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

No more than the Deputy, I meet carers all the time in my constituency office. We help them to fill out the forms and follow up on their applications. The carers do great work.

It is particularly difficult when we see a mother who has had to give up work in order to care for a child full-time.

One of my priorities when I became Minister for Social Protection was to do whatever I could to support our carers because I know well the huge work they do and contribution they make to our society. In my first budget in the Department, I increased the carer's support grant to €1,850, the highest ever level. In last year's budget, I was the first Minister in 14 years to make changes to the carer's means test. Those changes mean the first €50,000 in savings is disregarded and a couple can have weekly earnings of up to €750 and still qualify.

As part of this year's budget, carers got a double payment in October. They will get another double payment next week as part of the Christmas bonus. They also got a special €500 carer's support grant last week. Those three measures alone will put an extra €1,000 in carer's pockets. From January, carers will get a €12 increase in their weekly payment, the largest increase since the mid-2000s.

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