Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government decision yesterday was that this will apply only to employees of the State, but that includes agency workers working for the State. There are different types of carers, as the Deputy knows. There are HSE carers, carers who work for agencies, family carers who are in receipt of carer's allowance and carer's benefit and family carers who are not in receipt of those benefits. Home carers employed by the HSE go around to lots of houses. They may have been exposed to dozens or hundreds of people through the course of their work. Family carers almost always provide care in their own home or perhaps in the household of a close relative, so I think there is a difference there. They do, however, deserve recognition. The main thing we want to do this year for family carers is to change the rules in order that they can avail of the State contributory pension. Generally, people in receipt of the carer's allowance are unable to get regular employment because of their caring responsibilities and they miss out on the State contributory pension as a result. We want to change that this year, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has been tasked to do that. That is the way we can recognise family carers and would in fact be much more valuable in financial terms, if you work it out, than a €1,000 payment.

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