us 180,000 carers are in Ireland. We know 77,000 of these are in receipt of the respite care grant. It is estimated this care saves the State, or is worth, €4 billion so on average 180,000 carers provide €22,000 worth of care per year. The figure we are told this cut will save is €26 million, but of course it is not because this money gets taken out of the economy. Using the Government's multiplier, the saving would be €16 million.

Of course, this is not where this ends, because while many carers will continue to provide the level of care they do regardless of the cut some will not be able to do so. Some will not be able to provide the €22,000 worth of care which they currently do. Here is the maths. If just one in 100 of those 77,000 carers can no longer provide the care and passes the cost on to the State it will wipe out the entire €16 million. The question one must ask from a policy perspective is how many of the 77,000 will be forced to do this because of financial constraints. We do not know because the Dáil has not been provided with any technical appendix or analysis for this cut. However, one in 100 does not seem that far fetched. If this happens, if one in 100 carers can no longer provide the care, the Cabinet will have achieved three things. It will not have saved a penny, it will have made lives more difficult for 77,000 carers and those for whom they care, and it will have shown a total disregard for the House by not providing it with the time to debate the legislation or the data needed to interrogate it properly.

I compliment Deputy Halligan on bringing this motion before the House. I am proud to have signed it and will be voting in favour of it shortly.

This is bad legislation and bad policy, which goes against our values as a society. Two days after the budget announcement, I was knocking on doors in Wicklow and the single most common thing I heard from people on low, middle and high incomes was not to bring in a cut that affects carers. Those on middle and high incomes said they would reluctantly pay higher taxes. They said that if the choice was between taxing them or making cuts that affected carers, they should be taxed. Those on lower incomes said they would pay the tax if they could, or else we should find other ways of doing this rather than bringing in this cut of €26 million.

We know without a shadow of a doubt that this will cause hardship. We also know it is mean-spirited and financially unnecessary, but we do not know if it will save the State a single cent. This cut should be reversed.

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