Dáil debates

Thursday, 28 April 2022

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:30 pm

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the points the Deputy has made. It is important we recognise it when we increase payments because otherwise the political support for further increases will not be there. As the Deputy said, as part of the most recent budget, the capital disregard for carers increased from €20,000 to €50,000. That was not insignificant. The improvements in the income disregard went from €332.50 per year to €350. That is not as much of an improvement as we might want but it is still a significant increase.

I will record what has been done with regard to the carer's support grant in the past year because it is important to record things with which we might want to go further so they are not just ignored and forgotten about. The grant was increased to €1,850. The qualified child allowance also increased and there was an underlying increase of €5. There are a number of ways in which this Government has recognised that what the Deputy has said is true. We need to support caring and the whole variety of roles that carers play. This is not just about the economy and getting everyone working. There is critical value in caring work we need to recognise and support.

I agree about the potential involved. If I heard the Deputy correctly, what might be called the woman's place in the home referendum will give us an opportunity to redefine the Constitution not only to remove some of its sexist aspects but also to retain what was intended by the original wording, as I understand it, and value caring work. I agree with the Deputy. That is an opportunity the Oireachtas needs to grasp to ensure we get the right wording so that we do, in our Constitution, support caring work in the home and elsewhere.

The Deputy referred to the energy and food price crisis. There will be increases in the cost of food and other materials as a result of the war in Ukraine. We have introduced a range of measures. We are going to have to think about what we do in next year's budget. It will take time and we need to talk to our social partners and others, and think about how to address this cost-of-living crisis. My sense is that we should be targeted in what we do because those on the lowest incomes or facing certain circumstances may be caught out most.

I had a meeting yesterday with the team in my Department that is looking at the issues of energy security and our response to the crisis. Mr. Alan Barrett from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, is helping to co-ordinate work we are doing with the modelling from the ESRI, University College Cork and University College Dublin to try, in the period as we approach the budget, to target areas where there is the most need in the context of the cost-of-living increase. That might provide the opportunity for what I sense the Deputy is looking for, that is, detailed modelling to target those most at risk, which may be those in the role of carer. That modelling work may help us to target them and design a solution to protect them most in any response.

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