Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also want to mention carer's allowance because it is very important. It takes 19 weeks before applications for carer's allowance are even assessed. I know a man who applied in February and it was only the other day, after 19 weeks had passed, that the Department wrote to him looking for additional information. The application was not looked at until then. That is very sad and very wrong. A person will have pulled out of his or her job to stay at home and mind an elderly mother or father but it is 19 weeks before the application for carer's allowance is even looked at. That is very wrong and we must do something about it. Two or three weeks would be bad enough but 19 weeks is not on at all. Domiciliary care allowance applications take six months to process, which is too long as well. Will the Minister also look at that issue?

In September 2012, the then Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, changed the number of contributions needed to get pensions. Someone with the same number of contributions after September 2012 as someone with contributions before then is getting far less money. Will the Minister examine the issue and see how it can be addressed? It is not fair. A person who became of pension age in September 2012 gets much less in his or her pension than someone who became of pension age in August 2012. That has to be addressed.

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