Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— according to the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) Irish Health Survey 2019, one in eight people over the age of 15 provide care, and therefore there are approximately 500,000 family carers in Ireland;

— the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey, sponsored by the Department of Health, shows that 13.3 per cent of young people between the ages of 10-17 years provide regular care, and this statistic extrapolated to the national population suggests that some 67,000 young people in the 10-17 year age group provide regular unpaid care;

— while 83 per cent of family carers are of working age and 57 per cent juggle work and care, family carers provide one billion hours of unpaid care each year, saving the State €20 billion per annum;

— there are 92,906 recipients of Carer's Allowance, including 42,823 recipients of Half-rate Carer's Allowance, providing care for 103,978 people, therefore the vast majority of family carers, including all young carers, do not receive Carer's Allowance;

— in order to be entitled to Carer's Allowance, a carer must:

— satisfy a means test;

— be at least 18 years old;

— provide full-time care, a minimum of 35 hours of care each week, to a person over the age of 16 who is not resident in an institution and who is in need of full-time care and attention for a period of at least 12 months; and

— be habitually resident in the State and not be engaged in employment, self-employment, training or education courses outside the home for more than 18.5 hours per week; and

— a significant reform of Carer's Allowance would be timely given the Government's commitment to hold a referendum on gender equality in November 2023, which will propose the replacement of Article 41.2 with wording that recognises the immense contribution and public good given by Ireland's family carers;

furthermore, notes that:

— between 2000 and 2008 there was a 250 per cent increase in income disregard for assessing Carer's Allowance, ensuring an income disregard of €580 per household per week, which was equal to the average weekly earnings of €580.76 in 2005 as per CSO figures;

— between 2008 and 2021 there was a zero per cent increase in the Carer's Allowance income disregard;

— in Budget 2022 there was a modest 13 per cent increase in income disregard, while Budget 2023 once again saw a zero per cent increase in income disregard;

— the income disregard for Carer's Allowance is now €350 per week for a single carer, while it is €750 per week per household, which seems to discriminate against single carers, giving them less than half of the household rate;

— in the Towards 2016 Ten-Year Framework Social Partnership Agreement 2006-2015, priority action 5, Caring Responsibilities, gives a commitment to expanding the income limits for the Carer's Allowance so that all those on average industrial incomes can qualify;

— according to the CSO Earnings and Labour Costs 2022, the average weekly earnings (formerly known as the Average Industrial Wage) was €900.26 in Q4 of 2022;

— the Department's review of Carer's Allowance in 2019 estimated that increasing the income disregard for Carer's Allowance from €333.50 to €450 (single rate) and from €655 to €900 (household rate) each week would cost €73 million per annum;

— given that the income disregard has already increased to €350 (single rate) and €750 (household rate) in 2022, it is estimated that increasing the income disregard to €450 (single rate) and €900 (household rate) per week would approximately cost an additional €47 million per annum, with income tax and Working Family Payment offset net expenditure would be approximately an additional €35 million per annum;

— following the increase in the income disregard announced in Budget 2022 and the subsequent financial reviews undertaken in early 2022, a significant number of carers lost their Carer's Allowance, or had it reduced due to exceeding the income disregard levels; however, the total number of carers receiving Carer's Allowance increased by 1.5 per cent between Q4 2021 and Q4 2022; and

— the Citizen's Assembly and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality both recommend increases to the Carer's Allowance income disregard;

recognises that:

— research by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice published in April 2022 shows that, even before the cost-of-living crisis, households caring for a child with a profound intellectual disability incur additional average weekly costs of €244 compared to a similarly composed household with no disability or care needs;

— the Indecon Cost of Disability in Ireland report in 2021, commissioned by the Government, estimates additional weekly costs of caring to be €175 per week at the most basic level and up to €300 in certain cases;

— the Carer's Allowance scheme undervalues care, with approximately one in eight recipients of Carer's Allowance receiving a reduced rate and thousands of full-time family carers excluded from the scheme due to their means;

— the maximum weekly rate of Carer's Allowance of €236 per week is totally inadequate to support carers whose earning capacity is significantly reduced, or often completely diminished due to their caring duties;

— family carers are expected to provide full-time care of at least 35 hours per week to those medically assessed as in need of full-time care for €236 per week, just €16 more than the basic social welfare payment, and this situation is untenable;

— the introduction of a basic income for artists, rightly set at the rate of €325 per week, illustrates the need for a significant increase in Carer's Allowance to reflect the real value of care;

— means testing based on household income rather than the individual income of the family carer forces carers to be financially reliant on their partners while they continue to care;

— 77 per cent of those who receive Carer's Allowance are women and the current structure of Carer's Allowance reinforces entrenched gender stereotypes of women as primary caregivers;

— both the Citizen's Assembly and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality recommend moving towards an individualised approach to the means testing of carer payments, with the Citizen's Assembly recommending a move towards an individualised Social Protection system while the Oireachtas Joint Committee recommends assessing applicants for Carer's Allowance on their individual means rather than those of their partner or other household members; and

— therefore the Carer's Allowance scheme, in place for thirty-three years, is inadequate, gender biased, overly restrictive and no longer fit for purpose and must be reformed to meet the needs of family carers; and

calls on the Government to:

— increase the income disregard for Carer's Allowance to €900 per week per household (or the equivalent average weekly earnings for 2023) in Budget 2024 and increase it to at least €450 per week for a single carer; and

— fundamentally reform the Carer's Allowance scheme to ensure:

— the adequacy of the Carer's Allowance payment;

— the income disregard for Carer's Allowance is further significantly increased above the average weekly earnings level, with pro-rata increases for single carers;

— an individualised approach to the means testing of carers' payments; and

— that young carers are adequately supported to have a life and opportunities outside their caring roles.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to put forward this motion, which outlines the need for significant reform of carer supports, in particular the carer's allowance scheme. The Irish health survey 2019 undertaken by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, found that one in eight people over the age of 15 provide care. This tells us that approximately 500,000 people are family carers in Ireland. We also know from the 2018 health behaviour in schools survey that approximately 67,000 young people in the ten to 17 age group provide regular unpaid care. These huge numbers tell us something very important about family carers, namely that our society, as we have constructed it, could not function without the dedication, love and commitment of family carers. It is in that context that I bring forward this motion.

Some carers care for a few hours each day, while others care 24-7. It is amazing how easily the phrase 24-7 trips off the tongue. Unless one is living with the reality of care 24 hours of every day, seven days of every week and every week of every year, one cannot begin to imagine the dedication, time management, juggling of work and care and the fact that caring takes precedence over everything. It is first, last and everything in between. The figures in the motion demonstrate that there are 92,906 recipients of the carer's allowance, which includes 42,823 recipients of the half-rate carer's allowance. They provide care for 103,978 people. Some 57% of family carers juggle work and care. All in all, family carers provide approximately 1 billion hours of unpaid care each year. If the State had to provide that care, it would cost taxpayers €20 billion every single year at the rate of €20 per hour. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation to examine a few counties to see what the contribution of family carers is in those counties. In County Leitrim, family carers save the State approximately €120 million per year. In County Sligo, family carers save the State €260 million per year. In County Roscommon, family carers save the State approximately €250 million per year. In County Donegal, family carers save the State approximately €600 million per year. I did a quick check on County Monaghan, the home county of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and found that family carers there save the State approximately €240 million per year.

There are many conditions which must be satisfied in order to qualify for the carer's allowance. First, you have to be over 18, which cuts out young carers, an issue I will come back to later. You must be habitually resident in the State and not work or be in education or training outside the home for more than 18.5 hours per week. You must provide full-time care, a minimum of 35 hours of care each week, to a person in need of full-time care and attention for a period of at least 12 months. In reality, that means that carers care every day, doing everything from providing intimate and personal care to ensuring the safety of the person they care for, managing medication and hospital, doctor and other appointments, advocating for the person they care for, providing social interaction, cooking the dinner, managing time off for work, study or just a break and living with sleepless nights and long days. Then, carers have to satisfy a means test. Over the years, I have heard this described as "the mean test". It is not just about money. It is also about the fact that carers are means-tested on household income, not their own. Many carers have to rely on a partner for income support. This is a fundamental and core issue for many carers and must be part of any reform of the carer's allowance.

The Taoiseach told us there will be a referendum on gender equality in November this year, which will propose the replacement of Article 41(2) of the Constitution with wording that recognises the immense contribution and public good given by Ireland's family carers. This upcoming referendum is an opportune occasion to value the work of family carers and to reform carer's allowance so we move towards an individualised approach to the means-testing of carers' payments. Both the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality recommended this reform. The citizens' assembly recommended a move towards an "individualised social protection system", while the Oireachtas committee recommended assessing applicants for the carer's allowance on their individual means, rather than those of their partner or household income.

The model for paying the carer's allowance was put in place 33 years ago. It is gender-biased because it started when the vast majority of carers, nearly 100%, were women. It is still 77%, but it is changing. The carer's allowance was based on the model of the woman at home doing the invisible and never-ending work of caring, while the breadwinner, the man of the house, provided the income. If that income was above a certain very modest threshold, the carer - the woman - had to rely on the breadwinner to give her money to allow her to care because she would not be entitled to the carer's allowance. I guarantee that in the vast majority of cases, 100% of that money was spent on the increased cost of caring. I outlined in the motion what that is. It varies between €175 and approximately €244 extra every week. This model devalued care, and still does, to make it invisible and women's work, to regulate it and relegate it way below real work in the real world. No economist ever calculated the monetary value of care and included it in our GDP figures. It took carers' organisations to do this and thankfully that has shifted the dial. For some carers who could not access the carer's allowance because of a partner's income, financial abuse was and still is a reality. In other households in which income was shared, there was still sometimes a perception that this money was earned by the male head of the household and the carer had no financial resources in their own right. I look forward to hearing the Minister's views on the proposal from both the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality because we need to ensure an individualised approach to means-testing of carers' payments. I hope that in the Minister's term of office she will be the Minister to make that fundamental and crucial change.

I wish to focus on the income disregard in assessing the carer's allowance, which is the amount of money a household or individual can earn and still receive the full carer's allowance. In the motion, I detailed the timeline that shows the increase in the income disregard. I will not repeat it, save to say that between 2000 and 2008, the income disregard for the carer's allowance kept pace with average weekly household earnings, as calculated by the CSO. While it was not generous, it was a good place to start. Everybody talks about the crash, the banks and the impact, but very few talk about the impact on carers. Between 2008 and 2022, there was zero increase in the income disregard for the carer's allowance. Fair dues to the Minister, in 2022 she was the first Minister in 14 years to increase that income disregard, which now stands at €350 per week for a single carer and €750 per week for total household income.

This really was a positive change, but average weekly household earnings have still far outpaced the income disregard for carers' allowance. Last year, it stood at €900 for a household. That is why I am asking the Minister that the income disregard for carer's allowance be increased in budget 2024 to €900 per week for households and €450 per week for single carers, or whatever is the equivalent of the average weekly earnings for 2023.

If she can do that, it will bring family carers back to the rate they were at in 2008. It might not seem like a big ask but, in reality, many more thousands of family carers would qualify for carer's allowance and many on the reduced rate of carer's allowance would receive the full rate. If the Minister can pursue an individualised approach to means testing of carers' payments alongside that, it would signal a profound and positive change for family carers.

I will ask her about a possible anomaly. Currently, the income disregard for single carers is €350 per week, but that is less than half the household income disregard of €750. If it was to be half of the household income disregard, it would be €375. The costs of caring, as I have shown in my motion and of which we are all aware, apply to every household equally, whether it is a single household or otherwise. Thus, I am not sure what the rationale is for having the income disregard for a single carer at less than half the income disregard for a family carer. I ask the Minister to correct me if I am wrong, but it is a discriminatory treatment of single carers.

One of the issues is the need to look at the circumstances of young carers. An estimated 67,000 young people in the ten-to-17 age group provide regular unpaid care. Just two weeks ago, we had an excellent presentation in the audiovisual, AV, room from young carers. The reality of many - not all - of their day-to-day lives is heart-wrenching. Young teenagers and children are trying to care for parents or siblings because of illness, addiction and adverse circumstances, that is, because of life. The lives they lead are lives of caring. While we accept that adults care and they can take that kind of responsibility, we do not wish to see young carers take on that responsibility. It is deeply unfair, but living and life sometime mean that young carers having caring roles. I am asking something very specific, that is, that we adequately support young carers to have a life and opportunities outside of their caring roles. I look forward to the Minister's thoughts on how we can ensure this happens.

Family carers are not angels. They are ordinary people who do their very best, out of love and common humanity, to care for those who need care. Care is often thrust upon people. They have little choice, but caring often brings out the best in people and allows ordinary people to act like angels. The role of the State is largely to support and provide the safety net in order that family carers can care. The motion I put forward, with all of my colleagues in the Independent Group, contains a balanced set of proposals on carers' allowance. The proposals could reasonably be achieved in the lifetime of this Government if it runs to full term. Our proposals are realistic and doable, in the 18- to 24-month timeframe of the lifetime of Government. If this can be achieved, it will provide a solid platform and a new paradigm for care and how we value care and carers.

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