Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fully understand and recognise the significant role that carers play in our society. There is no doubt about that. The role of social protection is to provide a basic income. I have asked and I want to engage with the Oireachtas committee because we all need to sit down and have a look at this. The Department of Health also has a role to play. I provide a basic income but we need to talk to the Department of Health in order to pay some carers for the amount of work they do. It is not the number of hours that this payment is for because these people are providing care 24-7. This is something that we have to look at and I am happy to engage with the committee. I have already spoken to its Chairman and indicated that we need to look at the issue and that the Department of Health should also be involved. There has been a carers strategy and a number of pieces of work have been done in that regard. However, it is incumbent on all of us, as Members of the Oireachtas, to sit down and look at what we can do to support carers.

As to Deputy Kerrane's question, I am unable to pay this in January. Everybody has recognised, and rightly so, the wonderful work that officials in my Department have been doing since March. I thank the Deputies for acknowledging that because since March they have made 13 million payments, which is the equivalent of seven years' worth of payments. One can only imagine the enormous level of work that that entailed. They have been working all hours and have had to adjust ICT systems because one cannot just change these with the stroke of a pen. Much work has to take place in the background before one can change these systems. As I said, I am happy to look at this proposal and at what will happen next year. I know that this has been a very difficult year for carers because they did not have the respite they would normally get. Unfortunately, the systems cannot be changed this year. I will look at it and perhaps next year, if that is what people want, I will be happy to accede to their request.

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